The One-Armed Swordsman

Hong Kong premiere: July 26, 1967
Director: Chang Cheh
Stars: Jimmy Wang Yu, Lisa Chiao Chiao, Violet Pan, Tien Feng, Yeung Chi-Hing, Tang Ti, Tong Gaai, Liu Chia-Liang, Fan Mei-Sheng, Wong Sai-Git, Chang Pei-Shan, Fan Dan, Chen Yan-Yan, Cheng Lui, Chieh Yuen, Hao Li-Jen, Chiu Hung
Story Overview: When servant Fang Cheng is killed saving the life of his master, the great swordsman and teacher Qi Rufeng, his young son Fang Gang is taken in by Qi as a student and trained in martial arts. But when jealousy among Fang Gang’s peers leads to his being maimed, the young man must re-learn everything he thought he knew, both about fighting and about life.
My Nutshell Review: For this one, at least off the top, my own thoughts are superfluous. This has often been called the first modern wuxia film, and while I’m not sure that’s accurate (The Magnificent Trio and Come Drink With Me came before it and each might qualify for that honor), certainly it was the biggest and most influential of its time, as the first HK film to earn $1 million in the domestic box office. Any fan of martial arts movies or Hong Kong cinema, and probably any serious fan of movies period, needs to have this one under his/her belt. But to briefly summarize my opinion, it’s brilliant.
My Flickchart Score: 92% (What’s This?)
Watch it on Amazon Prime here. Or, better, buy the excellent Dragon Dynasty/Celestial Pictures DVD. I recommend it, both for the original Mandarin dub (with English subtitles) and for the worth-it-on-their-own special features, including a commentary track, featurette, and interviews.

* * * * * * *
In-Depth Synopsis

* * * * * * *

A cold wind howls through the midnight courtyard of a martial arts school. A man (Tung Tsai-Po) surreptitiously enters, but lights come up to greet him; he buries his surprise and calls for Qi Rufeng, the Magic Swordsman, the Golden Blade. Master Qi (Tien Feng) steps out onto the porch and the messenger hands him a sealed letter, saying it is from “the brigand chiefs Ma and Xu of Huainan.” When the master opens it, a cloud of smoke blows out into his face. “Poisoned incense!” he mutters. He draws his sword and cuts the treacherous messenger down as he attempts to flee, but the damage is done: the smoke almost immediately causes him to lose his strength and balance. A dozen armed men jump down from atop his walls, and Chief Ma (Chai No) smiles at him. It turns out that Master Qi prevented the brigands from robbing a gold shipment. “This is for meddling in our affairs,” the leader says. “Today we will make you regret it!”

The brigands cautiously approach the Master; they fear him, even drugged. But as he advances to meet them he staggers, rights himself, then falls unconscious to the steps. Emboldened, Chief Xu (Chow Siu-Loi) steps forward and brings his axe down in a death-stroke, but at the last moment it is parried. Qi’s servant, Fang Cheng (Ku Feng) has come to his master’s aid. Shirtless, unarmored, bearing only the gold-plated sword that is the symbol of the school, he stands above Qi’s body and fights off the killers alone. His attack kills three and pushes the others back temporarily, as two more servants come out to see what’s happening. “The master has been poisoned,” he tells them. “Take him in and give him some medicine,” and they lift and carry Qi Rufeng inside the house.

Ku Feng as Fang Cheng, hopelessly outnumbered but uncowed.

The brigands, seeing their easy victory slipping away, renew their attack. As Fang Cheng is slowly forced back into the house, a young boy runs to smaller houses on the grounds, running from door to door, pounding and calling out “Uncle! Open up! Come quick!” The doors open and several of Qi’s half-asleep disciples spill out, asking what all the fuss is about. “My father is fighting with some thieves,” he tells them.

Fang Cheng’s retreat has left him standing before the doorway beyond which his master lies helpless. He can fall back no farther. One by one he cuts the brigands down, despite several wounds, until only three remain: Ma, Xu, and a nameless follower. The nameless one slips by him, but is slammed into the wall and temporarily stunned. Xu manages to break the blade of Fang’s sword in two with his axe, but Fang picks the broken sword up and stabs the man with it anyway. Ma, though, takes advantage of Fang’s distraction to run him through from behind. Fang pushes him off, the nameless brigand returns to the attack, and as Fang kills him Ma runs him through again. Fang turns, mortally wounded, and kills Ma just as Qi Rufeng emerges, weakened but conscious, from the back room.

Master and servant.

Fang Cheng collapses into his master’s arms, two swords still sticking out of his body. “Master, you’ve raised me, and taught me martial arts since I was little,” he says. “It’s my honor to die for you. But...”

“But your son is still young,” Qi finishes his thought. As he says this, the disciples and the boy enter. The boy cries “Father!” and rushes to Fang’s side. The father embraces the son as Qi watches. Then he says, “Don’t worry, Fang Cheng. I’ll take your son under my wing...I’ll make him my disciple and treat him like one of my nephews.” Fang Cheng is overjoyed, and tells his son to thank the master. The boy kneels and addresses Qi as “Master,” but Qi raises him back onto his feet. “Not master,” he says. “Teacher” (shifu). I absolutely love this moment.

At this, Fang Cheng, knowing his time has come, rises to his feet smiling, and pulls the swords out of his body, then collapses and dies. The boy throws himself onto the body, weeping, but after a moment he masters himself. He takes his father’s bloody, broken sword, lifts it, stares at it, and the title card comes up: The One-Armed Swordsman.

Time passes.

Cut to several years in the future, and the image of the boy staring at the sword becomes the image of a man staring at it. This is the son, Fang Gang, all grown up (Jimmy Wang Yu). As the credits roll he sits in the snowy courtyard, contemplating the still-broken but lovingly-maintained blade, deep in thought. Then, as the credits end, he sighs, wraps the sword carefully in a red silk cloth, and sets it aside; it’s time to chop firewood. Despite the cold, after a moment he is warmed by the effort and strips off the heavy fur-lined robe he wears, leaving him shirtless. We see that Wang Yu, a competitive swimmer before he turned to acting, has a lean, well-shaped body, and we aren’t the only ones who notice.

A hand rests on Fang Gang’s arm, stopping his work. He looks along his eyes at the pretty young woman who has interrupted him. This is Qi Pei-er (Violet Pan), Qi Rufeng’s daughter. She looks him up and down and smiles, and it’s a smile that has certain things on its mind.

Violet Pan as Qi Pei-er.

Bet you can’t guess what she’s thinking about.

“Aren’t you cold?” she asks.
“I’m chopping firewood,” he answers. “Please don’t touch me. I’m sweating all over,” and he shakes loose from her grasp, coldly, and returns to work.
She pouts. “Why are you chopping firewood? You aren’t one of the servants here.”
He rolls his eyes and sets his axe down again. “Miss, you told me to chop firewood.”
“Well, now I’m asking you to stop.” He tosses the axe down and puts his robe back on. “Come, I want you to practice with me.”
“I have already practiced,” he says over his shoulder.
“I know, but practice with me again. Go get your sword!” She makes it sound like an order.
“Get the senior students to practice with you. They don’t like to see us together anyway.” With this he picks his axe up and begins to chop wood again, as two other students come out onto the porch and stand watching.
“Why do you always address me as ‘Miss’ and not by my first name?” she asks, as the two other students approach.

Fan Dan as the oily Xi Yi-Fei,

Chang Pei-Shan as the knucklehead Sun Hao.

“He doesn’t deserve it,” says the senior student, Sun Hao (Chang Pei-Shan). “Just let him be.”
The second student, Xi Yi-Fei (Fan Dan) smiles ingratiatingly. “Pei-er, I’ll practice swords with you,” but she tells him to mind his own business.
“His father was a mere servant,” Sun Hao says. “He’s only good for chopping firewood.”
“It’s his ploy to win our teacher’s love,” Yi-Fei confirms. “so that our teacher will scold you for treating him like a servant.”

At this Fang Gang is fed up. He tosses the axe aside, lifts an armload of firewood, and walks away. But of course it’s an insult to turn his back on senior students, and they call him to stop. He doesn’t listen, and in fact is downright rude, not that they don’t deserve it. Sun Hao, angry at the disrespect, slaps his face, knocking him down and scattering the firewood. Gang rises and knocks him down in return, and he jumps up and draws his sword. Gang, unarmed, grabs a piece of firewood to defend himself, but just then the master arrives. Everyone tries to act like nothing’s wrong.

Qi Rufeng prepares to scold Pei-er for making Fang Gang chop wood, but he claims that he did it for the exercise, and that the others just asked him to practice with them. Qi asks why he isn’t wearing his new clothes, and Gang says that he didn’t want to get them dirty. Qi instructs him to go change and then practice. Once he’s gone, Qi turns to his daughter. “Pei-er, you’re not a child now,” he says, though she does make a face like a little girl being scolded. “Be more considerate. The world doesn’t revolve around you.”

Xi Yi-Fei tries to defend her, but Qi tells him to be quiet. He tells the boys he knows exactly what they’ve been up to. He reminds them that Xi’s father, who is very wealthy, and Sun Hao’s father, himself a great warrior, have sent them to him to be trained rather than doing it themselves, which both could have done. That’s because, he informs them, their fathers didn’t want them spoiled. They wanted the boys to learn discipline. He won’t go easy on them because they’re the sons of his friends; he’ll be extra-hard on them, so as not to let their fathers down. The boys will learn martial arts from him, but more important they will learn to be righteous men, and if they don’t like that, they can get out.

Man, look at that surly little punk. Throw him out now!

After he’s gone, the three confer. They’re convinced that Fang Gang arranged things to make them look bad, and they need some way to avenge themselves upon him without the master knowing. Xi Yi-Fei suggests that they dare Gang to meet them in the woods at midnight, and they’ll beat him up then. He won’t refuse because it would look cowardly to do so. As they finish this plan Gang walks back outside, wearing his new black clothes. They challenge him, and he agrees.

Qi Rufeng finishes giving a lecture to his daughter, the contents of which we don’t overhear, and he sends her to bed. Once she’s gone, his wife (Chen Yan-Yan, who is never named in the script, so we’ll call her Mrs. Qi) asks him not to be so hard on her. She’s right about Fang Gang; he is proud, even arrogant, and stubborn as well. She accuses Qi of supporting this behavior by always favoring him over the other students. Yes, he owes a great debt to Fang Cheng, but surely that debt has been repaid, after raising and feeding and training the boy.

Qi counters that she has spoiled Pei-er, and that his plans for Fang Gang have nothing to do with his father. Two of his old enemies, Smiling Tiger and the Long-Armed Devil, have been seen in the area, and he’s afraid they’re plotting something. Whatever it is, he’s not sure he’ll be up to dealing with it. He will turn 55 next year, and must begin to consider what he will leave behind him. He has already sent word to his former students to attend a celebration on his birthday, and he plans to announce his retirement then, and his successor. He has no son, and his daughter is still a spoiled child. Furthermore, she has perhaps a third of his skill, and could never take his place. Many of his former pupils are talented, but only Fang Gang is skilled enough to learn everything Qi has to teach, and to pass it on. Fang Gang must be his successor, as only through him can Qi’s legacy be perpetuated. For that same reason, he wants Gang and Pei-er to marry, as well. Mrs. Qi is not sure that’s a great idea.

Fang Gang is walking through the courtyard and overhears Xi Yi-Fei and Sun Hao talking, expressing their bitterness that this son of a servant, who is so clearly their inferior, is the master’s favorite. It is humiliating, having to treat him as an equal. Gang returns to his room, clearly in the grip of a bitter interior debate. He takes out his father’s sword, breathes a short prayer to him, and then sits down to write a letter to Qi Rufeng: “Teacher, you’ve been most kind to me, but I fear that my staying here will only make things difficult for you. I must leave. I hope I can repay your kindness someday.” He has put on his old, ratty clothes. He rises, seals the letter, takes his small pack of possessions, his sword, and his father’s broken sword, and walks away from the house, regretfully leaving his new clothes behind.

In a clearing in the forest, the three antagonists stand facing Fang Gang. Sun Hao draws his sword, but Fang Gang asks him to wait. He tells them that he is leaving, and there is no further cause for them to quarrel, but Sun is spoiling for a fight (egged on by Yi-Fei) and attacks him anyway. Needless to say, Fang Gang makes quick work of him, but doesn’t hurt him, just disarms him and knocks him down a couple of times. Meanwhile, back at the house, Master Qi has gone to Fang Gang’s room to talk to him. He finds the letter, and sets off after him.

Sun Hao is really not even worth the trouble.

We return to the forest, and in what we might consider a nice bit of foreshadowing, one of Sun Hao’s errant swipes cuts a limb off a tree. A light snow has begun falling as Fang Gang stands above his vanquished schoolmate and chastises him. “Our teacher is the best swordsman in the land, and you are his senior pupil. Yet if anyone had seen you handle that sword, they would say you’d never had a lesson.” He’s embarrassed on behalf of Master Qi, and urges the students to return and practice much harder. He turns to walk away, but Pei-er, to this point silently watching, tells him to wait. She demands her chance against him. He refuses; it would be disrespectful to Master Qi to fight his daughter. She insists, and he says that the only way he’ll do it is if they fight bare-handed, no weapons. He wants to take no chance that he might accidentally injure her.

In actual point of fact he doesn’t fight her even then. She attacks, he easily knocks her blows aside, and when he raises his open hand she shrinks away. But when he again tries to leave, he finds her in his path, looking determined (and still a bit pouty). Now in frustration he shoves her aside, and when she strikes at him again he turns her and lands a blow on her shoulder that send her tumbling to the ground. She has fallen next to Sun Hao’s sword; she grabs it and throws a bit of a tantrum, crying and calling insults, saying that he’s hurt her. He comes to her, apologizes, and tries to help her stand. But when he reaches for her, she suddenly whips the sword up and cuts off his right arm!

He falls back in shock, clutching the freely-bleeding wound. Pei-er stands frozen, not yet grasping the enormity of what she’s done. He rises, towers over her, raises his blood-stained hand as if to strike her down, then simply staggers away into the snow. The three conspirators, themselves overwhelmed by what has happened, neither move nor speak as he disappears into the darkness.

Holy shit, you guys.

Now Master Qi approaches. He asks what they’re all doing out in the woods at night, and where Fang Gang has gone. Nobody has an answer, and as he gazes around he sees the severed arm lying on the ground. He turns on Pei-er, demanding to know who is responsible. Xi Yi-Fei tries to claim that Fang Gang challenged her to a duel, and she was just faster than he was, but Master Qi slaps him down. “Liar! The way you fight, he could easily have beaten all three of you at the same time. Now let’s have the truth before I cripple the lot of you!”

Pei-er drops to her knees in the snow and tells him exactly what happened. Master Qi asks where he’s gone, and she confesses that she doesn’t know. Fortunately, blood is very easy to follow in fresh snow, and he’s losing a lot of it, so they set off after him.

Fang Gang struggles through the snow. Time and again he falls, only to rise to his feet again and keep moving. He reaches a bridge, tries to cross it, finally loses consciousness. He drops over the edge...and into a fortuitously passing boat. It’s piloted by a young woman, Xiaoman (Lisa Chiao Chiao). Obviously she’s startled, but quickly sees how badly wounded he is, and continues on her journey, looking for help.

Lisa Chiao Chiao as Xiaoman.

Surprise!

A moment later Master Qi and the young idiots reach the bridge, and see that the blood trail stops at the edge. Master Qi gazes mournfully at the water rushing past for a moment, then turns away.

Xiaoman pounds on the door of a cottage by the riverside. “Grampa Wang! Grampa Wang!” The old man (Hao Li-Jen) comes to the door and Xiaoman explains that there’s a stranger in her boat, badly injured, and begs Wang to save him. Wang and a younger man, Shun (Chiu Hung) go to carry him inside. Fang Gang wearily opens his eyes and sees his savior before losing consciousness again, and then in another match fade, she goes blurry and then re-focuses several days later. The sun is shining, and he is lying on a bed in her little cottage.

What the commentary refers to as the “Ronald Reagan Moment.”

“WHERE’S THE REST OF ME?”

Go watch King’s Row if you don’t get the reference, or read Reagan’s autobiography, of course.

She smiles, trying to put him at ease. “You’re awake! We were worried,” but all he can think of is his missing arm (fair enough). He begins ranting for his sword, and when she hands him the one he was trained on he throws it aside. That isn’t the one he means. So she hands him his father’s sword, which focuses him. “Father, you were a servant your entire life,” he cries. “You died for your master. I just wanted you to be proud of me, but I’m getting nowhere now. I am maimed!” He weeps, but the sword and thoughts of his father calm him somewhat, enough to remember his manners at least. He raises his eyes to the terrified Xiaoman and apologizes. “Miss Xiaoman, I didn’t mean to scare you...thank you for saving my life. I just lost control. I’m sorry.”

Get used to this look they’re exchanging.

You’re gonna see a lot of it.

He asks about her family, and she tells him that she has none (“grampa” is an affectionate name for Wang; they are not related). He is amazed that she took care of him for days, all alone, and notices the couch by his bed where she has clearly been sleeping. During the course of this conversation he has tried to rise, but she has gently restrained him, and it’s clear that her touch means something to both of them. She tells him to lie back down, and she will get him some food.

Time passes (again).

Outside the cottage, winter turns to spring, and we see Fang Gang sitting beside the river, fishing. Xiaoman watches from the cottage, and smiles when he lands a fish. He is so excited; it’s the first thing he’s learned to do with only his left hand. But he’s still worried about the things he can’t do. He doesn’t want to be a burden to Xiaoman. He wants to pay his own way. She attempts to reason with him. “I know you’re sad because you can’t practice martial arts without your right arm. Well, where has martial arts gotten you so far? If your teacher wasn’t a swordsman, your father wouldn’t have been killed by his enemies. If not for martial arts, you’d still have two arms...You’re still a robust young man,” she says, sitting down beside him. “You may not be a swordsman, but you can learn to farm and fish, depending on your commitment.” He turns to her, and we can see that he’s considering a life by her side as she says this. “My mother left me this house and the field. It’s not big, but it’s good enough. If you decide to lead an ordinary life, we can farm, fish, and weave to support ourselves.” She smiles shyly and lowers her head. He asks her why she has never told him her family name; he knows her only as Xiaoman. She confesses that she doesn’t know it herself.

“Well, where has martial arts gotten you so far?”

Suddenly they’re interrupted. Two ruffians walk along the lane past the cottage and spot Xiaoman. They are Guo Sheng (Fan Mei-Sheng) and Chin Dachuan (Wong Sai-Git). “Well now,” says Guo. “who would have thought it, such a pretty girl out here? Ah, what a pity. Only a cripple to look after her.” They enter the courtyard and make lewd suggestions to Xiaoman. When Guo actually reaches out and touches her cheek Fang Gang decides things have gone far enough. He manages to get a couple of blows in (he hasn’t lost all his skills, apparently) before the two knock him down and beat him severely, including injuring his remaining hand. Incidentally, this is one of the few scenes where the right arm is clearly visible under Wang Yu’s clothes. Mostly they hide it very well, but with rolling around in the dirt there is just no safe camera angle. Anyway, Guo draws his sword, ready to punish the cripple for standing up to them...

Fan Mei-Sheng (L) and Wong Sai-Git. Fan would go on to a great career.

Wong, on the other hand, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen in anything else.

“Stop it!” comes a voice from off-screen. An older, well-to-do man is standing at the open gate scowling at the two ruffians. They both instantly release Fang Gang and bow to the newcomer, who they address as “shifu” or teacher. He holds them with his eyes for a moment before turning a big smile on Xiaoman and laughing. “Master Cheng!” she says in relief.

Tang Ti as Cheng Tian-Shou,

the aptly-named Smiling Tiger.

“Miss Xiaoman, I’m sorry. These two idiots behaved outrageously. I’ll punish them. Please forgive them.” He orders the two to leave, and they do. The master smiles and apologizes once more, bowing to her, and then follows them off. She rushes to Fang Gang’s side to see if he’s alright, but he pushes her off. “I’m good for nothing,” he cries, again and again.

Meanwhile, we see the master berating the two ruffians. It turns out that this is the Smiling Tiger, Cheng Tian-Shou (Tang Ti), the younger of the two enemies Master Qi was worrying about earlier in the film. He reminds them that they have a mission, and that they are now in Qi Rufeng’s own neighborhood. Any openly bad behavior on their part might bring the attention of Master Qi, and they aren’t ready for their revenge yet. He reminds them that his older brother is coming that very night to teach them the skills they will need to be ready to fight Master Qi and his disciples, but they know his temper, and might be able to guess what will happen to them if they spoil his plan.

Fang Gang lies in his bunk, thinking. It’s hard for a man formerly so strong to accept that he can be pushed around by a pair of random goons. He picks up his sword and begins trying to practice with it, but the blade is so heavy that, without his other arm to counter-balance his stroke, he can’t maintain his poise. Xiaoman watches sadly from the house as he throws the sword down in disgust, before coming to him with a parcel bound in black cloth. “Ah Gang...I didn’t want you to practice martial arts, but it breaks my heart to see your sorrow.” She unwraps the parcel and hands the contents to him, saying “You may find it useful.”

Surprisingly, it’s a martial arts manual, bloodstained and partly burned. He asks where she got it, and now we hear the story interrupted before, the story of what happened to her parents and why she doesn’t know her own family name. One night when she was little, her father came home covered in blood. We see in a flashback the young Xiaoman, weeping as her father, with his last strength, hands the manual to her mother (Hsiu Wen), begging her to hide it in a safe place, and to give it to Xiaoman when she grows up. Before he can even finish the request he dies. Her mother blames his martial arts lifestyle for his death, as personified by the book, and she throws it into the fire (well, onto a candle...someone missed a great image there).

I mean, still a good, compelling image. I just like big fires.

Back in the present, Xiaoman explains that her mother regretted this and soon pulled the book out of the fire, but half of it had burned by then. Soon after the two came to this current spot, where her mother bought the land and built the house, but died soon after. She never told Xiaoman what her family name was, because she didn’t want her to learn who had killed her father and seek revenge. Reprisal only breeds reprisal. Xiaoman never tried to learn the techniques in the book, in part because only the left-hand side remains (convenient!), but she kept it all these years in memory of her parents. Otherwise, she has lived the life of a simple farmer ever since. “You happened to lose your right arm,” she says, “but this might be useful for left-hand training. I know nothing about it anyway. It’s yours.” Fang Gang, moved by her story, begins to read the book.

I know I’ve asked this before, but can people actually learn

martial arts from books like this? I have some doubts.

Back to Cheng’s house. He is sitting with a man who can only be the Long-Armed Devil, but the movie doesn’t want us to see him yet. He sits with his back to us, at the edge of the frame, so that only his right arm and leg are visible. Also in the room are his two star pupils, Ba Shuang (Liu Chia-Liang) and Ding Peng (Tong Gaai). We see Guo Sheng and Chen Dachuan enter and bow to their uncle. He asks his pupils to demonstrate the plan to defeat the enemy.

Tong Gaai as Ding Peng (L) and Liu Chia-Liang as Ba Shuang.

Of all the cool people in this movie, these two would go on to have the most interesting careers.

Liu in particular represents everything that was best about Shaw Brothers.

First, Ding gives Guo a golden sword of the kind used by Qi Rufeng and his disciples, briefly describing its properties, and explaining that they took it from a man they already killed. As we look at the sword close-up for the first time, we notice that it’s more like a scimitar, narrow near the hilt but growing broader along its length. Then he shows them the new weapon: a short iron staff with a forked end. One of the forks is hinged and set to a trigger in the handle. When Guo attacks Ding, the latter uses the fork to trap the broad blade. Then, as Guo struggles to free the sword from the weapon, which Ding holds in his left hand, with his right hand Ding draws a dagger and slices Guo’s tunic open. “If you were Qi’s disciple you would be dead now,” he says, and continues with rather an extraordinary speech:

Well, that’s definitely cool and all, but did you have to ruin my best robe?

“Our master fought a duel with Qi once, which lasted nearly two days. During the fight he memorized all the strokes that Qi uses. Qi uses his blade 64 ways. Our master’s sword-lock can deliver 64 equal counter-strokes. Each one will lock your opponent’s sword and make him quite helpless. Every stroke has been measured and calculated.” More on this later.

Super tricky! I’m not sure it would be worth decades of single-minded effort to create,

but I’m sure the same thing could be said about how much work these synopses are.

The Smiling Tiger is overjoyed. “The weapon is revolutionary!” he says. “I’m sure Qi’s men will find it so too!” and he gives a proper evil laugh. He also notes that all of Qi’s disciples fight with the sword in their right hands, so using the sword-lock in the left puts it on the same side as the sword, leaving the right hand free to attack the undefended side with the dagger. Plot point!

The two older masters caution Guo and Chen to practice the new weapon earnestly, but not to leave the house with it or face severe penalties. No chance can be taken of it falling into Qi’s hands before they’re ready to reveal it. Then the Long-Armed Devil asks whether there’s any news of Qi Rufeng, and the Smiling Tiger tells him about the birthday coming up, and that Qi’s disciples are traveling from all across the country to attend. “Wonderful,” says Long-Arm. “We’ll wipe the whole lot out with one blow!” The Tiger isn’t sure they can fight that many all at once. Even if they’re successful, a few are bound to escape and eventually come for revenge themselves, but his brother tells him not to worry. Tonight he’ll teach him all 64 moves with the sword-lock, and then leave him to practice with his young students while he, Ba, and Ding go out to ambush some of Qi’s men before they arrive at the school, to even the odds a bit.

Still pretty unsportsmanlike, if you ask me.

And we cut to this plan being put into action. A young man walks through the forest and stops to rest in the shade. This is Pei Xun (Wang Kwang-Yu), one of Qi Rufeng’s disciples. The three villains approach and challenge him. He knows who the Long-Armed Devil is, and chides him for seeking revenge for having lost to Master Qi by ambushing and murdering his students. Long-Arm says that, on the contrary, it wouldn’t be worth his time to fight someone so far beneath him, so he’s going to let his disciples do it. And they do, pretty easily. This starts a montage of Qi’s disciples being killed, five total by my count (including Pei): a shirtless guy (Yau Lung), two friends together (Yuen Cheung-Yan and Tam Bo?), and then a guy who does get tortured a little by Long-Arm’s whip as he tries, wounded, to swim away (Lau Kar-Wing). None put up a fight.

Back on the little farm we see that Fang Gang has improved dramatically. He chops a wooden stake to pieces with his bare hand, knocks a large branch out of a tree without even touching it, and slaps a stone block so hard he leaves the imprint of his hand in it. He and Xiaoman laugh, and she says, “Stop it now. If you keep practicing a few more days, you’ll tear down my house.” But getting his strength back was only the first part of Fang Gang’s mission. He must now learn to use his sword with his left hand, and so far he has made no progress. He consults the manual, and realizes that the left-hand sword is an auxiliary weapon, shorter than the principal sword. He realizes that his own sword is too long to suit the style laid out in the manual...but his father’s sword, broken so many years ago, is just right.

It’s beginning to look, isn’t it, as though destiny set him on this path?

Guo Sheng and Chin Dachuan are practicing stabbing dummies at their uncle’s house and getting damned bored with it. They ask Smiling Tiger if they can go out, but he reminds them that if the sword-lock leaves the house they’ll face Long-Arm’s wrath. He then goes off to his room, leaving instructions for them to keep training. But Chin mentions that there’s a temple fair the next day, celebrating Buddha’s birth. As long as they leave the sword-locks behind, there’s no reason they can’t go, right?

Fang Gang continues practicing. He is improving fast now, his blows fast and hard. At one point he slices a five-foot log lengthwise with a single swipe (pictured above). He’s happy, but Xiaoman is worried and can’t sleep. “Why are you so happy? What’s so good about martial arts?” Fang Gang points out that he can now protect her in situations like when the ruffians attacked them. “Perhaps,” she answers, “but it’ll bring trouble with it, too. If my father didn’t learn martial arts, he wouldn’t have inherited the book from his teacher, and wouldn’t die for it. Mother and I wouldn’t have suffered. It’s all so unnecessary.” They sit in silence for a moment, then she rises and walks away. She says back over her shoulder, “Once you’ve learned everything in the book, you’ll leave me and lead a swordsman’s life.”
He rises and comes to her. “No, I won’t leave you. You’ve been so good to me. I have feelings, too...”
She shakes her head. “You just say that. Later, who knows?” She walks behind the curtain, but he keeps speaking.
“It’s a promise,” he says. “I'll only use it to protect us, and won’t mind other people’s business. I won’t draw my sword in anger.” Behind the curtain, she smiles, but says nothing.

In the courtyard of the school, Pei-er stands looking mournful, as the two idiot boys look on.
“Look at her,” says Xi Yi-Fei. “Can’t you see it? She actually likes Fang Gang.”
“Shut up,” answers Sun Hao. “Thinking back, we shouldn’t have treated Fang like that.”
Yi-Fei shakes his head, then approaches Pei-er. “Listen, cheer up. There’s a temple fair today. Let’s check it out, shall we?” She turns, looks at them, then nods, slowly.

So everybody’s at the fair! Fang Gang and Xiaoman walk together, pointing out all the interesting sights and laughing. There’s a lion dance, folks on stilts, acrobats, everything one could ask for. They greet Grampa Wang and Shun and have a nice chat. They see a mask vendor, selling masks to young children, and then suddenly Fang Gang grabs the mask from one of them and slips away. The boy starts to cry, and Xiaoman buys him a new mask; we see his face clearly here, and it’s Mars! He’s one of my favorite guys.

That face! If I only had a nickel

for every time I’ve seen Jackie Chan punch that face!

Xiaoman scolds Fang Gang for stealing the mask, but he points out the three people a little ways ahead of them. It's Pei-er, Sun Hao, and Xi Yi-Fei. Obviously he doesn’t want to meet them. They walk on, passing a gambling table where Guo Sheng and Chin Dachuan are playing dominoes. After our hero passes, a pretty young woman walks by and of course Guo and Chin grab her and start trying to grope or kiss her. Shun steps up and demands that they leave the girl alone. Of course they commence beating him up, and when Grampa Wang tries to intervene they knock the old man down. 

“Someone stop them! They’re trained fighters!”

Once the two ruffians are satisfied that Shun has learned his lesson, they go back to their game, and Wang asks some men in the crowd to help him get Shun home. At this point Fang Gang and Xiaoman see them and ask what happened. Someone in the crowd explains, and Fang Gang sees that it’s the same two ruffians who attacked him (and Xiaoman) at her home. He starts towards them, and Xiaoman grabs his arm, begging him not to get involved. “They saved my life once,” he says. “This isn’t minding other people’s business!”

Unhand me, woman! There are asses that need kicked!

He rushes up to the table and knocks all the dominoes off. “Oh, our friend the cripple again. Where’s the pretty girl?” Guo asks. He slaps them around a little bit and the crowd claps. Now humiliated, they draw their daggers and attack him, but once again Smiling Tiger is there to stop them. He scolds them and they slink away. The crowd runs up to congratulate Fang Gang, and as the pair walk away we can see that, despite her words, Xiaoman is proud of him.

Oh yeah. She hates it when he fights. Obviously.

In another part of the fair, Tiger is upbraiding his pupils, but just then Guo spots the three from Qi’s school. They know the boys are Qi’s disciples from the swords they carry, and figure out that the girl must be the master’s daughter. It occurs to them that, if they get the three back to their compound, they can practice with the sword-lock on the boys, and Pei-er might make a valuable hostage. Smiling Tiger, always the charmer, convinces Pei-er to come home with him, and though Yi-Fei doesn’t like it, the boys go along as well.

I mean, how can anyone resist that smile?

And since Yi-Fei doesn’t like it, at least he’ll be on his guard.

Unfortunately, Yi-Fei on his guard is as useless as Yi-Fei caught unawares.

Nearby, Fang Gang and Xiaoman are being toasted by the villagers when he sees Tiger, his pupils, and Pei-er walk by. He suspects trouble. Xiaoman points out that it’s none of his business; standing up for Wang and Shun made sense, since they saved his life, but standing up for the girl who cut off his arm could only be bravado for its own sake. “Let her handle her own problems,” she advises.

Smiling Tiger and the young folks arrive back at his home. Tiger offers his guests some tea while his disciples go off on an unspecified (but obvious) errand. As Pei-er drinks, he reaches over and casually strikes a pressure point, knocking her instantly unconscious. The boys ask what he’s done, and tells them not to worry about her. She’ll just sleep for a couple of hours. Tiger wants to show the boys a toy that he didn’t want her to see. After all, she might tell people about it. And Guo and Chin enter, carrying the sword-locks.

Yi-Fei asks why Tiger isn’t afraid of them seeing this toy, and Tiger says, “Because we’re going to try this on you. But don’t worry. You’ll have no chance to talk about it. You’ll no longer be alive.”
Sun Hao isn’t afraid. “We’ve fallen into your trap, so let’s see this toy!”.
Yi-Fei, however, is. He restrains Sun Hao, who was already drawing his sword. “This must be some martial arts master. May I ask your name?”
“I'm Cheng Tian Shou, the Smiling Tiger,” is the reply.
“Ah, I’ve heard your name before,” Yi-Fei says. “You should square accounts with our teacher, but not us.”
“Of course I won’t fight you,” say Tiger. “My disciples will. One-on-one fights. Isn’t that fair?”

Yi-Fei would like to continue trying to talk his way out of this, but Sun Hao is not interested. He may be a fool with no sense of his actual ability, but he isn’t a coward. He steps outside, draws his sword, and demands “Who’s first?” Guo steps up, and the fight is brief and ends as we expect. As Sun Hao dies, he looks up at Yi-Fei. “Listen, when you die, die well.”

Man, what a waste of last words.

But Yi-Fei has no interest in dying, well or badly. He runs and jumps to the top of the garden wall (the only remotely kung-fu-related thing we ever see him do in the film), but Tiger uses a grappling hook of some kind to bring him back down. Chin has to chase him to force him to draw his sword, and once he does makes quick work of him, and Smiling Tiger laughs merrily. He and the boys walk back inside and stand over Pei-er, with Tiger reflecting that, although he isn’t worried about the coming fight with Qi Rufeng, it never hurts to have an extra ace up one’s sleeve.

Fang Gang and Xiaoman sit in her cottage, not looking at one another. Fang Gang stares at the mask in his hand. Xiaoman says bitterly, “You can’t stop thinking about her, can you?”
“For all that she did to me, she’s his only child. I can’t just forget about her.”

Pei-er wakes, tied to a post in the basement. Suddenly the masked figure of Fang Gang pops out from behind her. He places his hand over her mouth before she can cry out, and tells her he’s come to rescue her. And he’s just in the nick of time, too, as the ruffians come strutting down the stairs with evil intent. Fang Gang springs to her defense, and for those audience members who thought the mask was pointless, the filmmakers know it, too. Guo immediately grins and says it won’t be like before. This time he won’t spare him. They attack with their knives, and after toying with them for a minute Fang Gang draws his broken sword and cuts an arm off each of them. He pulls his mask down just far enough for them to see his eyes...I never noticed before how evil Jimmy Wang Yu’s eyes are!

Yikes!

“You bully me because I’m maimed,” he says. “Now you know what it feels like!” He cuts Pei-er loose, and they escape through a broken skylight, leaving the two thugs moaning on the floor.

And the American distributor liked this image,

of Pei-er screaming and the amputated hand still gripping the knife,

so much that it ended up being the original U.S. poster.

Hey, it was the exploitation era.

Hero and victim walk through the forest together. “Fang Gang,” she asks, “I cut off your arm. Why did you rescue me?”
“You recognize me?” he says, taking off the mask.
“I’m familiar with your voice. Besides, you have only one arm.” Again, duh. “Guess there aren’t too many one-armed men.”
“I shouldn’t rescue you, but I...”
“I understand you’ve always liked me,” she interrupts. “That’s why you kept your distance.”
“I did keep my distance,” he admits.
“Well, you saved my life there tonight. I won’t treat you as a servant,” and she steps close to him. “You don’t have to keep your distance.”

But if my advice is worth anything to him,

he definitely will.

Of course Xiaoman has been hiding in the bushes and has overheard all this. Now she runs off crying. Fang Gang calls after her, but she’s gone. He turns angrily on Pei-er. “I rescued you, and you got me in trouble. What am I going to tell her?” Pei-er shrugs her off, she’s merely a peasant, but Fang Gang grabs her. “The night you cut off my arm, she saved my life...Listen to me. You’re wrong. I never liked you. That’s not the reason that I kept my distance from you. I rescued you today because I owe it to your father.”
“But I loved you,” she says. “I was always in love with you.”
“You loved me? You tried your best to torture me. You cut off my arm!” Which, I mean, fair enough.
“Because you were arrogant. You were so cold. I didn’t mean to.”
“I don’t want to hear about it. It’s late. Your father will be worried. Go home, and I’ll go home, too.”
“You live with that girl?”
“Yes.”
“Won’t you come back with me? Father misses you.”
“I would like to see him again. I owe him so much. But you I don’t ever want to see again.”
“You prefer a country girl to me?”
“Yes!” and finally Pei-er goes off and leaves him alone.

She really does blend into the scenery, doesn’t she?

He returns to the cottage to find it empty, but after a moment he finds Xiaoman sitting beside the stream where he caught his first fish. She tells him that he should have just gone off with Pei-er, but he says she only heard what she said to him, not what he said back. He tells her about the rest of their conversation. “Then why did you rescue her?” Xiaoman asks.

Bit of a bloodthirsty question, in my opinion.

“She asked me the same question. I owed it to my teacher, her father. My teacher is a heroic swordsman. I can’t let her be the cause of his ruin. Had she been assaulted, how could my teacher face anyone?”

Xiaoman rises and stares off into the distance for her soliloquy: “Mother often told me she’d rather marry a farmer and live happily and peacefully than marry a swordsman, because he’d die for the reputation of his teacher. My father sacrificed himself to protect the book that he inherited from his teacher. Mother said, they act heroically, they appear righteous and courageous. Girls always fall for them. She told me not to be fooled. Ironically, I...” and she breaks down in tears.

In the American dub: “She said these men worship fame and honor,

that one should never trust them or marry them. Their wives mean nothing...

She gave me all that good advice, but look at me!”

He comes to stand beside her. “Xiaoman, I’m maimed. I don’t wish to be a swordsman anymore. I just told Pei-er the same thing. I rescued her and repaid my teacher’s kindness. I’d like to stay with you and become a farmer, if it’s okay with you.”

She turns to look at him, as if deciding whether she can trust him. “Then we must leave now.” Pei-er will tell her father what happened, and he will come looking for them. He asks if she’s prepared to leave her land. She says that she has a little money they can live on for a while, and she will ask Grampa Wang to sell the house and land and send them the money. It was never really her home anyway. “I just want to be with you,” she says. He tells her that they will leave at daybreak.

At Master Qi’s school, we see that most of his former students have already arrived (among them Cliff Lok, Hsu Hsia, and Lau Gong). They have learned of the death of Pei Xun, but have decided to keep it from the master so as not to ruin his birthday (the following day). But will they be able to? He has only twenty students still active in martial arts, and five of them are dead. Obviously everyone was intending to be present for the announcement of his successor, so how will they explain the absence of those five?

Qi Rufeng enters, and the students pretend they were just chatting among themselves, but he knows they’re lying. He asks who is still coming, and the only students whose fates they haven’t learned yet are Deng Chong and Lu Zhen. But Wei Xuan (Huang Chung-Hsin), who seems to be senior among the students, tells the master not to worry. Deng Chong is especially skilled. They’ll be fine.

Cheng Lui as Deng Chong (seated) and Chieh Yuen and Lu Zhen.

Cut to the inn, where Deng Chong (Cheng Lui) and Lu Zhen (Chieh Yuen) are staying. Lu is worried with how slow they’re traveling, fearing that they’ll be late for Qi’s birthday. Deng reveals that he’s been traveling slowly on purpose. He’s suspicious of Pei Xun’s death, and thinks that perhaps the master’s enemies are hunting them and have developed some new technique to combat their style (!!!). He wants to find out who they are, and perhaps gain some intelligence about their tactics and plans that he can report to Qi. He counsels Lu not to sleep that night. The two are spotted through an open window by four warriors in red and black costumes (who will shortly be identified as the Law brothers, so we’ll just start calling them that now), who slip away into the night. Deng lets them go, and says now they need only wait for them to come back, along with whoever their leader is.

Cut to a clearing in the forest, where Smiling Tiger, along with the Law brothers, meets up with Long-Armed Devil, Ba Shuang, and Ding Peng. Tiger says that his two disciples have suffered serious injuries (as we’ve seen), so he has invited the Law brothers to help out. Incidentally, the only actor I’ve been able to identify out of those four is Chui Chung-Hok, but he’s the only one who stands out anyway. When it comes time, we’ll call him The Brother. Tiger informs Long-Arm about the two Qi disciples at the inn, so Long-Arm decides he and his two followers will go after those two while Tiger and the Laws watch the road and ambush any other Qi disciples who pass. Then they’ll regroup and go to the school the following night.

The three villains enter the courtyard of the inn but make no attempt to take their enemies by surprise. Long-Arm calls to them instead: “Disciples of Qi, come out!” Inside, both men are awake but in their pajamas. Deng Chong says he will go first and find out their strategy, so that Lu can report back to the master. He and Long-Arm introduce themselves to each other, and Long-Arm warns all the other denizens of the inn (who have come to see what all the fuss is about) to return to their rooms so that they won’t be harmed accidentally. This everyone does with alacrity.

Yes, sir! None of our business, really!

Ding Peng duels with Deng Chong (better use full names while these two are on the screen) first, and unlike everyone else so far actually makes him work for it. But ultimately, as expected, his sword is trapped and he gets the dagger in the belly. He stumbles back into the room as Lu Zhen fights the two apprentices, and tears up his bedsheets to bind the wound and stop his guts spilling out. He charges back into the fight swinging an enormous length of wood, as if he’d ripped down a rafter, and orders Lu to make a run for it as planned. Lu does run and jumps atop the wall, but Long-Arm throws a spear that catches him before he can complete his escape. He falls, wounded, into the street outside.

Deng Chong continues the fight for a moment, still showing more spirit than all the other murdered disciples put together. Ding Peng and Ba Shuang, so used to fighting against the golden swords of the Qi school, can’t handle this unusual weapon, so finally Long-Arm has to step in with his whip to finish him off.

Outside, Fang Gang and Xiaoman happen to be passing (of course) just in time to hear Lu’s dying words. He does waste a little precious time asking what happened to Fang Gang’s arm, but then explains that he and Deng Chong have been killed by the Long-Armed Devil, who has also killed five other brothers, and gives details about the strange new weapons he and his followers are using. Fang Gang knows he must warn his teacher about this, but Xiaoman predictably objects. He tells her, “They were heroic young men. They too have parents, wives, and children. They too are loved by their families. But they sacrificed themselves for our teacher and brothers...Lu Zhen was injured, but he still struggled to warn our teacher. He asked me to do this for him before he died. How can I let him down?...It’s not only a matter of reputation. They want to kill all my brothers. Xiaoman, they’re young men like me. Can you refrain from saving them? If I leave with you, without warning my teacher and brothers, I’ll never find peace for the rest of my life.” Xiaoman turns from him, weeping. He grabs his weapons and walks away.

The next day Qi Rufeng is addressing his former pupils. He expects Long-Armed Devil to be arriving soon. He didn’t invite any regular guests to the dinner, because he was going to announce his successor and it is fitting that only the members of the school should be present, but now he’s glad for another reason. He suggests they all put on their fighting gear, grab their swords, and wait for the enemy.

The Law brothers are having a meal at a little roadside eatery as Long-Arm and his followers appear. The Laws say that they haven’t seen any of Qi’s disciples, and that Smiling Tiger has gone on ahead to wait at Peace Bridge. Long-Arm decides to head on to Qi’s school, leaving the Laws to watch the road just in case.

Soon after, Fang Gang comes along, and The Brother spots the golden sword he’s carrying. They jump out into the road and surround him, but relax when they get a better look. Because he has only one arm, they say they’ll let him live if he will kowtow to each of them three times. Instead, he draws his sword in a flash and cuts The Brother’s topknot off. Now that the Laws know to take him seriously, he casually walks into the diner and orders some wine. The waiter, not too surprisingly, runs away.

After some foreplay, the four attack in earnest, and at first he doesn’t even bother to draw his sword, just slaps ‘em around a bit with his bare hands, and occasionally a dish or something. But it gets seriously eventually; Fang Gang offers them a last chance to walk away, and when one of them throws a dart at him, Fang Gang catches it in his teeth, then throws a handful of chopsticks that impale his enemy. The other three hesitate just for a moment before attacking again, and this time Fang Gang kills them all with what feels like a single elaborate move with his sword. So much for the Laws!

In this shot, they’re all already dead.

The message just hasn’t reached their brains yet.

After a quick look in at the school, where we see everyone sitting nervously silent, we watch Fang Gang arrive at Peace Bridge. Smiling Tiger is waiting for him. Tiger accuses Fang Gang of spying on him and his brothers, using his disability as a blind, which is a little silly, really. Fang Gang answers that he now knows who Smiling Tiger is, as well. Tiger says that Fang Gang owes his disciples two arms, and since he has only one, he must be killed to settle the debt. Thus begins the first fight between equals in the whole film.

Meanwhile, Long-Armed Devil and his followers have arrived at the school. Qi Rufeng asks for his sword, then steps outside to meet his enemy, who we finally see for the first time: it’s Yeung Chi-Hing! It seems like this must have been as huge a shock to HK audiences at the time as it was for U.S. audiences in 1995 when the killer in Se7en turned out to be Kevin Spacey. It’s the only reason I can think of for keeping him hidden so long, as well as the sharp musical sting when we finally see his face. Now, when he’s far better-remembered for this role than any other, it’s hard for a modern audience to understand that, but it sure seems to have been true.

OMG you guys, it’s Yeung Chi-Hing!

Anyway, we see him, in his blue-grey robe with five short spears strapped to his back and sticking up behind his head like peacock feathers, and his long whip at his side. “Qi Rufeng,” he says, “I’m here to settle an old score. I’ll celebrate your death today!”

Qi smiles. “Your martial arts must really have improved a lot since our fight years back. But it wasn’t a heroic act to ambush and kill my disciples. You should have come straight to me!” He’s ready to attack, but Wei Xuan and...Hsu Hsia’s character (unfortunately unnamed) step in and ask to fight first. At this point Long-Arm informs Qi that he never killed any disciples himself; that would be beneath him (this is not strictly true, but whatever). Instead his own followers did the job, and if these disciples want to fight, his followers will happily oblige them.

Ding and Ba make short work of these two, of course, as Long-Arm laughs. Immediately after, they take out three more. Now all the disciples want to rush in, but Qi stops them. “You specially designed this weapon to lock my golden sword,” he tells Long-Arm, “so let my sword meet your lock.” Long-Arm laughs again and motions Ding and Ba to attack. Qi advances cautiously, testing them out.

Back on the bridge, Tiger and Fang Gang are still going at it. Fang Gang is using his own, longer sword, and Tiger does succeed in locking it, but Fang Gang rolls free of the ensuing knife stab. He leaps back to his feet in time to meet his enemy’s follow-up attack and manages to grab the sword-lock under his arm while using his father’s sword to hold off Tiger’s dagger.

Man, that seems like a super-vulnerable position!

At the school, the pace has quickened between Qi and the two younger men, and to Long-Arm’s chagrin they cannot get hold of him, and are in fact barely staying ahead of his expert attacks. Finally he calls upon them to step down and let him take over. The master is beyond them. He’ll settle the old score himself.

Smiling Tiger is finding his own opponent more trouble than expected, as well. He backs slowly across the bridge, barely maintaining his balance under a barrage of blows. He manages to lock the sword, but of course it’s broken below the broadest part of the blade, and Fang Gang is able to slip it free and knock the sword-lock from his enemy’s hand. Now it’s knife vs. broken sword. The two men grapple briefly, and Tiger manages to throw Fang Gang onto his back. But Fang Gang spins on the ground and cuts Tiger’s belly open with a well-aimed slash. The villain screams and tumbles into the water.

Ah, there we go. Good ol’ Shaw Brothers blood-and-guts.

The fight between Long-Arm and Qi continues. Long-Arm is much faster and more confident than his students, and constantly pushes Qi back. Finally he manages to engage the sword-lock.

Qi knows the knife attack is coming and jumps clear, but the slash still wounds him in the leg, and he loses his sword. His students lift him and surround him, and Long-Arm asks if he has any last words. “I admit defeat,” the old master says in reply. “I won’t ask for your mercy. But my family and disciples have nothing to do with this. Please let them go.”

“Qi Rufeng,” Long-Arm laughs, “you know me better than that. They’ll get vengeance if I spare them today.” He clearly means to kill everyone in the place. The disciples try to attack en masse, but Long-Arm brings one down immediately with a spear. He and his followers will fight everyone one-on-one, but will not be mobbed. Another student takes this as an invitation and rushes to his own death.

Now the disciple played by Lau Gong steps up. “We prefer death to dishonor. Our teacher won’t beg for mercy, and neither will we. But Mrs. and Miss Qi are ladies. Let them go if you have any conscience left!” And to accent his point, he opens his robe and commits suicide. Long-Arm simply says, “Qi Rufeng, will you kill yourself also, or must I do it for you?”

I just don’t see this as the face of a merciful man.

Suddenly a voice: “Hold it! I’m Qi Rufeng’s disciple, too!” and Fang Gang comes leaping down from the garden wall. Needless to say, everyone is very surprised. He sadly surveys the bodies of his brothers, then stands before his teacher: “I was delayed by Long-Armed Devil’s brother. I am late. Please forgive me...You raised me and taught me martial arts. If I can’t help you to fight them off, at least I can die with you.”

“You’ve still got me to deal with!”

Long-Arm says to his followers, “Ding Peng, Ba Shuang, look. He has only one arm, but wants to die with the others. Well then, let’s give him what he wants.” The two advance on him, smiling. Fang Gang draws his own sword (the long one) and stands ready. Ding Peng attacks and quickly locks the sword, but before he can even draw his dagger Fang Gang has the broken sword out and kills him. Ba Shuang follows, cut down after Fang Gang allows his sword to be apparently trapped, then snatches it back and stabs his enemy through.

I even like the slightly affected way he doesn’t look at his enemy

as he delivers the death blow. Jimmy Wang Yu eventually became

too cool to be taken seriously. In this, he’s just straight cool.

“Apparently there is still a Qi student left who can use a sword,” Long-Arm says. He attacks, but finds his sword-lock useless. Fang Gang constantly escapes its grasp and Long-Arm narrowly escapes the counter-attacks. He stares for a moment at this mysterious newcomer, and then tosses his precious weapon aside and draws his whip. The fight goes very badly for Fang Gang for a while, until finally he is able to cut the whip off while it’s wrapped about his legs. He rolls aside and leaps to his feet, and Long-Arm throws a spear, which he narrowly dodges. But Long-Arm follows it up with two more, and one apparently pierces him through the shoulder. The villain laughs and advances to finish him with the knife, but Fang Gang leaps upon him and slices him open. He slowly raises his broken sword for the death-blow, but there is no need. Long-Arm gasps and falls down dead.

Fang Gang has only a left hand; his enemies have trained to fight right-handed swordsmen
(and don’t handle situations outside their comfort zone well). His broken sword can’t be trapped
by the sword-lock. And Long-Arm’s final blow, which would have left anyone else defenseless

against the knife, passes harmlessly through his clothes. 
“Turn adversity into strength” is the big message this movie is trying to send.

Fang Gang looks down at the spear, hanging in the empty sleeve where his arm should have been. He pulls it out and tosses it aside as Pei-er rushes to him. She gently touches his wounds, but he refuses even to look at her. Instead, he goes and kneels before his teacher

“Ah Gang, my daughter cut off your arm, yet you return good for evil.

Everything I possess in this world is yours.”

But Fang Gang tells him that he has decided to live an ordinary life. The young woman who saved him is waiting for him at the inn. She taught him to love, and that’s more important than anything he learned at the school. They’re going to go and be farmers together. “I’m leaving,” he says. “Guess we won’t meet again.” Pei-er calls out to him once more, but he doesn’t even notice. She rushes to throw herself weeping at her father’s feet. The old man breaks his sword in two with his bare hands and throws it to the ground.

Gotta feel bad for the old guy. He’s alive, and so is his family,

but his whole life is in ruins. Everything he worked for is destroyed.

Not such a happy ending, huh?

As some wildly inappropriate Hawaii Five-O music plays, Fang Gang walks along a path in the sunshine. Xiaoman is waiting up ahead. They look into each others’ eyes for a moment, then ahead to the horizon, and walk off together over the hill and out of sight. ANOTHER SHAW PRODUCTION.

* * * * * * *

BEST THING ABOUT THE FILM:

Hard to choose, but I’m gonna go with the sequence where Fang Gang’s arm is cut off. There’s something about action in the falling snow that Chinese directors just love. Think of House of Flying Daggers, Wong Kar-Wai’s The Grandmaster, Jimmy Wang Yu’s own Chinese Boxer. Japanese directors get this, too: Lady Snowblood, Samurai Assassin, Sword of Doom. I don’t know why American directors aren’t more into it, really. When Quentin Tarantino decided to make his homage to HK/Japanese cinema, one of the tropes he appropriated was to have the final fight in Kill Bill vol. 1 in the snow. There’s something about the juxtaposition, the violence staged against the peaceful backdrop, that just always works. In a beautifully-shot movie, these scenes are the loveliest.

WORST THING ABOUT THE FILM:

The studio at the time this was made hadn’t yet started casting real martial artists in its films, and so in places the action isn’t as exciting as the films of the late 70s and 80s would be. Some of these guys simply can’t convincingly fight. Of course, in the case of Sun Hao and Xi Yi-Fei that sort of plays into the story, and when the two combatants are equally new to the moves (as with the fight between Fang Gang and Smiling Tiger) it isn’t as obvious. I enjoy that fight very much. On the other hand, when Liu Chia-Liang and Tong Gaai fight people, it’s clear that the guys they’re facing just don’t belong on screen with them. Don’t get me wrong, the action was still as good or better than it would have been in most Western action films of the time (and a lot of those being made today), it just isn’t up to the standard the studio would eventually set.

But this movie is also a first step towards fixing that. This was the most successful movie in the history of HK cinema at the time, and while a lot of the credit went (deservedly) to director Chang Cheh, writer I Kuang, and star Jimmy Wang Yu, the contribution of Liu and Tong (who directed the action) was appreciated as well. They would be allowed to expand on what they’d begun here. In future films the presence of fight choreographers who were, themselves, martial arts masters meant that real moves could be used, real-world styles like Hung Gar and Tai Chi could be showcased. The studio started to realize that if Liu and Tong were going to be setting up the action, they should hire actors who could actually perform it, rather than just going through the motions (as Wang Yu does here). Soon Ti Lung, Gordon Liu, and others like them would join the studio, great athletes who could do all that was asked of them, and the real golden age of Shaw Brothers would begin.

SHAWISMS:

In many ways it’s the archetype, and so it’s hard to pick just one thing, but I’m gonna go with the physical studio itself, with all its magnificent sets. Almost all the sets are indoor. The studio had a backlot just like American studios, and so some of the film was actually shot outdoors (the temple fair was on an outdoor set on the backlot, and the film’s last shot was on some hillside in the New Territories), but most of it was shot on interior sets, including outdoor scenes. Look at these:

How on Earth? A river with swans and everything?

So perfect. Bilbo Baggins would have loved this house.

That’s got to be real foliage. I can’t imagine anyone making all that by hand.

Still, I can’t really imagine someone gathering it all up and re-planting it in a studio, either.

I wish I could include a shot of “Peace Bridge,” where Fang Gang and

Smiling Tiger have their big throw-down, but it was too dark, and the whole thing

never got onto the screen at once. Don’t worry, though, we’ll see it again, notably

in the first shot of Golden Swallow in Come Drink With Me and the final battle

in this film’s sequel, Return of the One-Armed Swordsman.

A restful spot for travelers, though one wonders how many there might be

on such a small forest trail.

As far as the real foliage question goes, are those real trees? Amazing!

Jeez, don’t you wish you lived here?

This one feels like cheating, because it’s outdoors, but it’s still on the backlot and it’s spectacular.

Also, if you’re new to the Shaws, get used to this street. You’ll be seeing it a lot.

Now compare those to this, the film’s single actual location. Doesn’t it look, well, ordinary in comparison?

How remarkable those sets are! How carefully constructed and dressed, how beautifully arranged! They give this movie, and most of the studio’s movies, a delicious and iconic artificiality. Because of sets like these, a Shaw Brothers film has a distinctive, instantly-recognizable look. It’s a look that I personally adore. And while I could have made this point, obviously, with any of their films, in my opinion this one is the most lovely to look at.

NITPICKING: The very first blow struck in this film, when Qi Rufeng kills the messenger after being poisoned, clearly misses its target by a good foot. Not an auspicious beginning to a great action film.

!?! !?! !?!

Qi Rufeng might be a great man, but in his search for Fang Gang he doesn’t show much determination. Sure, he follows the blood trail to the edge of the bridge and concludes (rightly) that Fang Gang has fallen into the river. But it isn’t much of a river, is it? Neither broad, nor deep, nor fast-moving. It seems to me that a quick search along the banks would be the recommended course here. The assumption that Fang Gang drowned seems unwarranted.

!?! !?! !?!

If Pei-er got so turned on by Fang Gang’s naked torso, it’s lucky she never saw Deng Chong (Cheng Lui) topless. That right there is a man!

!?! !?! !?!

The Shaws rarely bothered with original scores, which I’ll talk about more fully in another entry. They just used stock music, and sometimes it really works, but there are spots in this one that make me wonder what the “composer” (who I assume really functioned as a music editor) was thinking. Particularly when the newly-maimed Fang Gang is wandering through the woods and collapses off the bridge, that jangly beach-party guitar music is just so out-of-keeping with the feel of the scene. Unfathomable.

!?! !?! !?!

It’s interesting that in the very first sequence, before we see the young Fang Gang trying to rouse the warriors, there is no blood. Fang Cheng kills several of the bandits, but none of them bleeds a drop. It isn’t ‘til later, once we’re inside the house, that the bloody wounds that this movie (and director Chang Cheh’s work in general) was famous for start to appear. This isn’t a nitpick, I just wonder why that is.

!?! !?! !?!

Also not really a nitpick, but is it significant in any way that Pei-er cuts off Fang Gang’s arm with Sun Hao’s sword instead of her own? Hers is still in its sheath on her back; she grabs his off the ground next to her. I feel like that ought to mean something, but I’m damned if I know what it is.

!?! !?! !?!

THOUGHTS:

To a great extent this is less a movie with martial arts in it than a commentary on martial arts as a way of life. Xiaoman’s argument that martial arts took her father from her, and Fang Gang’s father (and arm!) from him, is a good one, and in the film is answered only by Fang Gang’s assertion of his need to be able to defend himself, and her. Which is fine as far as it goes; everyone should be able to defend himself or herself against threats to life, health, and property, and in the society these two live in there wasn’t really a governmental infrastructure that could handle that job. But Fang Gang’s words ring a bit hollow in light of his actions. He does fail to defend them from Guo Sheng and Chin Dachuan the first time they meet. But the second time, when he beats them up at the temple fair, he isn’t defending anything. He’s nominally punishing them for beating Shun, but I don’t believe even that. I think he simply wants revenge for the way they treated him. And every fight after that, too, he goes looking for. He can try all he wants to be a farmer, but he can never be just that. It’s clear that he’s a fighter at heart. He can promise all he wants that he’s going to settle down and live an ordinary life, but he’s only fooling himself, and if Xiaoman believes him, she’ll always be disappointed. But I don’t think this is the journey the film has really set him on, anyway. He won’t be a farmer or a fighter. He’ll be both, but more important, he’ll be a genuine human being.

Let’s look at his character, as revealed in the film. He is called stubborn and arrogant at the beginning, and it’s true. The “abuse” he suffers at the hands of his fellow students is pretty minor, isn’t it? A few insults? It’s very low-level hazing, but his reaction is to be openly disrespectful to someone in a position to demand his respect. In a Confucian society, where morality is principally concerned with proper relationships between people, this is a pretty serious affront. To Westerners this might seem strange, but in context, by the standards of his own time and place, Fang Gang starts the film as a very problematic character.

I’m sort of fine with that from a Western standpoint, though. My take on this film, as my take always is when the film will allow it, revolves around class struggles. Fang Gang is working class, and he’s been taken in by a member of the upper class. That man, Qi Rufeng, certainly does treat him well, but to everyone else he’s still just a peasant. Even Pei-er, who “loves” him (if we may call it that) considers him beneath her. She’s motivated to hurt him by the fact that she feels entitled to him, that he doesn’t have the right to refuse her. And of course that’s a gender-switched version of a problem that is very much at the forefront of modern political discourse.

His arrogance is defensive. He isn’t treated like an equal by the other students, but of course he isn’t an equal. He’s far superior to them, and he knows it. In a Confucian society, as mentioned above, he should absolutely defer to the other students, but in a meritocratic one they should defer to him. Furthermore he sees his father as a great hero, and bristles when they disrespect him as “a mere servant.” To his mind, his father was better and nobler than theirs. The point is, nobody in this film is looking for equal treatment. Everyone feels entitled to reverence, everyone believes they are “better than.”

I suspect that he was attracted to Pei-er when he lived with her family. I don’t think he rejected her from distaste. I don’t think even respect for her father was his primary motivation, though that may have played some part. It’s that she obviously thought of him as a plaything, not as a human being with wants and intentions equal in importance to her own. If she had treated him with deference rather than presumption, if there had been a little more hero-worship in her approach to him and a little less opulentos praerogativa (am I remembering that phrase right? Latin was a long time ago) I have little doubt that he would have accepted her.

So here’s where I’ll depart from most folks who have reviewed this film over the years: the whole idea of the old gunslinger trying to hang up his six-shooters isn’t really the heart of this film. Fang Gang’s journey isn’t really so much about giving up the martial life; he keeps backsliding on that, and of course there’s a sequel in which he’ll backslide even more. It isn’t even clear that Xiaoman honestly wants him to; she practically beams at him after he beats Guo Sheng and Chin Dachuan at the temple fair (the least-defensible of his one-armed battles). She’s proud of him, and pretty turned-on, as well. No, his journey is from arrogance to humility, learning to accept his place in the world. He tells Qi Rufeng that Xiaoman has taught him things that are far more important than anything he learned at the school. Love, certainly, but also I think he’s learned not to want to be accepted by the upper class.

It’s telling that, as he walks away for the last time, he doesn’t even look at Pei-er. She used to stand above him, now she stands below him, but it doesn’t matter. He doesn’t want to reconcile with her, he doesn’t want to hurt her. She just isn’t there anymore. He doesn’t want her now under any circumstances, where the man he was at the beginning of the film would have accepted her (and the leadership of the school) as his right. Instead, he’s going to the woman who doesn’t stand above him, or beneath him, but beside him. And while he certainly hasn’t given up fighting (and won’t), he realizes that it isn’t the most important thing. He’s going to be a fighter, sure, and a farmer too, but more than that he’s going to be a simple man, living in each moment, putting trust in and drawing value from only the things that are his. For this arrogant young warrior, that’s quite a journey.

As far as the other two students go, I think there’s an interesting parallel to another facet of class warfare, which is the fact that Sun Hao and Xi Yi-Fei are very different personalities. This didn’t have to be the case. I mean, how much effort is put into differentiating the enemy students in, say, Animal House or Revenge of the Nerds? But these two, though they seem interchangeable the first time we see them, show themselves to be very different as the film progresses. Sun Hao may not be a great fighter, but he carries himself as one, thinks of himself as one. His problem with Fang Gang is that the junior doesn’t, again, show him proper deference.

Yi-Fei, on the other hand, clearly resents the mere existence of Fang Gang, that he’s allowed to study at the school and mingle with his betters. He’s the poison in the relationship. I suspect that Sun Hao and Fang Gang might at least have been able to peaceably coexist if not for him, but he constantly poisons Sun’s mind against Fang Gang. Yet he also clearly doesn’t consider himself Sun Hao’s equal. He wants to motivate his classmate to do things, rather than do them himself. He doesn’t attack Fang Gang, he goads Sun Hao into doing it. Even when Fang Gang is trying to leave, it’s Yi-Fei who won’t let him walk away, making it a question of disloyalty to their master. I think Yi-Fei realizes that he will never be a great warrior, but he still wants the status that comes with that, so he’s clinging to Sun Hao in hopes of riding his coattails, at least until he can insinuate himself into the company of someone better.

Sun Hao even, at one point, admits to himself that he treated Fang Gang badly, and this is the one thing Yi-Fei can’t allow him to dwell on. If the man of lowly status but superior merit and the man of little merit but high position come together, then the man in the middle, the man with less of either virtue (if we may call high social status a virtue), is left out, is pushed to the bottom. If Sun Hao represents the ruling class, the capitalist class, then Yi-Fei represents the toadies, the conscience-free intellectuals who prop up the elites, convincing them that it’s right to be contemptuous and even violent towards the lower classes, who must be kept in their place. Sun Hao is Mitt Romney, in effect, or William Howard Taft. Yi-Fei is Ayn Rand, or Thomas Malthus, or Ann Coulter.

The Long-Armed Devil seems to have a problem with feelings of “better than” himself. He lost a fight decades ago. Big deal. But he feels like he shouldn’t have, he rejects the cold hard reality staring him in the face, that Qi Rufeng is simply the superior warrior. Remember Ding’s speech when the sword-lock is first introduced: “Our master fought a duel with Qi once, which lasted nearly two days. During the fight he memorized all the strokes that Qi uses. Qi uses his blade 64 ways. Our master’s sword-lock can deliver 64 equal counter-strokes. Each one will lock your opponent’s sword and make him quite helpless. Every stroke has been measured and calculated.”

Think about that. He develops a weapon designed specifically to negate his enemy’s signature weapon, then catalogs and analyzes all of his enemy’s moves so that each one can be met by a specific counter-move. Then he trains his followers in this technique so thoroughly that they find themselves at a loss when faced with any other technique or weapon. This takes up twenty years of his life! That’s an unhealthy response, I would say. That’s downright obsessive, and what a waste of the mind and effort of a clearly exceptional man. Long-Arm could have benefited from learning the lesson that Fang Gang learns in the film, that other things matter. Martial arts really did ruin his life.

Even Qi Rufeng, who is written to be above reproach, must take care as to how he is perceived. Remember Fang Gang’s rationale for rescuing Pei-er. He doesn’t do it because he loves her. He doesn’t do it because no woman, even one as flawed as her, deserves the treatment she faces at the hands of Smiling Tiger’s disciples. He doesn’t even do it because Qi would be upset at the suffering or death of his daughter on its own terms. He does it because if she had been raped it would have been a public humiliation for her father. If you hear stories of women in, say, Afghanistan who are murdered by their families for the “crime” of being raped, and that bothers you, well, the same sort of mis-aimed morality is at play in this film. Pei-er’s suffering doesn’t matter, her father’s suffering doesn’t matter, only the way he is looked at by everyone else matters. Fang Gang can’t risk the disapprobation of this society, the idea that people, including his inferiors, might be able to hold Qi in contempt. It’s notable that Xiaoman rejects this idea, although it doesn’t help that she didn’t want Pei-er rescued at all. She already holds the higher-born woman in contempt.

And to some extent that’s just the way the world is. The upper classes look down on the rest of us, because they have leisure and sophistication that we simply haven’t the time or the means to acquire, and because they are able to some extent to direct the tides of history while we’re just trying to keep afloat. And the working class looks down on the “idle rich” because we’re capable, we can actually do things, we keep the world running, whereas they (at least seem to) simply sit around spending money they haven’t earned and accomplishing nothing. Both are pretty contemptuous of the middle class, and that feeling is mutual. Society has always been that way, and I’m as guilty as anyone as far as that goes (as my writing in this section indicates). Probably so are you, dear reader. But it doesn’t have to be that way, the film is saying.

Shaw Brothers movies usually don’t have a moral to them. Hell, many of them only barely have coherent stories. There is a moral to this story, though: you have to give up your ideas of “better than.” Belong in the place you are, and find what you love (both in terms of people and pastimes) and give yourself to those things completely. Certainly you should try to do everything you do as well as you can do it (when I was a dishwasher I definitely, consciously, tried to wash dishes as well as kung-fu experts could kick ass, to the extent of sometimes making little Bruce Lee chicken noises and posing after getting a particularly stubborn skillet clean), but do it for its own sake, and for yours. Do it because it dishonors your own effort to treat it as though it doesn’t matter. Don’t do it expecting other people to treat you with reverence, or even to notice. Don’t expect to be rewarded. Only unhappiness lies along that road, for yourself and everyone around you. If other people don’t give you the respect you think you deserve, so what? Why let those people be important? If the only things that matter to you are doing everything as well as you can, and being happy with the things and people around you, being proud of yourself and comfortable in your own life, then you’re invincible.