The New One-Armed Swordsman [新獨臂刀] (1971)
AKA Triple Irons
Starring David Chiang, Ti Lung, Li Ching, Ku Feng, Chan Sing, Wong Chung, Lau Gong, Wong Pau-Gei, Wang Kuang-Yu, Wong Ching Ho, Shum Lo, Cheng Lui
Directed by Chang Cheh
Expectations: Super high. I imagine David Chiang can pull off a rather awesome One-Armed Swordsman movie, but we’ll see!
Going into The New One-Armed Swordsman, I was excited. I’m a big fan of the previous One-Armed Swordsman movies, so I expected this is be a retelling of the original with David Chiang in the lead instead of Wang Yu. But this thread of logic forgets one key bit about Chang Cheh: his desire to continue moving forward, specifically not redoing his old pictures time and time again. And The New One-Armed Swordsman is true to its name; it is a completely new character and origin story. While The One-Armed Swordsman is one of the most influential and iconic Hong Kong films of all time, and its sequel Return of the the One-Armed Swordsman is one of the funnest Shaw Brothers films of the 1960s, The New One-Armed Swordsman is easily my favorite of the three. It combines the serious tone of the original and the focus on exciting action that typified the sequel, making The New One-Armed Swordsman nothing but awesome.
The film opens with a rousing bit of music and Lei Li (David Chiang) riding through the hills slaughtering any who comes across his path. He is a young, cocky martial artist, famous for his use of the twin swords. Some devious men frame him for a robbery and this leads him into a fight with Lung Er Zi (Ku Feng). Lung is the man responsible for framing Lei, but he’s running a good front so everyone thinks he’s a paragon of virtue. Anyway, Lung challenges Lei to a duel and whoever loses must cut off their right arm and retire from the martial world. One guess who loses.