Du bei dao

"One-Armed Swordsman" is an early work of Chang Cheh, the practical godfather of kung fu cinema. Without wasting any time with describing the plot I'll dive into what I liked and didn't like.

This one is chalk full of great themes: ascension to manhood, honour, revenge, jealousy, hatred, redemption. Fairly unique in this genre is the love story between Fang Gang and Hsiao Man, which is actually quite touching.

I found it interesting, when the rival clan threatens Fang Gang's former teacher and school, how he has to choose between the martial way (protecting his teacher, seeking revenge and entering the cycle of violence again), and settling down in a comfortable life with Hsaio Man. The idea that the only thing that can save the school is Fang Gang's broken sword, that his father left him upon dying, was poetic.

The plot has all the makings of a great martial arts film. Where the film falls down though, is in the badly choreographed sword fights and really cheap sets and bad lighting. The swordfights are often wooden and slow.

I ask anyone who has raved about this film here, to look at the choreography critically... it does not come close to the best in the genre.

Granted, the fact that it is an early work (1967) probably explains this, but still does not change it.

An evil gang attacks the Chi school of Golden Sword Kung Fu. One student sacrifices his life to save his teacher and his school, his dying wish is that his son be taken in as a student. Young Fang Kang grows up in the school and treasures his father's broken sword and the memory of his father's sacrifice. The other students (including the teacher's daughter) resent him and try to drive him away. The teacher's daughter challenges him to a fight and when he refuses she becomes enraged and recklessly chops off his arm! Directed by Chang Cheh ("Five Deadly Venoms"), this was the first Hong Kong film to make HK$1 million at the local box office, propelling its star Jimmy Wang to super stardom. I am really beginning to appreciate the kung fu genre, especially when there is a gimmick -- a swordsman with one arm? Sounds good to me. And apparently it sounded good to many other people, because there was a sequel and a few spinoffs, too.

Given the bad reputation of Chinese martial arts films in general, plus the undeniable fact that many of these - including this one - use genre conventions originally developed for the popular stage (what has been called "Chinese Opera" is actually more analogous to American Vaudeville), it is only with considerable effort that an admirer if these films can persuade Americans to watch these movies, let alone appreciate them fully. But the point really is, that the directors of these films use what they have to portray the culture in which they live in a manner as completely cinematic as can be found in any national film tradition.

All this is a warm up to this: The One-Armed Swordsman is as masterful a film as Kurosawa Akira's Yojimbo.

I make this specific comparison because each film was made within a genre to which the film contributes genre-shattering innovation, while at the same time maintaining certain essential conventions that keep it safely within the genre. Thus Kurosawa's renegade ronin is a tough, cynical, manipulator of the various villains of the film, in a way even the most tragic hero of the Japanese samurai film (chambara) of the time could never be; nonetheless, he still manages to kill everyone at the end, much like all the other chambara heroes.

Similarly, Chang Cheh's One-Armed hero follows genre convention by performing super-human feats of skill (like leaving the imprint of his hand on a rock with a single blow), but just as a character, he is completely new.

The typical wu xia film of the time generally had an aristocratic hero; if he had no personal problems to deal with, he always wore white. If he had personal problems, he would drink heavily and dress like a mendicant monk. He was in utter thrall to whatever worthiest female was in his immediate vicinity; his cause was always to uphold the right, protect chastity, and further the well-being of the Chinese people as a whole. His one real defect (as a "type") was that he really liked fighting, which usually got him into trouble with those with similar enjoyments.

Chang Cheh's Feng Kong (as played by Wang Yu in what is his finest role) is not an aristocrat, but an orphaned son of a servant; he doesn't wear white, he wears black; remaining loyal to her father (his former teacher) he grows to hate the young lady who chopped off his arm (I certainly would) and grows attached to the dead warrior's daughter (with whom he sleeps without marriage) only after she has nursed him back to health - but he remains determined to control his own fate nonetheless. The future of the Chinese people doesn't interest him. Eventually, he abjures fighting and goes off to become a farmer.

As can be discovered from various interviews, Chang Cheh, in filming what is still his most completely realized vision, was perfectly aware that he was making such innovations. In fact, in terms of traditional Chinese culture alone, The One-Armed Swordsman comes across as a radical Confucian demand for recognition of merit above social status; and of the need for social stability over and against any desire for personal revenge.

Furthermore, Chang Cheh pulls this off in a manner utterly consistent with the social trends of the 1960s - Feng Kong is portrayed as an "angry young man" - the representative of an entire generation fed up with many of the myths of the old culture to which they have been indoctrinated. He is brazen, energetic, honest, and more than a little suspicious of old prejudices (which have never favored him anyway). And having been told that he was not "born worthy", he sets out to proves that he can learn self-sufficiency without the benefit of institutional education. He doesn't need to start a revolution - he IS a revolution.

Of course, if the general quality of the film as a whole were not utterly top-notch, this message would be meaningless. But the camera-work, supporting performances by the other actors, staging and direction, and most of the editing are all "world-class" - as good as anything coming out of Hollywood that decade, and better than any Hollywood film of the decade's latter half.

Let the genre conventions be what they are, and pay respect to one of the best films of its type - and perhaps one of the finest films ever made, world-wide.

We are here in the mythology of the one-armed swordsman. Jimmy Wang Yu is this one. He loses his arm to a woman who loves him and hates him at the same time. He leaves his Kung Fu school to live in anonymity. But his past will force him to put forward his talent because of a woman.

The scheme is ultra classic. And the form too. Chang Cheh will make a more violent version of the film with the brilliant La Rage Du Tigre (1971) which will be much more violent, furious and masculine (the women have no influence on the story) and also less mawkish than this one which lacks subversion in an unsurprising framework. Jimmy Wang Yu does what he can, but he is not really helped, supported, transported, by the other actors who are a bit bland or else in sneers, nor by the two actresses (for the only two female characters) who are in the embarrassed pettiness. The fights are not particularly memorable, except for the super villain (whom we discover at the end) with his particular tools and his secret boot that allow us to get out of the routine of the usual fights for this kind of production.

Theater acting was very noticeable in this production, and the practical effects were as well, theater-like down to the last scene and the formulaic combats of the "this one person must die to advance the plot" variety.

Overal, a bunch of joyous kung-fu-ish nonsense - you will see what I mean, intertwined with a very theatrical drama featuring specific postures for different emotions and a bunch of men whose traditional theatrical exaggerated angular eye and flowing beards makeup probably contributed quite a lot to the extreme insistence of Western popular media on "slant-eyes" and "fu manchu" stereotypes, without understanding that a lot of the Shaw Bros movies of teh time featured classical Chinese theater conventions.

Overall, not a bad movie for a relaxing evening which brings some unintentional laughs.