The Blade

Tsui Hark's reworking of the famous 1960s One-Armed Swordsman from an entirely different position. Ding works in a sword forge. On learning how his father died he sets out for revenge, is ambushed on the way, and loses an arm. All he has left is his father's broken sword and a fighting manual torn in half. He learns to fight again from those. The difference is in the telling. The long, balanced, watchable choreography of classic wuxia is absent. The camera moves constantly, the cutting is very fast, dust and blood block the image and the fights are chaotic. Tsui Hark did this deliberately: the fighting is not beautiful, it is filthy and painful. The settings match; the film never takes place in a clean palace, the ground is a muddy border town. Vincent Zhao plays Ding. It drew no attention on release and failed at the box office; over the years it has been reassessed as one of the most radical experiments within the genre. An important film for anyone who likes Hong Kong martial arts cinema and work that pushes the genre's limits. For a viewer expecting clear, followable fight scenes, the image is deliberately confused and the violence is painful without ornament.