The One Armed Swordsman 1967 Chang Cheh

The awesomely named Jimmy Wang Yu stars as the awesomely named Fang Gang (not so awesomely pronounced "Fong Gong") in the high concept awesomeness that is One Armed Swordsman.  Jimmy Wang Yu plays the son of a servant who is getting his training in swordsmanship, but not really getting along with the other students at swordsman school, including the daughter of his swordsmanship master.  But he has more swordsman talent in his little finger than the rest of them combined, so he's sorta cocky.

He's not stupid, though, and he knows that the other students hate him, so he wants to leave.  And because when you're a student anywhere - grade school, high school, sword school - peer pressure is a bitch, he agrees to meet the other students, swordmaster's daughter included, in the woods at midnight.  He's just going to tell him that he wants to leave, but they pull him back in, by demanding that he fight each of them to prove he's better.  Of course, Fang Gang wipes the fake snow covered soundstage floor with them, but just when he's about to exit stage right, the teacher's daughter throws a tantrum and he goes back to soothe her ego.  Big mistake.  When he crouches down next to her, out come her feelings, and off comes his right arm.

He manages to stumble bleeding to the next soundstage where there is a footpath over a river.  There he falls into a passing boat which is being steered by Hsaio Man, the plain, hardworking farmer's daughter.  She nurses him back to health and gives him a manual on using your left hand for swords and things.  Fang trains his left arm to do all his old right arm stuff plus farm a little.  But then he finds out that Smiling Tiger and Long Armed Devil are looking to kill his old swordmaster and all of his disciples.  And just when his old swordmaster was going to appoint a successor to run his sword school!  What to do?  Stay on the farm. or use his new sword skills to warn his master about the approaching trouble?  Since it's not called The One Armed Farmhand, you can pretty much guess what happens next.

I hope I don't seem dismissive of this movie.  It's actually one of my favorite Shaw Brothers movies.  I'm a sucker for all of the handicapped kung fu movies, actually.  Well, except for Crippled Masters.  That one's just wrong.  Jimmy Wang Yu went on to star in the sequel to this movie, the imaginatively titled Return of the One Armed Swordsman, and then went on to start his One Armed Boxer series.  Those movies led to the greatest kung fu movie of all time, Master of the Flying Guillotine, which had one armed boxing and the greatest weapon in the history of cinema - the flying guillotine.  It's an embarrassment of riches, that one.  Check out One Armed Swordsman.  The story's great, even if the swordfighting might leave a little to be desired.