One-Armed Swordsman
(Dubei dao, 1967)

Chang Cheh

Hong Kong

110 min, color, Mandarin (English subtitles)

Review © 2005 Branislav L. Slantchev

This has got to be one of the most famous heroic swordsman films, and it is deservedly so. It instantly put Jimmy Wang Yu on the idol map in the type of role that Chang Cheh would later bring to perfection but that in some respects he never equaled. At a time when Chinese cinema was almost wholly focused on women, Chang Cheh thrust the males back into the spotlight. Nearly always naked from the waist up, muscular, intense, and superbly adept at fighting, his heroes seldom live happily ever after. But as Achilles would say, who needs a long peaceful life when you can have a short glorious one?

Ku Feng goes intestinal on Chow Siu Loi	The origins of broken-sword-fu

This film is about a young man's attempt to escape his destiny. When Fang Kang (Jummy Wang Yu) is still a child, his father's (Ku Feng) benefactor Master Qi (Tin Fung) is attacked by treacherous bandits. In the ensuing melee, Ku Feng bites the steel blade, and with his last breath asks Qi to look after Fang Kang. Cut to the present when Fang is the most capable of Qi's students but also the most scorned by fellow class-mates on account of his lowly origins. Not only does he have to deal with their constant challenges, but he must also fend off the rather intrusive amorous advances of the beautiful, but vain, Pei-er (Pan Yin Tze), who happens to be Qi's daughter.

Pan Yin Tze: a woman scorned	Gratuitous shot of Pan Yin Tze

His rather brusque dismissal of her affections leads the brat Pei-er to conspire with two good-for-nothing students to punish Fang. When Fang attempts to leave Qi's household to avoid further disturbances and complications, they accost him in the forest and demand a fight. Fang is way too good for them, but he refuses to fight Pei-er unless it is with bare hands so as not to hurt her even by accident. He defeats her with ease but when he tries to console her, she cuts off his right arm. Bleeding, Fang drags himself through the snowy forest until the loses consciousness and tumbles from a bridge onto the passing boat of Xiao Man (Chiao Chiao) who manages to nurse him back to health.

What happens when you scorn a beauty	Chiao Chiao is classy as usual

It is here that Fang must face his problem: without a right hand, he can no longer aspire to be the best swordsman as he had promised his dad. He has spent his whole life training for this, and now he is useless. This last point is brought home to him when two local thugs rough him up and then attempt to rape Xiao Man, only to be called off by their master Smiling Tiger (Tong Dik). Although Fang can fish, and even though Xiao Man seems determined to get him to stick to sedentary life and farming, he simply cannot live such a quiet life of desperation. Born and bred to be a swordsman, his sense of justice is likely to get him into trouble when his temper won't.

An attempt at non-swordsman life	One cannot escape his destiny

Interestingly, Xiao Man herself has had a turbulent past. Her father was killed trying to protect an instructional scroll, and her mother died a couple of years after that of a broken heart. Xiao Man has a visceral hatred of the type of existence that Feng represents and yet she falls in love with him so hard that she cannot bring herself to deny him his essence. After seeing him brood over his pitiful fate and after seeing him try to practice his martial arts skills in vain, she gives him the instructional book (or what's left of it) so he can learn from it. Feng soon recovers his abilities, but he vows never to get involved into the brawls of the outside world.

The murderous Liu Chia-Liang & Tang Chia	Shh... I have come to rescue you

Unfortunately, if Feng is unwilling to go to the outside world, the outside world will come to Feng. When he sees Smiling Tiger and his two thugs lure the unsuspecting Pei-er to follow them, Feng realizes that she will be in serious trouble. He decides to rescue her in order to repay, at least in part, his debt to Qi for having brought him up. But this is not how Xiao Man interprets it: to her, it seems that Feng is not only reverting to his old ways but doing so in order to rescue a damsel who, albeit in distress, is known to have lusted after Feng quite madly. However, Feng is true to his word, at least as much as any hero can be, and he returns to Xiao Man after freeing Pei-er and telling her (for the umpteenth time) that he does not love her, or even like her.

First, we rape you, then we rape you again	Eavesdropping never leads to anything good

Xiao Man extracts a fresh promise from Feng that he will not meddle in the martial-arts world anymore. And he is happy to give her the assurances she needs. He seems to have fallen in love with her just as much as she is in love with him, and he is prepared to follow her into the peaceful life she wants. In fact, they abandon her house and land in order to get away from the region where Master Qi may come looking for Feng. However, they cannot escape Feng's destiny: they come across a mortally wounded disciple of Qi (Chieh Yuan) who reveals to them that a villain by the name of Long-armed Devil (Yang Chi-Ching) has devised a special weapon to defeat Qi's sword style. Unless Qi is warned, his entire school will perish along with him. For Feng, there really is no choice: he must retrace his steps and warn Qi or else sacrifice the lives of his school-mates and his benefactor's entire family in order to have his quiet life. Xiao Man objects again, but there is nothing she can do to make him stay. Yet again, he must follow his heart's path, and that is the path of an honorable man.

Jimmy Wang Yu: the essential swordsman	All red-shirts are already dead

By the time Fang makes it to Qi, things have nearly fallen apart completely. The villain and his two thugs have all but destroyed Qi's followers. But in a last battle with these opponents, Fang triumphs, albeit by sustaining serious injuries. Pei-er tries yet again to win him to stay, and so does his father (who had groomed Fang to be his replacement upon retirement), but Fang is resolved to follow his newly chosen life and leaves to find Xiao Man. The painful lesson of what being a swordsman entails finally hits Qi, who ritually breaks the blade of his sword, and hurls the pieces to the ground. As for Fang, he reunites with Xiao Man but it is clear that he cannot renounce who he is entirely, and he will probably be unable to live the type of life she has envisioned for them, no matter how hard he tries to comply with her wishes.

Chen Yan Yan, Pan Yin Tze, & Tin Fung	Yang Chi-Ching: the groovy Long-armed Devil

Jimmy Wang Yu carries almost the entire film by himself with his spectacular performance. He has just the right mix of vulnerability and steely determination to pull off the one-armed swordsman character in a believable way. Chiao Chiao is at her usual competent best, but I have to say the Pan Yin Tze clearly overshadows her as the memorable female of the film. Her character is not nice, but her performance is exactly what is necessary in order to avoid making it hateful. We cannot really like her very much but we can sympathize with her, and that's entirely due to her acting. The dramatic part of the story holds up well to repeated viewings as well.

Cliff Lok, Hsu Hsia, & Lau Gong	Lee Ho, Yen Shi-Kwan, Chan Siu-Pang, ?

The one drawback is that the fight scenes (and there are quite a few of them) aren't all that good. Chang Cheh was still looking for his style when he made this film, and it's an early feature so one cannot expect the stellar choreography that later became the norm. And yet, when we compare this film with, oh say, The Lady Hermit that was shot not that much later), this one is clearly lacking. It is lacking in execution but also in imagination. There is none of the fluidity of action that usually makes the scenes work. We do get the abrupt endings Chang Cheh likes so much, we do get some blood, some severed limbs, and some assorted mayhem, but it is all rather tame. Still, in an important sense, this film is not about the fighting, so it should not be too distracting.

Aren't we forgetting to help?	The Last Temptation of Jimmy

The Celestial DVD presents the film in its original 2.35:1 widescreen aspect ratio and it is anamorphically enhanced. I have no complaints about the quality of the transfer: the colors are vivid and there is no tint that sometimes crops up in these old releases. The Mandarin soundtrack is in Dolby Surround, and I don't know if they added any special effects to it, but I did like the crickets and the dogs in the distance when Jummy confronted Tong Dik on the bridge. The optional English subtitles are free of errors. In addition to the usual extras (photo gallery, talent files, trailers), this DVD includes a featurette about Chang Cheh where current starts (e.g., John Woo, Tsui Hark, and Andy Lau) discuss his influence and legacy. It is subtitled as well. Overall, an excellent film to have on an excellent DVD. Buy the collection in the nice hard box!

December 17, 2005