One Armed Swordsman
Director: Chang Chen
Plot: Gang (Jimmy Wang Yu) is a young, talented swordsman who is a student of famous swordsman Qu Rui-Feng (Tin Fung), being a notable favorite student, Qu's daughter, Qu Pei-Er (Pan Ying-Zi) and two other students dare Gang to meet them in the woods one night.
They attempt beat down Gang, but his kung fu and swordplay are too good. Qu Pei-Er tries to fight Gang bare handed but he pity's her. This causes Pei-Er to loose her cool and slashes at Gang recklessly severing his right arm. Pei-Er instantly regrets her actions as Gang runs off seriously wounded.
Gang is discovered by Xiao-Man, a poor farmer. Gang is horrified by his lose and discovers that he's utterly useless at martial arts with his left arm. Xiao-Man gives him a swordplay manual, which encourages him to make use of what he's got, now practicing with broken sword left by his father, can he defend himself from the evil Cheng Tian Shou and his teachers rival - 'The Long Armed Devil'?
Review: Obviously I've thrown in a couple pieces I haven't explain clearly at the end, his fathers sword, Cheng Tian-Shou & the Long Armed Devil. The Long Armed Devil is a long time enemy of Rui-Feng, Devil attempted to kill Rui-Feng, but Gangs father saved his him by sacrificing himself, his dying wish is that Rui-Feng teaches Gang martial arts/swordplay so he can be independent in the future. Cheng Tian-Shou aka 'Smiling Face' or 'Smiling Tiger' is Devils disciple and the broken sword is the weapon that Gangs father thought to the death with. Simple huh?
It's coming up for Rui-Feng's birthday and this is the time that Devil is going to strike, he's developed a new weapon which renders the Qu's golden swords useless! With Rui-Feng's students dropping like flies, he's struggling to a decent replacement when he retires.
When reviewing this I was familiar with the series of movies related to this one, but I have only seen Tsui Harks remake "The Blade". Being lucky enough I managed to see this late sixties classic the cinema. The film goes on for a good 110 minutes, maybe more, but I must admit I did yawn on a couple occasions during the movie, it does pad it out a little on the romantic subplots between Gang and Xiao Man, but there is also some good old kung fu action awaiting around each corner. Being a film from the sixties you can expect it to be a quite hokey and over the top at times, but I took it with a pinch of salt and didn't let spoil my enjoyment of the movie.
Tin Fung was probably the most impressive actor in the film, not that I'm doubting Wong Yu, it's just that he's always seemed rather plain to me. Tin Fung has this screen presence, like it was his film, it sort of reminds me of Chow Yun-Fats presence in Curse of the Golden Flower, heck the two of them are starting to look-a-like too!
Usually you spot familiar faces in the old Shaw Brother films and I was positive I saw a young Dick Wei as one of Smiling Faces disciples, but it turns out I was wrong. Then I thought I saw Lau Kar-Leung, but then I thought "No, too tall, he's short.", boy was I wrong. I did manage to spot a young Yuen Cheung-Yan, he played the 2nd Qu disciple to get killed by Tigers crew, you can tell straight away with the face. Other notable people I missed out was a 14 year old Mars! Lau Kar-Wing and Yuen Woo-Ping.
Final thoughts, an essential Shaw Brothers film, seen 8 Diagram Pole Fighter, seen the 36 Chambers of Shaolin? Now see this! Enjoy!
Rating: 7.7 out of 10.0
