Popular reviews

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  Review by Lou (rhymes with wow!) ★★★★ 2

  In the martial arts department, this Chang Che movie is definitely less over-the-top than a lot of other Shaw Brothers productions. Swordsman instead opts to go a different route and focuses on its main character's (spiritual) journey to become a whole person again. It's less pulpy fun and more calculated drama. It works extremely well though.

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  Review by Count DuLacula ★★★★½

  You always mock me for being a cripple, well now you have the opportunity of seeing how it feels.
  -Fang Kang

  It's not director Chang Cheh's first film, but this is where he kicked down the doors at Shaw Brothers Studios and proclaimed "LISTEN ASSHOLES! This is how wuxia films are going to be done going forward!" You don't need to look that up, just trust me, it's exactly what Cheh yelled at them. Please don't look that up.

  It's influence is coming close to 50 years now and will go on much longer. This is where the modern day wuxia film was created. It's epic and bloody with revenge filled violence. Jimmy Wang Yu proves as Fan Kang that you shouldn't let the fact that you're right arm got chopped off get you down.

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  Review by Cormac 👑 ★★★ 14

  The sound of steel kissing steel can only be dwarfed by my fight with myself to become the one I set out to be. There’s an undying sense of loyalty to your makers here that has so lovingly been inherited by Chang’s muse, some dude by the name of John Woo. Or, the man who would take brotherhood and make it a calling card. The knack for spatial geography somehow arrives as less of a complete surprise. Those compositions of fiery passion melting snow on wintry nights is enough to warm the coldest of hearts. It takes a man to save a forest from burning up in flames only to walk away without a word of thanks from the trees. What’s an arm to a one-man army anyway.

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  Review by Sean Gilman ★★★★★ 10

  Probably not the first superhero origin story movie, or even the first great one, but it's the earliest one I can think of and it remains one of the best in that now ubiquitous genre. After a bloody prologue, in which a man is killed protecting his master from gangsters, the film finds our hero, Jimmy Wang Yu as the son of the fallen hero, now a student of that same master, but one constantly picked on by the other, higher class students. Wang resolves to leave, but is met by his tormentors in the woods by Shaw studio moonlight. In a fit of psychopathic impetuosity, the master's daughter lops off Wang's arm.

  More here.

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  Review by Ziglet_mir ★★★½ 4

  Mini-Collaboration with giant13! Check out his review on The One-Armed Swordsman as well!

  A colorful revenge flick, and when I say "colorful" I mean both visually and in character (this is a Shaw Bros flick after all!). Chang Cheh's film has a solid story filled with pathos, perhaps only ever struggling in pacing. Jimmy Wang Yu has some serious starpower and he carries the film in a great way. I really appreciate the snowy, mountaintop setting that I'm not sure I've seen captured like this from the era. There's a meditative energy breaking through every part of the film, even when the hero is on his feet fighting. Maybe the film is a bit too over-the-top in its dramatic moments.

  Violet Pan Ying-Zi totally…

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  Review by Blaze the Action Junkie ★★★★

  With the innate difficulty in hiding an arm on an actor, I don't think I was really expecting much out of this one really. To my surprise it was quite good. The plot was simple enough, yet still good. The action was simple enough, but still good. Act three had a few great parts, especially when the main protagonist steps in. I liked this one, and am now anticipating the cross-over with Zatoichi even more.

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  Review by comrade_yui ★★★★★

  life lessons from chang cheh: if you chop off a guy's arm, don't ask him afterwards to be your boyfriend

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  Review by Krautsalat ★★★★½

  This highly influental classic is one of Chang Cheh's earliest pictures, but it already has all his trademarks like unusual weapons, hyper-masculine melodrama, heroic sacrifice and lots of juicy stomach stabbings. Wang Yu shows all the coolest ways to one-handedly pull a sword and even kills a dude with a chopstick. This was choreographed by the legendary Lau Kar-Leung who also plays one of the villains and even shares a fight scene with Yuen Woo-Ping, the other famous martial arts director.

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  Review by Filipe Furtado ★★★★½

  The most essential of wu xia films.

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  Review by Gregor Kreyca ★★★★

  The original One-Armed Swordsman, along with Come Drink With Me, ushered in a new era of Martial-Arts/Wuxia movies in Hong Kong. While the genre at that time ironically was dominated by female leading characters, this one, directed by Chang Cheh, was seen as a sort of reaction to that trend. Male dominated and focusing of themes of (male) friendship, honor, loyalty and brotherhood. The film was a huge hit in Hong Kong and set the trend for many years if not decades to come.

  I like the film a lot although, it is not one of my very favorite Shaw Brothers swordplay movies. I was never fully soled on the One-Armed fighter concept. This and many other movies with a…

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  Review by Paul Thomas ★★★½

  There's a lot of steps in the journey of this pupil to become the one-armed swordsman. Sometimes you get a little impatient, hoping to get to the swordsplay soon. Also some weird shifting of focus. You probably assume he's gonna fight the people who take his arm, instead of being their protector.

  Once it settles though, and especially the final act, this turns into pure Shaw Bros wuxia fun.

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  Review by Matthew Noble ★★★★½

  Kicks so much ass, and features so much fake blood! Jimmy Wang Yu kills it in The One-Armed Swordsman, a classic Kung Fu underdog story filled with gripping action and a memorable ensemble of players. Saw this on Prime Video (ditto with all the other martial arts flicks I've been reviewing), and will gladly shell out some cash for the 88 Films Blu-ray. I liked Come Drink With Me just fine, but as far as I'm concerned this is the earliest genuine classic from the Shaw Brothers.