Title: Return of the
One-Armed Swordsman
Director: Chang Cheh
Released: 1969
Starring: Jimmy Wang
Yu, Lisa Chiao Chiao, Chung Wa, Cheng Lui, Hoh Ban, Tien Feng, Ku
Feng, Tung Li, Tong Gai, Lau Kar-wing, Lau Kar-leung, Yuen
Cheung-Yan, Ti Lung, Wang Kuang-yu, Wu Ma, Fong Yau
Plot: Following on
from the events of the first film Fang Gang (Wang Yu) the One Armed
Swordsman has been living in peace with his wife, happily carving out
a life for himself as a farmer. However its a short lived peace when
the Eight Sword Kings a band of tyrannical sword masters arrive with
plans to dominate the rival schools. Now recruited by the students of
the local schools whose teachers have all been captured by the Eight
Sword Kings, he must come out of retirement to stop them.
Review: Reuniting
the original director and star of the Shaw Bros classic for this
direct sequel to the original film which manages the rare accolade of
being better than the original which spent most of its run time
having Fang Gang trying to deal with losing his sword hand before
mastering his left handed fighting style and ultimately defeating the
long-armed devil.
With the setup
handled by the first film director Chang Cheh wastes little time in
throwing the audience into the action as we are quickly introduced to
the members of the Eight Sword Kings who all come with their own
unique weapon reflective of their name such as “Mighty Blade” who
welds a giant to handed sword and “Thousand Blade” who is not
only the only female member of the group but also welds numerous
throwing knifes which she hides in the sleeves of her robe. The real
strength of the villains of this film though is just how cunning they
are with their planning, as they start by holding a tournament to
capture and kill off the top fighters of the surrounding schools and
essentially leaving them exposed. To further rub salt in the wounds
of their enemies they demand that the students cut off their sword
arms or risk their teachers being killed.
Of course despite
all this happening Fang Gang is initially reluctant to pick up his
sword again as he is content living a life of peace, only for the
students to eventually convince him to take on the Sword Kings who
soon come looking for him regardless as they dispatch the black and
white swordsmen to take him out. From here though it seems that Sword
Kings unleash a constant wave of henchmen at Fang Gang and the
students as they make their way to the fort which the Sword Kings
have captured for their base of operations as here Chang Cheh ramps
up the energy of the film so that it feels that a fight scene is
never far from happening at any given point in the film.
This increase in
action and pacing really helps the film, especially when one of my
main criticisms of the original film was just how plodding it felt
throughout, which certainly isn’t an issue here, more so when the
villains all have their own unique fight style making you wonder how
Fang Gang will beat each one. At the same time many of these battles
with the Sword Kings are mass brawls with numerous combatants
fighting at the same time which somehow manages to still look clean
without key characters being lost in the fray. For those who like
their Kung fu bloody this film certainly has plenty to offer with the
violence quota being cranked up from the first film and the heroes
all dressing for some reason in white robes the violence is only
accentuated where possible throughout the film and while you might
think that you’d hot a point where seeing countless combatants
being reduced to bloody heaps it surprisingly never comes.
While perhaps this
might be far from the most subtle entry in the Shaw Bros. Catalogue
its so much fun and packed with Chang Cheh’s usual style and energy
that your hardly going to complain especially when it’s this much
fun.
