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Writer's pictureGabe Powers

The One-Armed Swordsman Blu-ray Review


Arrow Video

Blu-ray Release: November 26, 2024 (as part of Shawscope Volume 3)

Video: 2.35:1/1080p/Color

Audio: Mandarin and English LPCM Mono

Subtitles: English, English SDH

Run Time: 115:36

Director: Chang Cheh


After his father sacrifices himself to protect his master (Tien Feng), Fang Kang (Jimmy Wang Yu) is accepted into an elite school. Unfortunately, his peasant background leads to clashes with wealthier students, culminating in the master’s daughter (Angela Pan) chopping off his arm in a fit of anger. After being nursed back to health by a lonely country girl named Xiao Man (Lisa Chiao Chiao), Fang trains himself in one-armed swordsmanship. Meanwhile, his old school comes under attack.


Before The Five Venoms (1978), before The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1978), before even The Big Boss (1971), there was The One-Armed Swordsman (1967) – the movie that set Shaw Bros. on the road to nearly two decades of industry dominance and made director Chang Cheh the studio’s biggest player. Released at a time of extreme social strife, it was a harbinger of politically angry martial arts classics of the ‘70s (minus the rabid nationalism of The Big Boss) and set the template for Chang’s brand of hyper-masculine, heroic bloodshed cinema. It’s likely that the only more influential Shaw Bros. film of the era was King Hu’s Come Drink with Me (1966).



While the themes remained roughly the same – masochistic sacrifice, honorable suffering, violence as melodrama, thinly-veiled misogyny – the look of Chang’s films (and Shaw Bros.’ martial arts movies in general) changed a lot over the coming decade, especially after the success of The Five Venoms, when colorfully costumed superheroes took over, backlot sets were streamlined, and lighting schemes became abstract and stagey. While I slightly prefer Chang’s Venom Mob era for its outrageous extremes, there’s something to be said for the lush, moody verisimilitude of earlier films, like The One-Armed Swordsman. Well, comparative verisimilitude – it’s still a wuxia movie and they’re still fighting on some pretty stagey sets.


The action scenes were co-choreographed by Lau Kar-leung, working with Tang Chia, marking the first of many collaborations with Chang and the beginning of Lau’s own career as one of the greatest choreographers and directors in the annals of action cinema. The fights are less balletic and intricate than Lau’s ‘70s pictures, but they have a sense of emotional heft that compliments the script’s grand sense of melodrama. The One-Armed Swordsman is also more deliberately paced than later, action-centered adventures, like Chang’s Five Element Ninjas (1982) or Lau’s Eight Diagram Pole Fighter (1984), devoting significant screentime to soapy, star-crossed romance. Again, the contrast in style, despite the familiarity of plot points, gimmicks, and character types, is compelling, particularly when revisiting One-Armed Swordsman after nearly three years of cramming Shaw’s ‘70s and ‘80s output for Arrow and 88 Films reviews.



The One-Armed Swordsman made a near-overnight star of Jimmy Wang Yu (aka: Wang Zhengquan). He made his debut two years prior in Hsu Teng-Hung’s The Temple of the Red Lotus (1965) and was fresh off of two early collaborations with Chang, Tiger Boy (1966) and The Magnificent Trio (1966). The studio produced one sequel with the director and star intact, Return of the One-Armed Swordsman (1969), before rival studios whisked Wang away, immediately cashing-in with Kimiyoshi Yasuda & Hsu Tseng Hung’s Japanese chambara crossover, Zatoichi and the One-Armed Swordsman (1971), and The One-Armed Boxer (1972), which combined The One-Armed Swordsman and with Wang’s directorial debut, The Chinese Boxer (1970). Later, in 1976, Wang co-directed (with David Chiang) and starred in The One Armed Swordsman (note the lack of dash).


Bibliography:

  • Chinese Martial Arts Cinema: The Wuxia Tradition by Stephen Teo (Edinburgh University Press, 2009)

  • Fighting without Fighting: Kung Fu Cinema’s Journey to the West by Luke White (Reaktion Books, 2022)



Video

The first official stateside DVD came from Miramax’s Dragon Dynasty and 88 Films released the first Blu-ray in 2018, but it was a UK exclusive. I do not have that disc on hand for a direct comparison, but Arrow’s 2.35:1, 1080p Blu-ray (currently only available as part of their Shawscope Vol. 3 collection) is most likely an improvement, as it features a brand new 4K restoration that was put together by rights-holders Celestial Pictures and L'Immagine Ritrovata (Arrow doesn’t specify if Celestial’s source material were negatives). Chen San-yuan’s dark cinematography is full of deep blacks that, fortunately, rarely swallow up smaller details. The dynamic range and close-up details are significantly stronger than older releases. The wide-angle layering and element separation works nicely. Film grain and other textures are definitely more natural and complex than seen from Celestial’s older transfers and even some of Arrow’s 2K remasters.


Audio

The One-Armed Swordsman is presented with Mandarin and English dub options, both in uncompressed LPCM mono sound. As per usual, the film was shot without sound and dubbed into multiple languages for release, typically including Mandarin, Cantonese, and English. I’m no expert, but the bulk of the cast seems to have been acting in Mandarin, because the lip sync is pretty good, but the English dub performances are also better than average. Comparing the sound quality directly, the Mandarin track has slight volume advantages and Wang Fu-Ling’s score (which steals a cue or two from Neal Hefti’s Duel at Diablo [1966] score) sounds notably brighter.



Extras

  • Commentary by David West – The author of Chasing Dragons: An Introduction to the Martial Arts Film (I.B. Tauris, 2006) explores One-Armed Swordsman’s historical impact, Shaw’s concerted wuxia movement and the ways the studio developed into the ‘70s, the wider careers of the cast & crew, the film’s themes and Chang’s favorite themes in general, and the ways the prosperity of violent films reflected the real social struggles of Hong Kong.

  • Tony Rayns on One-Armed Swordsman (38:09, HD) – A 2024 video lecture from critic and Hong Kong cinema expert. Rayns reads from Chang Cheh’s autobiography and covers the director’s other collaborations with Jimmy Wang Yu, Wang’s departure from Shaw Bros. screenwriter Ni Kuang’s prolific contributions, inspiration drawn from the Zatoichi series, the tradition of martial arts fiction, Lau Kar-leung’s rising star, innovative filmmaking techniques, and the production of the first two official sequels.

  • One-Armed Superstar (41:15, HD) – A 2001 interview with actor Jimmy Wang Yu conducted by Frédéric Ambrosine, in which the star speaks at length about his transition from athlete (swimmer) to actor, martial arts training, working with Chang Cheh, the influence of Japanese samurai movies, the popularity transition between wuxia and kung fu pictures, the legal troubles tied to leaving Shaw Bros., becoming a writer and director himself, Jackie Chan ‘stealing’ the idea of Shanghai Noon (among other Chan-related grievances), and the perils of age.

  • Chiao Chiao: A Shaw Career (16:32, HD) – A 2005 interview with actor Lisa Chiao Chiao, also from the Frédéric Ambrosine archive. She runs down her major roles and talks about training and being one in a group of Taiwanese actors that Shaw hired around the same time.Ku Feng on Chang Cheh (18:47) – A 2003 Frédéric Ambrosine archive interview with actor Ku Feng. who discusses his collaborations with Chang.

  • Sam Ho on Chang Cheh (22:21, HD) – In this 2003 Frédéric Ambrosine archive interview, film historian and teacher Sam Ho, who compares Chang to Val Lewton and Roger Corman and chats about the director’s significance, his reactionary sexism, One-Armed Swordsman’s probable literary and cinematic inspirations, Western cultural influences and other social themes, and changes in martial arts filmmaking and choreography over the years.

  • Daniel Lee on One Armed Swordsman (10:46, HD) – A 2004 Frédéric Ambrosine archive interview about Chang with Daniel Lee, who directed the One-Armed Swordsman remake, One Armed Swordsman ‘94 (aka: What Price Survival, 1994).

  • One-Armed Side Hustles (10:06, English) – A new, Arrow-exclusive featurette with Asian film expert and critic Brandon Bentley, who finishes things off with a look back at Jimmy Wang Yu’s prolific career playing one-armed protagonists.

  • Mandarin and English Hong Kong theatrical trailers

  • Chang Cheh trailer reel (23:00, HD)





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