Saturday, 19 April 2014

The One-Armed Swordsman (1967)


☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ 


The One-Armed Swordsman (1967) – C. Chang

Classic Shaw Brothers wuxia melodrama in Shawscope widescreen from 1967.  Perhaps I’m being a tiny bit generous in my rating because this is no patch on King Hu’s films from the same time period (A Touch of Zen, Come Drink with Me).  However, I was still drawn in by Jimmy Wang Yu’s portrayal of the young man adopted by the master of a famous sword-fighting school who accidentally has his arm sliced off by the master’s daughter.  Of course, he trains himself back up to fighting strength and bests the bad guys with just his left arm.  The expected romance with the arm-slicing daughter does not come off, however.  With the flavour and feel of those 1950s widescreen westerns and some beautiful color cinematography (especially that fake RED blood) and fantastic Shaw Brothers sets and costumes, this is a winner.




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