Best Kungfu Movie in China: Return of the One-Armed Swordsman (1969)
By admin on 2014-12-26

Return of the One-Armed Swordsman is the sequel to the highly successful Shaw Brothers Chinese sword fighting action movie, The One-Armed Swordsman.

Plot

The eponymous character, still played by Jimmy Wang Yu, has hung up his signature broken sword and is living peacefully with his wife. However, a band of tyrannical sword masters take over the country, using their own signature styles and unique weapons to conquer all the sword fighting schools. They capture all the masters and teachers of the schools and deliver an ultimatum: all the students must cut off their sword arms and surrender the severed limbs to the evil warlords, or the students' beloved teachers will all die. The students turn to the legendary One-Armed Swordsman, who is at first reluctant but is convinced when a student actually does sacrificially chop his own arm off when he refuses to help. The One-Armed Swordsman must contend with the unique styles and weapons of the warlords, which is what makes the movie. Winged Blade (or Flying Dragon in another translation dub) and his henchmen are able to jump or glide, a power that One-Arm foils by scattering calthrops where they land. Whirling Blade and his henchmen wield and throw two bladed bucklers, which return to them like Captain America's shield. Thunder Blade's sword both emits a smoke screen and is actually a shotgun. Thousand Blade (or One Thousand Fingers) has long false fingernail blades that she can throw. And Unseen Blade (the Unseen) first appears to have an invisible sword, then suddenly has a sword that can unexpectedly grow longer. In the end the One-Armed Swordsman defeats the warlords and their armies, but by that time all of the sword fighting students who were helping him are dead. He leaves the last evil swords master, Unseen, to be chopped into chutney by the vengeful freed masters and teachers of the schools, and goes back to his wife.