One-Armed Boxer

Yu Tien-lung is a student at a martial arts school. A rival gang raids it, kills everyone and cuts off his right arm. Yu escapes, survives, and learns to fight with one arm. Then he goes back. Against him are fighters brought in from various countries: a Thai boxer, two Japanese karateka, an Indian yogi, two Tibetan lamas. Jimmy Wang Yu wrote, directed and starred. Wang Yu had become a star before this in the Shaw Brothers One-Armed Swordsman films. After leaving the studio he rebuilt the same idea in a film of his own: a man who loses an arm and learns again. The two series are often confused and have no connection at all. The strangest thing is the design of the villains. Each represents a different national fighting tradition and most are at the level of caricature, which was a common template in Hong Kong cinema of the period. Its real legacy came with the sequel. Master of the Flying Guillotine, in 1976, follows this film and became one of the most cited cult works in the genre. Who it is for: viewers who like seventies Hong Kong action and genre landmarks. Who it is not for: it is technically crude, the cutting jumps, there is no character writing, and the national types sit very badly now.