THE ONE-ARMED SWORDSMAN (Hong Kong, 1967)
Director: Chang Cheh
Starring: Jimmy Wang Yu, Pan Yin-Tze, Chiao Chiao, Wong Chung-Shun, Tin Fung, Guk Fung

The movie that changed everything, The One-Armed Swordsman burst onto the scene in 1967 as riots swept the streets of Hong Kong and bombings pushed the city over the brink into chaos. Putting all that anger and fury on screen, the film tells the tale of a blue-collar swordsman who loses his arm to his master’s pampered teenage daughter when she has snit fit over not getting enough attention. He teaches himself a new one-armed technique using his own father’s broken sword and winds up slaughtering his way into immortality. Chang Cheh’s breakthrough film, with action by the legendary Lau Kar-leung (Drunken Master II) and Tong Kai, and starring Jimmy Wong Yu, a man who can convey an entire encyclopedia’s worth of badassery with one glower, The One-Armed Swordsman still has the power to kick over the establishment and drop a blade right through its skull.