Fighting Life (1981)

Director: Kei Law

Starring: Sam Chung-Chuen, Jackie Conn, Thomas Hong Chiu-Ming, Frankie Shum

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Two brothers, one without legs & one without arms, together they will persevere!!

Plot: Fighting Life is a remarkable film rejoicing the spirit of life. It is the dynamic tale of two brothers who overcome immense physical and emotional handicaps, and become vital members of society.

My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again? Sure, at some point.

Starring the two guys from THE CRIPPLED MASTERS (1979), this picture is regarded as the third in that series but there's a big difference, this film takes place in modern times while the other two are set more than a hundred years ago. Regardless, I'm a sucker for crippled kung fu movies. This one is basically a kung fu drama with one guy who has no legs and another who has no arms (he's got a flipper for one arm, though). Even though this is loaded with cliches about people overcoming their physical handicaps (and boy do they hit you over the head with that in the dialogue) and it gets REALLY sappy and the comic relief provided by a couple of bungling thieves is so over the top it's nauseating, it's what these two guys can do that's truly amazing. The final few minutes really show off what these guys can do.

Is that insane or what? Too bad you have to wait until the end of the picture to see it. One side note - every once in a while someone in one of the many crowd scenes will say the most outrageous things. If you are fortunate to find a copy of this, listen carefully 'cause it's funny as hell. Now I'm going to have to fast track watching TWO CRIPPLED HEROES (aka THE CRIPPLED MASTERS 2) (1980) and RAIDERS OF THE SHAOLIN TEMPLE (1982). Cripple fu is awesome!