Two crippled fighters, one with teeny-tiny arms and the other with withered legs (played by genuinely disabled Chao-Ming Kang and Sung-Chuan Shen), protect a beautiful, temporarily blind young woman after she discovers that the town's mayor is secretly in league with a tyrannical warlord.
I admire the stars of Two Crippled Heroes for not letting their disabilities prevent them from performing kung fu, but as much as I would love to champion Chao-Ming Kang and Sung-Chuan Shen for their fighting skills, the fact is that truly outstanding martial arts cinema is quite reliant on the use of at least one full-length arm (as in The One-armed Boxer) and both legs; with the kicking and punching severely limited, the wow factor simply isn't there and it's hard to believe that the protagonists could ever defeat opponents who have full use of all of their limbs. Sadly, this leaves the film as little more than a curiosity piece, one in which the novelty quickly wears off (especially if you've already seen the stars' previous movie The Crippled Masters).
Kang and Shen play very likeable characters who are happy to give their last penny to charitable causes, and it's not hard to admire their positivity and altruism; and while the film's message - accept people for who they are, not how they look - is undeniably heartwarming, this is a kung fu film first and foremost, and a kung fu film that fails to deliver in the action stakes can only be deemed a disappointment.
4/10.
