Plot
The eponymous character, played by Jimmy Wang, has hung up his signature broken sword and is living peacefully with his wife. Meanwhile, a band of tyrannical sword masters called the Eight Sword Kings are challenging the masters of all rival schools in an effort to take over the martial arts community. Any that refuse are murdered by the Eight Kings' twin enforcers, the Black and White Knights. After capturing all the rival masters, the Eight Kings deliver an ultimatum; all the rival schools' students must cut off their sword arms and surrender the severed limbs to the Eight Kings, or the students' beloved teachers will all die. The students turn to the legendary One-Armed Swordsman, who is at first reluctant, especially when one student kidnaps his wife to force him to help, but is convinced when a student actually does sacrificially chop his own arm off in despair. The One-Armed Swordsman must then contend with the unique styles and weapons of the Eight Kings:
- Winged Blade (or Flying Dragon in another translation dub) uses his speed and leaping prowess to attack from the air. One-Arm bests him and his students with a variety of ground-based traps.
- Hooking Blade wields a chained sickle. One-Arm defeats him by hanging him by his own weapon from a tree, allowing One-Arm to eviscerate him.
- Buried Blade hides in pits before leaping out to ambush his opponents. One-Arm bests him by chopping down bamboo to pin down his students and then standing atop the trunks, keeping him out of reach of Buried Blade's attacks to stab him with a bamboo spear.
- Whirling Blade wields a pair of bladed bucklers which can also be thrown as projectiles. One-Arm catches the blades on his sword and flings them back at their owner.
- Mighty Blade uses his immense strength and giant two handed sword to overpower his opponents. After luring him outside the Kings' fort, the students drop a net over him to restrain him as they mutilate him.
- Thunder Blade wields smokebombs and a sword whose blade conceals a smoke sprayer and a shotgun. After using water to douse the smoke, One-Arm uses a cloth shield to block the pellets before cutting him down.
- Thousand Blade (or One Thousand Fingers) the only female King uses her sexuality to lull her targets into lowering their guard before killing them with the many knives concealed in the sleeves of her robe. After failing to seduce One-Arm, she is fatally stabbed by one of the students she seduced and wounded.
- Unseen Blade (the Unseen) the leader of the Eight Kings uses deception and distraction to confuse his opponents along with a collapsible sword whose blade can extend during battle and also has a hidden hook. One-Arm uses his skill in close range combat and left handed sword fighting to get inside Unseen's range and slice off his sword arm.
In the end the One-Armed Swordsman defeats the Eight Kings and their armies, but by that time all of the sword fighting students who were helping him are dead. He leaves the last King, Unseen, to be killed by their vengeful masters as he and his wife return home.
The One-Armed Swordsman is a 1967 Hong Kong wuxia film produced by the Shaw Brothers Studio. Directed by Chang Cheh, it was the first of the new style of wuxia films emphasizing male anti-heroes, violent swordplay and heavy bloodletting. It was the first Hong Kong film to make HK$1 million at the local box office, propelling its star Jimmy Wang to super stardom.
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Filmography for the Indo-Chinese Hong Kong film actor and martial artist Lo Lieh:
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