In Love With… One-Armed Swordsman

The first thing that I should say is that, though I loved the first two Shawscope box-sets, the third didn’t initially excite me. I knew the presentation would be exquisite, but the range of films felt a bit incongruous; yes, absolutely yes, to ‘One-Armed Swordsman’ and its ilk, but meh to ‘Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan’. Yet as the evenings passed and I looked at the Shawscope Volume 3 size hole on my shelf, I thought it was time to make the purchase.

I’ve already waxed lyrically about the presentation of these box-sets and the incredible work Arrow has done, but it’s worth repeating: these are works of art showcasing works of art. This beautiful jade-dappled box looks simply divine next to the other two and the work that goes into these is breath-taking. I must confess that I had long since lost interest in physical media, but companies like Arrow, 88 Films, Eureka and a few other boutique brands have re-ignited my interest. The Shawscope sets have been wonderful and I hope they continue to get the support from fans that they deserve; there is really no substitute for physical media and when it is done with such love for the source material as shown with these Shawscope box-sets, the results should be shouted from the rooftops.

It had been thirty years since I had last seen ‘One-Armed Swordsman’ in its entirety. A very good quality VHS bootleg was my access to it and I enjoyed it immensely, though subsequent Shaw Brothers films took its limelight. This box-set was my opportunity to reacquaint myself with Chang Cheh’s influential classic and see if the years had been kind to it or it was best left to hazy memories of excited purchases from mysterious mail order sellers. The first thing to note, and this is a return to my obsequious awe of what Arrow and their collaborators have done, is the picture quality. Taken from a 4k scan, this Blu-ray is a feast for the eyes and as good an advert for late 60s Shaw Brothers technicolour as one can imagine. Watched on my OLED, the mix of deep, obsidian blacks and bright, popping colours was incredible.

The picture quality is, oddly enough, the first thing that reminded me what a great film ‘One-Armed Swordsman’ is. When the picture is so splendid, you get a full appreciation of the brilliance of every frame that Cheh puts together. The costume design, contrasting surroundings and blistering studio lighting makes this look quite remarkable. It made me further opine about how a film from 1967 could look so good and how all the money in the world today ensures movies look artificial on a nefarious level. Colours in films today are oversaturated, vulgar. The mise-en-scene (my wife does love hearing me say this and mangle her native tongue!) is meaningless now as everything is choppily edited, no shot remaining for more than a second lest audiences see what a fraud modern cinema mostly is. ‘One-Armed Swordsman’ is made by a director and cinematographer with an eye for beauty and the wonder of what the moving image can be. This, alone, makes this a film of the highest order.

‘One-Armed Swordsman’ isn’t just artifice and edifice though – this is a swordplay film that has copious meat on its shining skeleton. Wildly influential and one of the defining films of the era, ‘One-Armed Swordsman’ is a director and star in total alignment, something that rarely happened thereafter. Not that the great Chang Cheh didn’t create masterpieces after this, but Wang Yu never quite showed the nuance he does here. There are great heroic efforts from the star, namely this film’s sequel, ‘Beach of the War Gods’ and plenty of others, but ‘One-Armed Swordsman’ showed a vulnerability to Wang Yu that the actor rarely allowed to show thereafter. He became a Hong Kong legend to be sure, but the bombastic work he produced rarely gave him this kind of complexity again.

The film is full of well-written characters and Chang Cheh plays with scenarios before giving the viewer the big pay-off. The two hour runtime allows for the story to take its time; compare this to something like ‘One-Arm Boxer’ where the hero’s training is a series of still images and the jaunty soundtrack. It takes time for the main protagonist to succeed and his revenge is only part of the plot; there is a whole, effective storyline about the machinations and sub-plots in the martial world, though Cheh gets the balance just right. The romantic scenes between Fang and Xiao are more than an afterthought here too, something which couldn’t always be said of the genre. And there’s real pleasure in seeing Fang dismiss the affections of the pretty, but spoiled Pei Er (who, let’s not forget, chopped the poor blighter’s arm off!).

With such a devotion to visual oomph and patient storytelling, the viewer really feels immersed in the world that Cheh creates. It’s full of familiar Shaw Brothers performers with people like Tien Feng impressing in particular. The action is still sprightly and exciting; you can see how revolutionary this must have been in 1967 after years of the more operatic swordplay that preceded it. With splashes of blood on snow and grounded action, modern viewers can still get an understanding of what a milestone this would have been for Hong Kong cinema.

It’s easy to fall out of love with cinema when one is exposed to much modern fare – that is NOT to say that good films are not being produced, but I seem to find myself in the company of some truly wretched efforts recently. Watching ‘One-Armed Swordsman’ again felt revitalising, inspiring, refreshing, all of the things that I remember feeling when I first started watching Hong Kong cinema decades ago. And seeing it all on a big screen on my wall, in eye-bleeding picture quality, made me appreciate how wonderful the medium can be. It also reminded me that the boutique labels like Arrow need our support as preserving great films in the finest quality available gives them new life. ‘Shawscope volume 3’, I have wronged you. Your display box of delicate green deserves a place on the shelf of every film-lover.

Shawscope Volume Three is available now from Amazon.com and ArrowFilms.com.