The One-Armed Swordsman wasn’t the first film for director Chang Cheh or star Jimmy Wang Yu, but it put both of them on the map in a big way. Chang was a film critic whose career tuned to screenwriting, and then directing (which is pretty much my plan). Wang was a studio player for the Shaw Brothers, the sort of actor who worked for very low wages and had no say in his parts. For both, The One-Armed Swordsman was their ticket to the big leagues. Chang would go on to have one of the most prolific directorial careers of all time, helming nearly 100 films (but not quite reaching his expressed goal of 101) and being hailed as the “Godfather of Hong Kong Cinema”. Wang Yu became Hong Kong’s top star until Bruce Lee came along, and eventually expanded his career into writing, direction, and production.
I can’t say whether the Japanese Zatoichi series, about a blind wandering adventurer, directly contributed to the film’s genesis or concept of a physically disabled hero, but it certainly did pave the way by proving that such characters could be totally engrossing, differently challenged, and successful at the box office. By the time The One-Armed Swordsman hit in July of 1967, the Zatoichi franchise was 15 films deep and still running strong, proving that audiences were receptive to extraordinary heroes overcoming physical challenges.
The One-Armed Swordsman
When Fang Cheng, a house servant of the Golden Sword school, takes up arms and fends his master’s home from a savage attack at the cost of his own life, his dying wish provides the opportunity for his son to be raised as a scion of the household rather than a servant. His broadsword, shattered in half during the battle, becomes young Fang Kang’s only memento of his father. Fang Kang grows well and eventually excels as the school’s top student, earning the scorn of his fellow classmates, including master Qi’s pretty daughter Pei-Er, who resent his skills and humble birth.
Constantly badgered by his classmates and seeking not to cause discord for the school, Fang decides to leave, but on his way out he is again accosted by his classmates. In anger, Pei-Er hacks off his right arm. He is rescued and nursed back to health by a peasant farm girl named Xiao Man. The pair fall in love and are happy together, though Fang feels useless without his sword arm. Xiao Man shares with him her own family heirloom, a powerful short-sword training manual. Using the manual and his broken sword, Fang learns again to be a sword master using the manual’s secret technique.
After the setup, the action picks up when Fang gets wind of a plot against his master Qi, to whom he is still fiercely loyal. Unbeknownst to Qi and his students, their enemies have devised a special halberd to lock and counter the school’s trademark golden sabres. He secretly works to defend his old master and classmates against their enemies, at one point saving Pei-Er from kidnapping. She confesses her love for him and nearly starts some love triangle trouble as Xiao Man overhears. Later on, we’re treated to a neat fight in a restaurant in which Fang dispatches his enemies without even drawing his sword, until taking out the last few attackers with a single strike.
The film’s unprecedented bloody violence was a game-changing development which would go one to characterize Chang Cheh’s directorial style and set the course for martial arts films that followed.
The ending plays a bit like an adolescent fantasy: the spurned hero arrives on the scene when all looks lost, very visibly saves the day, and then declines the accolade of those who wronged him, leaving after his work is done.
Return Of The One-Armed Swordsman
Recently Cinapse’s Brendan Foley wrote an editorial about the Art of the Hard Left Turn Sequel, when follow-ups like Gremlins 2 and the Raid 2 take the original film’s concept and crank it to 11 and beyond. Return Of The One-Armed Swordsman is right at home with these comparisons, eschewing the relatively small and self-contained format of the first film and just going absolutely nuts with a ridiculously huge new challenge for Fang Kang. The first film was essentially an origin story, whereas the sequel is a gleefully absurd all-out and fantasy-rooted action extravaganza.
Fang has retired with his wife Xiao Man to a simple life of farming, but outside forces aren’t going to let him rest. A tyrannical conglomerate of “Eight Kings”, each with their own unique characteristic weapons or special fighting styles, is wreaking havoc on the land with a reign of violence and terror.
The Eight Kings are a ridiculously awesome and colorfully named bunch, each wielding their own specialty weapons or tricks including wind-and-fire wheels, flying sickles, sabres, underground trapdoor attacks, poison, seduction (one of the “kings” is a beautiful woman), and stealth. The Stealth King is the most formidable, so powerful with hand-to-hand combat that none have actually seen his secret killing stroke weapon and lived.
The various sword fighting clans, unable to defeat the Eight Kings, finally manage to convince Fang to join their cause, and he becomes the leader of the rebellion movement. The remaining hour or so is pretty much entirely made up of awesome and creative bloody action sequences in which Fang’s army takes on the Eight Kings and their minions, culminating in a duel between the One-Armed Swordsman and the fearsome Stealth King.
Over the top and pure fun, Return Of The One-Armed Swordsman is definitely one of those sequels that handily tops its predecessor.
LEGACY
The two films were successful enough that a crossover opportunity with Zatoichi eventually surfaced, and became the character’s third appearance. We’re currently covering the entirety of “The Tales Of Zatoichi” here at Cinapse, and as of this writing are nearly done with this massive bi-weekly project. Today’s entry includes Zatoichi Meets The One-Armed Swordsman and is a direct tie-in to this article. Please check it out!
The One-Armed Swordsman franchise and its concept of a maimed hero have been officially and unofficially rebooted, remade, sequelized, and conceptually aped many times over, both with and without the involvement of its director or star. Some of these films include New One-Armed Swordsman (1971), One Armed Boxer (1971), One Armed Swordsman Against Nine Killers (1976), One Armed Swordsmen (1976), Master Of The Flying Guillotine (1976), One Arm Chivalry Fights Against One Arm Chivalry (1977), Crippled Avengers (1978), The Crippled Masters (1979), The Blade (1995), and Dragon (2011), among others.
The One-Armed Swordsman and Return of The One-Armed Swordsman are available on DVD from Weinstein’s Dragon Dynasty label in decent editions that include both Mandarin and English dub audio options.
A/V Out.
Get ’em at Amazon: The One Armed Swordsman [DVD]
Return of The One Armed Swordsman [DVD]