The Crippled Masters

Some genres naturally lean into exploitation. Italian crime thrillers, urban action epics, and horror/revenge features, all prove to be fertile grounds for true classic exploitation epics. There was just something about the audience demand for low-budget features in the 1970s that allowed up-and-coming and amateur filmmakers to go out with little to no budget, make a gritty movie exploiting a genre, and earn a fast buck. Asian market Martial Arts films were no different. Always a popular genre, there was a growing need for more content - particularly in the wake of Bruce Lee’s sudden death. While Brucesploitation flicks were obvious fodder in that circuit, some films simply defined “Exploitation.” 

Perhaps the most exploitive Martial Arts film is 1979’s The Crippled Masters from director Chi Lo starring Frankie Shum and Jackie Conn. It was marketed under a slew of names, including Bruce Lee’s Last Shot in certain territories making it something of an honorary Brucesploitation flick. While there were more than a few films out there about martial artists overcoming a handicap and kicking ass, Frankie Shum and Jackie Conn were for real. Frankie Shum, a child of Thalidomide who was born without arms, partners with Jackie Conn who didn’t have legs for one wild action-packed ride. Adept martial artists, we see these two performers in the first of four films they made together and it’s an absolute banger. 

My first exposure to The Crippled Masters was decades ago in college helping a friend with his campus television project. In MST3k style, we’d screen random odd-ball exploitation and underground epics like A*P*E and attempt to riff with them. We didn’t have the forethought to write jokes in advance, we just jumped in. I was the cold one, I didn’t select the films, I didn’t see them before we recorded the show. For Crippled Masters, I spent most of the film in disbelief at what I witnessed. 

While certainly a fitting entry in Martial Arts Exploitation filmmaking, some of the scenarios we see Frankie and Jackie in feel almost completely tasteless. The film opens with them as fully able-bodied, Frankie using fake arms and Jackie cleverly photographed with normal-looking fake legs. Then we witness the shocking manner in which these men lose their respective appendages. I hate the word “cringe” in modern usage, but to this day jaw goes slack and my eyes widen at the almost cruel manner in which their “crippling” and subsequent recovery is depicted. 

However, if that’s all this film had to offer, it’d never have survived or become as notorious as it is. What The Crippled Masters excels at is seeing these men in action as complete physical badasses. Their training montage is amazing and their final boss battle is almost beyond belief cool. One moment you’re shocked at what you’re seeing and feeling a bit guilty about it, the next you’re cheering on these fantastic actors performing any number of incredible stunts. 

That’s Exploitation Cinema at its finest and now we get to enjoy it on Blu-ray! For years the only way you could see this film was on VHS or a scattering few DVDs sourced from less than impressive elements. Much like my experience with Severin’s recent The Game of Clones Brucesploitation set, I am simply floored at the effort Film Masters made to give this film an incredible 2K restoration. I’ll discuss this more in a bit, but this viewing truly felt like I was able to fully appreciate this film and the marvelous exploits of Frankie Shum and Jackie Conn and their quest for revenge! Here’s hoping their three other films can hit Blu-ray soon! 

Vital Disc Stats: The Blu-ray 
Film Masters digs deep into the archives for another true cult classic to bring The Crippled Masters to Blu-ray for the first time. The film is pressed on a Region Free BD-50 disc. Housed in a standard black Blu-ray case, it also comes with a fifteen-page booklet featuring details about the quest to find one of the only known surviving 35mm film prints as well as a great essay from Lawrence Carter-Long. The disc loads to a static image main menu with traditional navigation options.

So, anyone who has seen The Crippled Masters up to this point likely only saw a pretty terrible VHS or DVD sourced from some horrible film elements and cropped for fullscreen. I’ve heard that some 16mm prints are out there in private collections but I’ve never seen one of those in action. For this 2K restoration presented in 1080p, a privately owned 35mm print was used and scanned. As you’ll see in the bonus features, this print was in rough shape and also had burned-in French and Dutch subtitles. The restoration work for this disc is nothing short of a miracle!

First - those burned-in subtitles have been painstakingly removed. No easy task! Countless instances of nicks, scratches, sprocket punches, and heavy speckling have also been removed and cleaned up. While not all-the-way flawless, this transfer gets pretty damn close leaving the film looking better than I’ve ever seen it - and likely any of us ever will. Some faint scratches and nicks do remain, but they’re so slight now you barely notice. What imperfections remain add to the flavor of the flick. Color timing has also been cleaned and improved for scenes that were experiencing some fading. Details are in amazing shape considering the well-used source, facial features, clothing textures, and the impressive ghastly gore effects look amazing! Natural film grain is maintained for a true film-like quality. 

If you’re a fan of old Martial Arts films you learn to accept that a scan of the negative or a close-generation print isn’t always possible. More often than not, it’s a case of accepting what you get. This is a genuine case of finding the best elements available and delivering maximum effort for an impressive restoration. I hope this restored master starts touring some theaters because I’d love to see it on a huge screen!

Now you’ve got some great audio options as well. You can chose between a DTS-HD MA 2.0 mono English-dubbed track or a Mandarin DTS-HD MA 2.0 with English SDH subtitles. Now I won’t lie, the Mandarin is very good, it’s authentic sounding, truer to the original film and the subtitles are very well done. I’d never seen this film in Mandarin so that was quite something. However, and I mean this lovingly, to really experience The Crippled Masters in all its outrageous glory, I gotta say you should roll with the English-dubbed experience. I say this in part because the slightly iffy translation helps mitigate some of the shock of the early dismemberment sequences and how horrifying they are. Both tracks come through very well. There is still some slight hiss and warble here and there, but nothing to pull you out of the experience or interrupt your enjoyment. You really can’t go wrong with either track, but yeah, keep to the English for the full Exploitation effect.

On the bonus features front, Film Masters delivers one of their best packages of extras yet. Not only do we get a great audio commentary, but we also get a terrific documentary from Ballyhoo Motion Pictures, a very fun collection of archival Martial Arts trailers, a new re-cut trailer for this film, but we also get that complete raw scan of the film. We can experience this classic in the worst shape to fully appreciate the restoration effort. Then they also have a side-by-side demo of various scenes in action making the improvements that much easier and obvious to marvel at. The audio commentary featuring the cohosts of The Important Cinema Club is a great listen. These guys are clearly knowledgeable about the film, but they’re also big fans of the film, and that oozes throughout the track.

• Audio Commentary featuring Justin Decloux with Will Sloan
• Kings of Kung Fu: Releasing the Legends Documentary (HD 30:48)
• Something Weird Kung Fu Film Trailer Compilation (SD 18:31)
• The Crippled Masters Original Raw Scan Film (HD 1:31:33)
• Before/After Restoration (HD 2:21)
• 2024 Re-cut Trailer (HD 3:57)
• Original Theatrical Trailer (SD 4:05)

I wish I could say The Crippled Masters was some sort of “one-of-a-kind” incident in cinema history - but thankfully stars Jackie Conn and Frankie Shum made three more movies together! What makes this film special compared to other “disabled” masters films out there, these guys actually were disabled but were still total and complete badasses. This notorious Martial Arts Exploitation wonder finally comes to Blu-ray in a form that we can marvel at all of the visual spectacle. This new 2K restoration is a marvel considering the scarcity of elements and the restoration effort. On top of great audio, this disc is packed with outstanding informative and enlightening extras. Needless to say, Highly Recommended