The One-Armed Swordsmen, directed by Cheh Chang, and starring Jimmy Wang-Yu and Chiao Chiao, follows are hero Fang Kang, a loyal and humble student of a martial arts school, who accidentally loses an arm to bullies and flees the school. Fang is taken in by a lonely farmer - Hsiao Man, who nurses him back to health. The two begin to rely on each other, and fall in love, with Fang vowing to give up martial arts and become a humble farmer. However, and opportunist martial arts school targets Fang's old comrades, using a hook-blade to counter their two swords, killing off more and more of the schools adherents. Fang begins to react when his old comrade, and one of his previous bullies, is kidnapped, and steps in to save his old friends even though they wronged him.
This film is rather fun, with some lovely cinematography, especially the scene where Fang loses his arm - with some brilliant snowy scenery and lighting. The One-Armed Swordsman training and gaining strength, and eventually facing off against the hook-blade, is a wonderful bit of martial arts action. This is a pretty good film in terms of martial arts classics, and is the first in an enjoyable trilogy of films following Fang and his eventual successor.
This film has its downsides, however. Compared to its sequels, it is much less enjoyable and much more conventional. The school on school martial arts film by Cheh Chang and others has been done before - hundreds of times. This film does not elevate itself above the pack, except for the quality of its sequels. It is not a bad film at all, but the action, camp, martial arts, and such are muted in comparison to others. The acting is fine, but not overly memorable. The action is fine, but again, not overly memorable. Again, this film, in my opinion, is fun because of the quality of its sequels and how it sets up Fang's character for the second film. The muted and average aspects of this film do not make it poor, but certainly do not elevate it above the pack. A fine film in many ways, but its sequels are much better.
This film is rather fun, with some lovely cinematography, especially the scene where Fang loses his arm - with some brilliant snowy scenery and lighting. The One-Armed Swordsman training and gaining strength, and eventually facing off against the hook-blade, is a wonderful bit of martial arts action. This is a pretty good film in terms of martial arts classics, and is the first in an enjoyable trilogy of films following Fang and his eventual successor.
This film has its downsides, however. Compared to its sequels, it is much less enjoyable and much more conventional. The school on school martial arts film by Cheh Chang and others has been done before - hundreds of times. This film does not elevate itself above the pack, except for the quality of its sequels. It is not a bad film at all, but the action, camp, martial arts, and such are muted in comparison to others. The acting is fine, but not overly memorable. The action is fine, but again, not overly memorable. Again, this film, in my opinion, is fun because of the quality of its sequels and how it sets up Fang's character for the second film. The muted and average aspects of this film do not make it poor, but certainly do not elevate it above the pack. A fine film in many ways, but its sequels are much better.