They say a picture says a thousand words. What’s this one saying?

After starring in a host of movies including two successful One-Armed Swordsman films and his hit directorial debut, The Chinese Boxer, Jimmy Wang Yu bolted Shaw Brothers for greener pastures. Unfortunately, due to the fact that he broke his contract, Wang Yu was effectively banned from making films in Hong Kong. In Taiwan, he set up shop with rival Golden Harvest, and debuted a new, albeit familiar character, The One Armed Boxer (1971), who proved to be just as popular as his sword-wielding predecessor.

That very same year, the Shaw Brothers decided to relaunch the One-Armed Swordsman franchise and recast the lead role with a new actor, David Chiang. The resultant film shares no continuity with the original, aside from the fact that the new protagonist is also missing a very important appendage while still being amazingly adept with the sword.

This ostensible reboot of the Shaw Brothers’ popular One-Armed Swordsman franchise isn’t quite up to snuff with the preceding films, but nifty action scenes and a pair of charismatic performances from Chiang and his co-star Ti Lung enliven the proceedings considerably, as does the film’s all-too-amusing homoerotic overtones. You can read my old review here.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 21st, 2011 at 3:22 am and is filed under David Chiang, One Armed Swordsman Series, Ti Lung. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.