Joe Law’s The Crippled Masters is the tale of two men that have been stripped of their arms and legs. Together, they learn to survive with their handicap and work together to gain revenge on the man who has caused them so much pain.
The film stars two legitimately disabled martial artists. Frankie Shum is Lee Ho, a man without arms and Jackie Conn plays Tang, who has withered legs. The film starts with a bang as Lee Ho has his arms chopped off as it is claimed that he betrayed his sadistic master Lin Chang Cao (Chen Mu Chuan). Tang, who is carrying out orders is supervising the men who hack Ho’s arms right off. Lee Ho somehow escapes before anything worse can happen to him, and later starts working in a rural area, learning to do chores and other activities without his arms. By pure chance, he crosses paths with Tang, who now has withered legs, also due to his disloyalty to Cao. Ho starts attacking Tang with vengeance on his mind. An old man shows up and exclaims the two should work together and defeat Li Chang Cao. He teaches them kung fu in the hope that they can end Cao’s reign of terror and evil.
To say this movie is crazy-bonkers is an understatement as The Crippled Masters is one of the most notorious Martial Arts Exploitation films ever made. To see both men lose their arms and legs and wiggle about in pain for parts of the film is cringeworthy. The fight scenes are also amazingly well-done.
The Crippled Masters arrives on Blu-ray, courtesy of Film Masters. The disc is Region Free and is on a BD-50. According to Film Masters, the film was “scanned in 2K from likely the last remaining 35mm archival film elements of its kind in Copenhagen, Denmark”. The 2:35: 1 aspect ratio in 1080p and given a 2K scan looks remarkably sharp in its image quality. The picture is about as clean as it could get with lots of bright colors and an immaculate amount of detail. The scenery looks great, under crisp blue skies. Details to the actors face also look spot on with strong flesh tones. Film grain is also present, and no DNR appears to have been applied. Overall, I thought the picture quality was outstanding. A ton of restoration was done for this film and is a real renovation. Apparently, The Crippled Masters had been released on VHS and DVD and looked terrible, so this Blu-ray will be a pleasant surprise.
The Crippled Masters soundtrack is DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 and Dolby Digital 2.0 in English while a Mandarin DTS-MA 2.0 track is also included with English SDH. The audio, like all the Film Masters releases that I have checked, really depends on one’s preference as on my system they are not too different with clear dialogue, action sounds and music. They are all balanced with nothing sounding all that aggressive. No audio issues such as hissing, or drop-offs have been detected. The Mandarin track is also clear with easy-to-read subtitles. If you want the authenticity feel of the film, you should listen to the Mandarin track, but if you want the exploitation vibe, you should go with the English dubbed track.
Film Masters has once again hit a home-run in their supplemental package.
The release has a fifteen-page booklet with an essay written by Lawrence Carter-Long. The booklet gives details about the search for one of the only known surviving 35mm film prints of The Crippled Masters as well as the wonderful essay from Carter-Long. This will be a great read for fans of the movie.
Another great extra is a commentary track by Will Sloan and Justin Decloux of The Important Cinema Club.
Something Weird Video provides a Kung Fu trailer compilation, which is in SD.
Ballyhoo Motion Pictures presents a new documentary entitled Kings of Kung Fu: Releasing The Legends, which is narrated by Chris Poggiali.
There is also an original raw theatrical trailer as well as a recut 2024 trailer, plus the original raw scan of the film, also in SD.
Another great feature is a before/after examples of the restoration done to have the movie look as good as it does now.
Fans of The Crippled Masters can now rejoice as this Blu-ray offering knocks it out of the park with a great transfer, superior audio and a load of extras. This will be the holy grain of Blu-ray releases of this picture for years to come! Film Masters strikes again! Highly recommended!
The Crippled Masters
Director – Joe Law
Cast- Jackie Conn, Frankie Shum, Chen Mu Chuan
Country of Origin-Taiwan / Hong Kong
Distributor – Film Masters
Number of Discs –1
Reviewed by – David Steigman