Film Descriptions

• 36th Chamber of Shaolin
• Blood Brothers
• Come Drink with Me
• Golden Swallow
• Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan
• One-Armed Swordsman
• Return to the 36th Chamber
• Vengeance!

One-Armed Swordsman

Hong Kong (1967), 35mm, 111 minutes, Mandarin w/English subtitles

Director: Chang Che (Zhang Che)
Cast: Jimmy Wang Yu, Ban Yinze, Qiao Qiao, Zhang Beishan, Huang Zongxun
Producer: Runme Shaw
Martial Arts Directors: Tong Kai (Tang Jia), Lau Kar-leung (Liu Jialiang)

Show Time: 4/19 at 7pm at the Metro State Auditorium
4/25 at Midnight at the Riverview Theater

Taken in by a swordsman at his father's deathbed, young Fang Kang (Jimmy Wang Yu) grows up in the school of Golden Sword Kung Fu. Envied by his fellow students for his master's attention, Kang loses an arm during a ruthless attack. A young girl saves the dying Kang and nurses him back to health, after which, he is called back to the Golden Sword school to defend it from an attacking gang. Initially helpless because of his missing arm, Kang develops a one-arm fighting technique and sets out to take revenge on the gang that destroyed his school.

In The One Armed-Swordsman, director Chang Che develops a prototype of the 1970s macho martial arts films, many of which feature a lone hero. The themes of male vengeance, violent combat and the psychological trauma of an anti-hero are all explored in this rough-and-tumble film. Chang Che is often cited as the champion of the "masculine" baroque in contrast to King Hu's "feminine" classicism. The influence of this hard-edged film on Hong Kong cinema remains pervasive. The best example of this is Tsai Hark's 1996 The Blade, a vital and violent mirror of The One Armed-Swordsman's great tradition.