Arriving on Black Friday from Severin Films is an all-new Blu-ray (Region A/B/C) for The Crippled Masters (not to be confused with 1978’s Crippled Avengers), a 1979 martial arts/exploitation film from director Joe Law (The Lost Secrets of Kung Fu).
The Crippled Masters features two genuinely handicapped martial artists: Shun Chung-Chuen (Two Crippled Heroes) and Thomas Hong Chiu-Ming (Fighting Life). Chen Mu-Chuan (Jade Fox) also stars.
Severin will present the film in a newly scanned in 4K from the interpositive with 3 hours of revealing Special Features produced exclusively for this release.
Features:
- Audio Commentary with Frank Djeng
- Audio Essay By Cult Cinema Critic Lovely Jon
- Unleashing The Legends: The Godfathers of Kung Fu Distribution – Interview With Temple of Schlock’s Chris Poggiali
- Original Trailer
- New Line Cinema U.S. Trailer
Technical Specs:
- Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
- Runtime: 92 mins
- Audio: English Mono, Mandarin Mono
- Subtitles: English SDH, English
- Region: A/B/C
Last July, The Crippled Masters was already released on Blu-ray by Film Masters, but a spokesperson from Severin (via TDC) promises a superior version – in cooperation with its rightful owners in Hong Kong.
Enjoy the film’s classic Trailer below:
In Italy It was dubbed as ‘Il colpo maestro di Bruce Lee’ (Bruce Lee’s master stroke): of course, there’s no Bruce Lee in sight. It is quite a fun ride, bizarre and unforgettable; still, I do not think a 4K could improve an originally lackluster filming.
The Film Masters version was such a frustrating experience because they got so close to getting it right.
The print they used had hard-coded French subtitles. So for their “restoration” they zoomed in enough to cut those subtitles off, resulting in YET ANOTHER cropped transfer of this movie. They *did* include an “unrestored” 2k scan of their print, but didn’t include any English subs or dubs. So you could either watch a cropped version in a language you understand or an uncropped version in a language you don’t.
Glad Severin is putting theirs out. Absolutely going to pick it up.
Thanks for the info Joe. I got frustrated just by reading what you wrote.