Shockingly little one armed swordsman action in this, as we get one fight at the beginning pre dismemberment, and one fight at the end with the one arm . Other than that, zero one armed swordsmanship.
It’s kind of astonishing how little happens in this movie, and it easily could have been made into about 45 minutes. Within the first ten minutes or so, we get the inciting incident and lei loses his arm. Then absolutely nothing happens for an hour. We see lei be sad and depressed, but he can make eggs, and he meets another guy who he inexplicably makes a strong connection with (we never really see why. It’s bizarre. Lei just suddenly loves him). There is a flashback that shows how Leis sword got here (completely pointless. The sword is not special, nor does it have any connection to Lei. It also abandons the iconic look of the first two movies.)
AND YET. This is perhaps one of the earliest examples of the high end action choreography we come to expect from a Shaw bros picture. Don’t get me wrong, the action could be interesting before this, but it was largely due to direction or gimmicks (see the previous two one armed movies.) the leap is astounding, as the final set piece is grand. The way the key to Lei’s victory in the end is so stupid it circles around to being brilliant and cheer worthy. For the importance in the growth of the art form , this movie is more than worth a watch despite an abysmal middle section.
Shockingly little one armed swordsman action in this, as we get one fight at the beginning pre dismemberment, and one fight at the end with the one arm . Other than that, zero one armed swordsmanship.
It’s kind of astonishing how little happens in this movie, and it easily could have been made into about 45 minutes. Within the first ten minutes or so, we get the inciting incident and lei loses his arm. Then absolutely nothing happens for an hour. We see lei be sad and depressed, but he can make eggs, and he meets another guy who he inexplicably makes a strong connection with (we never really see why. It’s bizarre. Lei just suddenly loves him). There is a flashback that shows how Leis sword got here (completely pointless. The sword is not special, nor does it have any connection to Lei. It also abandons the iconic look of the first two movies.)
AND YET. This is perhaps one of the earliest examples of the high end action choreography we come to expect from a Shaw bros picture. Don’t get me wrong, the action could be interesting before this, but it was largely due to direction or gimmicks (see the previous two one armed movies.) the leap is astounding, as the final set piece is grand. The way the key to Lei’s victory in the end is so stupid it circles around to being brilliant and cheer worthy. For the importance in the growth of the art form , this movie is more than worth a watch despite an abysmal middle section.
