The New One-Armed Swordsman Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.0

The New One-Armed Swordsman Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 22, 2024

Note: This film is available on Blu-ray as part of Arrow's Shawscope Volume Three set.

It's maybe not even that much of a joke to state that lately it has felt like there's a new Blu-ray release of a venerable Shaw Brothers film coming out every week, and in fact there have been some weeks where my own review queue has had more than one Blu-ray release of a Shaw Brothers film in any given seven day period. That said, and even granting a two title per week release schedule, it would take literally years, and arguably maybe even a decade or more, for labels to get around to releasing the entire Shaw Brothers output. In that regard, then, this massive newest volume in Arrow's evidently ongoing Shawscope series may be thought of as something of a "shortcut", at least in terms of offering a veritable gaggle of films, even if wending your way through this gargantuan enterprise will hardly seem short in any way, shape or form, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Once again, as with the first two volumes in this series, Arrow has aggregated both better known and lesser known films, delivered with typically solid technical merits and some very appealing supplements. This set has been packaged to be a shelf mate with its two "siblings" (for more information on the packaging, see the supplements section in the main Shawscope Volume Three Blu-ray review).

For "rabid completists" interested in what's already been released by Arrow in the Shawscope department, the following review links may be of some assistance:

Shawscope Volume One Blu-ray review

Shawscope Volume Two Blu-ray review

Perhaps somewhat in the same way that, say, a "Django film" or a "Sartana film" might not necessarily even feature a character with that name (depending on how various productions were marketed globally), the "new" in the title of this particular film probably indicates that this one-armed swordsman is not in fact Fang Gang (Jimmy Wang Yu) from the first two films, but instead is named Lei Li (David Chiang). This third installment may advertise itself as "new", but some may feel that it is not "improved", despite the fact that Arrow's exhaustive insert book argues that "the law of diminishing returns" supposedly does not apply to this outing.

There are some interesting differences in plotting here, including kind of surprisingly how Lei Li becomes separated from his arm. This film may rely a bit more on a traditional "damsel in distress" situation (actually situations, since there's a recurrent aspect to it all) involving Ba Jiao (Li Ching). There's some decent emotional content wrung out of Lei Li's brotherly relationship with another fighter, Feng Junjie (Ti Lung), but this entire enterprise can't help but feeling a little predictable.

The New One-Armed Swordsman Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The New One-Armed Swordsman is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. Arrow's almost overwhelming insert booklet lumps all the films together on its informational page about the transfers, as follows:

All fourteen films in this boxset are presented in their original aspect ratio of 2.35:1, with their original Mandarin plus Cantonese and/or English (where applicable) monaural soundtracks. Every effort has been made to present these films in their original and complete versions using the best materials available.

One-Armed Swordsman was restored in 4K resolution by Celestial Pictures and L'Immagine Ritrovata in 2020. Additional grading was completed at R3store Studios, London in 2024.

Return of the One-Armed Swordsman, The New One-Armed Swordsman, The Lady Hermit, Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan, The 14 Amazons, The Magic Blade, Clans of Intrigue, Jade Tiger, The Sentimental Swordsman, The Avenging Eagle, Killer Constable, Buddha's Palm and Bastard Swordsman have all been newly restored by Arrow Films in 2024, in collaboration with L'Immagine Ritrovata, Hong Kong Film Archive and Celestial Pictures. The original 35mm negatives for these films were scanned at L'Immagine Ritrovata Asia and restored in 2K resolution at L'Immagine Ritrovata, Bologna. Return of the One-Armed Swordsman, The New One-Armed Swordsman, Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan, The 14 Amazons, The Avenging Eagle, Killer Constable and Buddha's Palm were graded at R3store Studios, Lady Hermit, The Magic Blade, Clans of Intrigue, Jade Tiger, The Sentimental Swordsman and Bastard Swordsman were graded at Dragon DI, Wales. These restorations have used the entire film negative without resorting to the practice of "framecutting" resulting in the loss of film frames at each negative splice point.

The mono mixes were remastered from the original sound negatives at L'Immagine Ritrovata. Additional sound remastering was completed by Matthew Jarman/Bad Princess Productions. The audio synch will often seem loose against the picture, due to the fact that the dialogue and sound effects were recorded entirely during post-production, as per the production standards of the period.

All original materials supplied for these restorations were made available from the Hong Kong Film Archive via Celestial Pictures. The additional sequences in the uncensored version of Clans of Intrigue were sourced from a 35mm print held by Celestial Pictures. For the presentation of the alternate South Korean cut of Killer Constable, efforts were made to access original film materials for this version held at the Korean Film Archive, but this was not possible. A Korean VHS copy was used as a guide to reconstruct this cut in high definition, using the new 2K restoration of the original Hong Kong version for the bulk of the film and standard-definition inserts for the audio and unique footage. The original trailers were restored by Arrow Films from the original 35mm materials held at the Hong Kong Film Archive.

This is another often quite impressive looking transfer, though I'd personally rate the color timing as a bit less pleasing than its two predecessors. There's more of an overall pink-brown look to flesh tones throughout, but that said, some of the studio material (and even a lot of the supposed "outdoor" scenes are obviously set bound) pops very well, with (artificially) bright blue skies and some really nicely robust tones on the colors of the costumes. There's a prevalence of close-ups throughout the presentation that also help to elevate fine detail levels. Densities are occasionally a little variable. Grain is in evidence, and spikes expectedly in some opticals like a couple of quasi-montages, but it can be fairly minimal looking in some of the actual outdoor material, at least at times (it tends to be more observable against actual honest to goodness outside bright blue skies).

The New One-Armed Swordsman Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

While this film offers the same LPCM Mono options in either Mandarin or English, in this particular case there are some manifest differences between the two tracks, including different scores. Both tracks have a pretty thin high end, something that probably offers a more discernable level of hiss and quasi-sibilance in such moments like a torrential downpour somewhat late in the story. That said, dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

The New One-Armed Swordsman Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary by Brian Bankston


• Theatrical Trailer

  HK Theatrical Trailer (Mandarin) (HD; 3:21)

  
  

  HK Theatrical Trailer (English) (HD; 3:21)

  
  

  German Theatrical Trailer (HD; 3:02)

  
  

  US Theatrical Trailer (HD; 2:02)

  
  

  US TV Spots (HD; 1:27)

The New One-Armed Swordsman Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The violence and bloodshed is upped yet again from even Return of the One-Armed Swordsman, which had itself offered more in both categories than The One-Armed Swordsman, and that may be enough to keep adrenaline junkies engaged. That said, there's probably a reason there wasn't a fourth one-armed swordsman from Chang Cheh. Technical merits are generally solid (video probably more than audio), and Brian Bankston's commentary track is an informative listen, for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.