One-Armed Swordsman (1967) ½
cast: Jimmy Wang Yu, Pan Yingzi, Chiao Chiao, Wong Chung-shun, Tien Feng (Tin Fung), Guk Fung, Liu Chia Liang (Lau Kar-leung), Yeung Chi-hing, Chen Yan Yan, Cheng Lui, and Chiu Hung

"One-Armed Swordsman" is not just a classic in the sense that it was popular in Hong Kong and subsequently popular among kung fu fans in America; it's a classic because it has weathered the storms of time and yet only bares minimal wear and tear.

In one of his first major films, Taiwanese martial artist Jimmy Wang Yu stars as the son of a servant who sacrificed his life to defend his master against an ambush by an evil school. Touched by his courage the master (Tien Feng) vows to take the servant's adolescent son under his wing and train him under the Chi school banner.

As time passes the boy grows into a humble young adult (portrayed by Jimmy Wang Yu) and a rather skilled swordsman who ignores the advances of his master's daughter (Chiao Chiao) and is unconcerned with the challenges of his jealous classmates (you might recognize one of them as Lau Kar-leung in his first screen appearance).

Two students and the master's daughter finally decide they have had enough of the young apprentice and challenge him to a moonlight duel of skills in a near-by forest. The swordsman agrees to the challenge but later re-considers his position and leaves the school feeling guilty for abandoning his master and ultimately feeling unwanted by everyone else.

When the swordsman shows up to the challenge it is only to pay his respects. Angered by his pacified attitude the master's daughter cuts off the swordsman's right arm and sends him stumbling into the woods--rescued by a kind peasant woman (Pan).

Life is all but over for the young cripple until the peasant gives him a martial arts book that was halfway destroyed by fire. Now the young swordsman must learn the way of martial arts and swordplay from the left handed angle and save his former school and master from an evil school that is systematically whiping out the Chi with a clawed invention that makes the left side of the body vulnerable to attack.

"One-Armed Swordsman" is not one of my immediate favorites, but it deserves a lot of respect regardless, and at the very least a solid recommendation for anyone who is interested in Hong Kong cinema. Though the kung fu is weak, the film is not really a martial arts chop sockey because the focus is more on the skill of the swordplay, which is well executed and entertaining.

Still one of the most influential Hong Kong films around (giving birth to the crippled martial artist subgenre) "One-Armed Swordsman" delivered a sequel two years later ("Return of the One-Armed Swordsman"), and received a fresh edge in 1971, with "The New One-Armed Swordsman" starring Ti Lung. Its last reincarnation was in 1995, with one of Tsui Hark's best films and my favorite rendition of the genre "The Blade."