'The One-Armed Swordsman' review by MartialHorror

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THE ONE-ARMED SWORDSMAN(1967)
(Directed by Cheh Chang)

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Plot: A martial artist loses his arm in an accident and is forced to learn how to fight with the use of one arm. He will need to, because an enemy of his Master intends on destroying everything he knows.

Review:

Sometimes I wish I was in a Hong Kong, kung fu movie. Life would be incredibly simple. You just spend your days training, fighting, meeting potential love interests. If something bad happens to you, such as getting crippled, you will always happen to come across someone who will carry a scroll that teaches you to fight even with your handicap. If an enemy tries to destroy your kung fu school, you will come across a dying comrade who will tell you the enemies plan in detail. If you need to rescue a former rival for the sake of honor, you will happen to be in the same area as them, just as they are about to be kidnapped. Oh, what a wonderful world it would be. Of course, then I remember that most people die in these movies….Okay, so if I want to be in a kung fu movie, it would have to be as the protagonist. Well, unless said movie is “Duel to the Death”, in which the protagonist loses the use of both arms and all his loved ones…..Okay, you know what? I don’t want to be in a kung fu movie anymore…..I’ll stick with Samurai movies…..Wait, most of those end in tragedy. DAMN IT!

“The One-Armed Swordsman” is your typical Hong Kong, kung fu movie. Well, more like a wuxia sword fighting picture, but on paper, it's the same thing. It suffers primarily from being overrated. Just looking at the reviews makes me cringe at the thought of how many people will probably be disappointed with it. There is a lot wrong with it. As I referenced above, the contrivances are almost hilarious. It was obviously shot in the studio, so the sets and locations look jarringly artificial. There is even one embarrassing sequence when day suddenly jumps to night. So it is quite dated, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it isn't a good film.

The film begins with a battle of kung fu schools, in which Master Qi(Fung) is rescued by his faithful servant, who is killed in the battle. Master Qi promises that he will train his son, Fang Gang(who will grow up to be Jimmy Wang Yu), to be his disciple. Grabbing his Fathers broken sword(his only memento), Fang becomes a great martial artist. However, because he’s the son of a servant, his classmates tend to pick on him. This includes Qi’s daughter, Pei-Er(Yin-Tze), who seems to have that ‘I love you so I’ll pick on you’ attitude. Overhearing the extent of their hatred, Fang decides that it’s best to leave.

Unfortunately, he’s noticed by Pei-Er, who gets her two lackeys and challenges him to a duel. Fang easily defeats them, but makes the mistake of lowering his guard and Pei-Er chops his right arm off in anger. Fang stumbles away, falling off a bridge and landing onto the boat of Hsaio Man(Chiao), his obvious love interest. Dismayed at the loss of his arm, he falls into a great depression until she gives him a scroll that allows him to learn techniques for his left arm(due to the right arm pages being burned out). Soon, Fang learns of a conspiracy against his old teacher and must decide whether he wants to save the day.

Basically, the villains have devised a new type of sword that locks onto the Qi swords. With their swords trapped, all they have to do is brandish daggers and finish them. The Qi fighters all use their right arms.....So you see where this is going, right? In the meantime, we get to see lots of scenes involving the baddies killing off Qi’s pupils. This actually becomes quite irritating, as we get to see the pupils look all shocked when this happens, even though later on they clearly know what the weapons do. Furthermore, is it just me or do the physics of these weapons make little sense? It shouldn’t be difficult to free the sword. At the absolute least, LET THE SWORDS GO YOU MORONS!

But with all of these problems, “The One-Armed Swordsman” works thanks to the sincerity of the material. The characters are well written and complex. The scenery, while artificial, manages to look gorgeous anyway. Director Cheh Chang, who also directed the strange “Heaven and Hell”, does a superb job with the suspense as well as the fight scenes. To fully appreciate the film, you must realize that this was before the revolutionary days of Jackie Chan("Shanghai Noon") or Bruce Lee("Enter the Dragon"). So don't expect battles of the same caliber. The wuxia sword battles are tightly edited, but unlike the fights of today, they never become difficult to follow. Indeed, it comes as a shocker that Jimmy Wang Yu had little training. The result is an epic sword film that has heart, a strong character arc, and effective fight scenes. These strengths overcome the weaknesses, turning it into a solid movie.

This is the type of kung fu film that allows actors to show their chops. Jimmy Wang Yu(Fang Gang), who I hear is quite the *beep* in real life, is endearing and shows more range than most actors in this genre. Even Bruce Lee, Jet Li("Hero") and Jackie Chan can’t match him when it comes to acting. Chiao Chiao(Hsaio Man) is credible as the love interest. Yin-Tze Pan(Pei-er) tackles a complex role, and does it well. The acting is strong overall, with no exceptions.

“The One-Armed Swordsman” became a cultural phenomenon, spawning sequels, remakes and rip-offs. There is even a crossover with the Zatoichi series. Hell, poor Jimmy never was able to make a successful movie unless he was missing an arm(“Master of the Flying Guillotine” is my favorite). But with that said, don’t watch the movie expecting anything exceptional compared to the stuff we have today. Compared to modern genre pieces, such as “Fearless”, “The One-Armed Swordsman” seems quite tame. But if you are into swordplay for 60’s movies, which I am(I do love “Zatoichi” after all), then you should give this a shot. It’s worth it.

Violence: Rated R worthy. Some of the violence is quite shocking.

Nudity: None, although two bumbling villains seem to want to rape every woman in their path. Don’t worry, they never succeed.

Overall: “The One-Armed Swordsman” has lost a lot of its potency due to the test of the time, but it is still worth watching for us fans.

3/4 Stars


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