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Wonderful character development!

the audience applauded

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Fang Gang and XiaoMan are living peacefully as farmers. Brothers Black and White Swordsman deliver him an invitation to a gathering by the Eight Warlords. Each warlord with their own minions fight using specific weapons and techniques. The Black and White brothers kill anybody unwilling to attend. Fang Gang refuses and rebukes the brother. The various masters who submit are slaughtered with some imprisoned. The Eight Warlords order the students of these sword clans to cut off their right arm before retrieving the bodies of their masters. In desperation, some of the students come to Fang Gang for help.This sequel has far more swordplay and action than the original. There are more stunts, bigger stunts and even rudimentary wire work. The various fighting styles are fun. The story does have a few minor problems. The story isn't quite as compelling. It's relatively straight forward. It's still plenty of fun to battle each one of the Warlords. Fang Gang says that he suspected Hua Niangzi (the Thousand Hands King) all along but he allow her to walk around killing so many men. He could have just searched her for her swords. Even worst, he allowed her to kill his badly injured man telling him to finish her off. The guy needed immediate medical attention. There are also a lot of coincidences and too convenient moments. I'm willing overlook all of those flaws for some some pretty awesome fun fights.

When farmer Fang (Wang Yu, wearing more eyeliner than a hooker) gets an invitation to a "dance" to determine a "King of Swords," he politely declines- but, this being a martial arts movie, backing out isn't an option. Other locals succumb to the merciless "8 Kings" in their quest for universal recognition: even a baby-faced Ti Lung succumbs (to "The Lady of a Thousand Hands"). Fang decides to cast his lot with the locals, but Shen (Chen Hsing) has already taken it upon himself to kidnap Fang's wife in hopes of persuading him to help. Before Fang can find Shen, the 8 Chiefs do- but Fang arrives just in time to kill anybody and everybody he decides is a threat to his wife. Fang, throughout the movie, uses the broken sword he took from his dying father in the first film, laying waste to everything around him. (But, like BLOOD BROTHERS, RETURN OF THE ONE-ARMED SWORDSMAN is at heart a romance... wrapped in martial arts, of course.) At one point, Fang literally takes to the air, spinning spreadeagled like a propeller through a stand of bamboo stalks. Near the end of the movie, Fang's wife, Xiaoman, informs him that there's a little one-armed swordsman on the way (and I don't mean David Chiang).

I had seen the first film in this series, as well as the David Chiang movie "The New One-Armed Swordsman", and I wasn't particularly thrilled by either one, to be honest. I left this on the shelf, and that was a big mistake.After finally viewing it, I was stunned. It's far better than the other two films, in every possible way.Return Of The One-Armed Swordsman is everything a Chang Cheh Kung-fu movie should be, colorful, exciting, and full of fighting, fighting, fighting.They use all kinds of weapons in this one, from bamboo sticks to daggers, from swords to bladed disks....and there's even one bad guy who has a magic sword that shoots bullets (or something like them) out of the end of the blade. So cool! If all that weren't enough, this film has an evil femme fatale, who loves men's guts...or stabbing them, anyway.Unfortunately, my copy of the DVD is in Chinese, with Cantonese subtitles that won't change to English, so I guess that it's defective, however I'm keeping it anyway. Even if I don't know who is who and what is what, the action sequences are worth it.If you love Kung-fu movies, you'll love this one.

After my somewhat lackluster experience with the first One Armed Swordsman movie, I was very happy to find that the sequel far out shined the original movie.The movie begins with our hero Fang Gang awkwardly practicing his left handed farming technique, when a pair of visitors ask him to attend a sword fighting competition. He demurs, only to be visited later by an old man who fills him in on the whole situation. Apparently an octet of evil villains have set up shop and are attempting to crown themselves kings of swordsmen in the local area. Faithfully keeping his promise to his wife to stay out of the martial arts world Fang Gang says he will not go. The old man sets out to the competition but not before instructing his sons that should this be a trap, and they will need to seek revenge, to unite with other schools in their plot, and most importantly to seek out Fang Gang's help. The competition, as predicted, is really a trap, and as the invited martial artists attempt to leave the contest, they are hunted down by the evil octet, each employing unique martial arts styles and weapons.The remaining students are then sent letters by the villains instructing them to cut off their right arm so that their fathers and teachers may be released. The students instead seek Fang Gang for advice, and after some soul searching, our hero takes on the mantle that will later be carried by the likes of Louis Gosset Jr. in the Iron Eagle series, and helps the youngsters in their quest.From this point on the movie becomes virtually a non stop cavalcade of action full of fights, ambushes, betrayals, and much butt kicking.This is a really fun movie to watch, full of interesting characters and original fighting styles and weapons. A very good Shaw Brothers production that is highly recommended for fans of the genre.