The One-Armed Swordsman Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.0

The 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

Was there maybe just slightly hilariously some kind of cultural zeitgeist at work in early to mid 1967 that "gave birth" to disabled crime fighters? In March of 1967 one of those made for television backdoor pilots glorified in PR hype as a "world premiere" introduced Ironside to audiences, and just a couple of months later, this well remembered and long celebrated film opened, introducing audiences to its titular hero, Fang Gang (Jimmy Wang Yu). If the venerable Raymond Burr character was consigned to a wheelchair courtesy of a bad guy with good aim, rather interestingly Fang Gang is disfigured by a woman, Qi Pei (Violet Pan Ying-Zi), who perhaps even more unexpectedly is the daughter of a master who had saved Fang Gang earlier in the story. In a more traditional set up, some may have just assumed that Qi Pei would be the romantic interest here, but instead that role goes to Xiao-man (Lisa Chiao Chiao), who herself saves Fang Gang from one of several smackdowns the character endures. And in fact one of the kind of unusual things about this story is just how badly beaten up and/or maimed Fang Gang repeatedly is, an aspect which helped to spark the whole so-called "heroic bloodshed" subgenre that soon took over Chinese films.

While this film and its two sequels are obviously based on a certain kind of "gimmick", in this case at least that really doesn't distract or detract from a viscerally involving story that is, yes, unabashedly hyperbolic a lot of the time, but still manages to deliver on both the action and emotional fronts. The both literally and figuratively "wounded" character at the center of this story is memorably brought to life by Wang Yu, who ended up making disabled characters something of a calling card, as one of the supplements on this disc gets into.

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

The 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 third volume of Shawscope gets off to a generally very satisfying start with a transfer that is especially resplendent in its rendering of a rather beautifully varied palette. Typically ornate sets and costumes are not just very colorful almost all of the time, but are also presented with some excellent fine detail, though kind of interestingly a lot of this film has been shot with pretty short focal lengths, so that backgrounds can almost be impressionistic quite a bit of the time. There are occasional rough patches (as will be the case in several of the transfers in this set) where the image can momentarily degrade and grain structure become grittier. Kind of interestingly, I'm almost wondering if for some reason they decided not to cut in relatively late to the credits sequence that shows up at around the five minute mark, so that the entire opening pre-credits vignette is part of that optical, since things are considerably browner and more mottled, but then improve markedly after the credits end. Some recurrent damage, including white flecks, can be spotted (see screenshot 9). While grain is certainly in evidence, there may have been some "management" in the workflow, not necessarily in terms of filtering, but observable in some passingly weird looking moments where grain can freeze against brighter backgrounds, as (perhaps hilariously) in an early winter scene in a courtyard. This also has a few passing examples of an anamorphic oddity I've noted in several reviews of Chinese productions in particular, where the entire rectangular frame looks like it's been skewed slightly to more of a parallelogram shape (see screenshot 5).

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

The One-Armed Swordsman offers either Mandarin or English language tracks presented in LPCM Mono. There are some recurrent qualities shared by virtually all of the tracks in this set, including at times hilariously "loose sync" no matter what language is chosen, and an overall boxiness that can be especially noticeable during some of the action effects or even scoring. The Mandarin track on this disc has at least somewhat of a more full bodied and clear sound than the English language track, but both deliver dialogue clearly and provide decent support for effects and music. Optional English subtitles are available.

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

• Commentary by David West


• Tony Rayns on One-Armed Swordsman (HD; 38:09) is another great overview. This comes with spoiler warning about the two ostensible sequels.


• One-Armed Superstar (HD; 41:15) is a 2001 interview with "Jimmy" Wang Yu by Frederic Ambroisine. This has a disclaimer about intermittent audio dropouts. In English, though subtitles may have helped.


• Chiao Chiao: A Shaw Career (HD; 16:32) is a 2005 interview by Frederic Ambroisine. Subtitled in English.


• Ku Feng on Chang Cheh (HD; 18:47) is a 2003 interview by Frederic Ambroisine. Subtitled in English.


• Sam Ho on Chang Cheh (HD; 22:21) is a 2003 interview by Frederic Ambroisine.


• Daniel Lee on One Armed Swordsman (HD; 10:46) is a 2004 interview by Frederic Ambroisine.


• One Armed Side Hustles (HD; 10:06) is a newly produced video essay by Brandon Bentley focusing on Wang Yu.


• Trailer Gallery

  HK Theatrical Trailer (Mandarin) (HD; 4:02)

  
  

  HK Theatrical Trailer (English) (HD; 4:02)

  
  

  Chang Cheh Trailer Reel (HD; 23:00)

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

There are a number of nice twists in The One-Armed Swordsman, and the film retains a certain vigor and nobility to this day despite some probably overamped elements. Technical merits are generally solid and the supplements very enjoyable. Recommended.