Golden Harvest is just as influential and important to martial arts action cinema as Shaw Brothers Studios. They were formed in 1970 by Leonard Ho and Raymond Chow, both executives for Shaw Brothers, before branching out independently. While the formula adopted by Shaw worked for them, Golden Harvest took a slightly different approach by giving their talent more freedom, money, and the opportunity to work with other independent producers.
As their profile quickly rose, several Shaw Brothers stars would jump ship and work with Golden Harvest, including Jimmy Wang Yu, who would write, direct, and star in the classic One-Armed Boxer, currently released on Blu-ray in a fantastic package from Arrow Video.
Yu Tian Long (Jimmy Wang Yu) is a highly-skilled martial artist, maybe even the best in his school. Long has an unfortunate run-in with a local crime lord that sets his world aflame. The crime lord sends the rest of his syndicate to the school, laying waste to everyone there and leaving Long with only one arm. After being given a powerful potion, he gains the power to get his revenge and battle assassins from all over the world.
The first thing that jumped out at me while watching One-Armed Boxer was the use of Isaac Hayes’ score for the seminal action film Shaft (1971) throughout various moments in the film, including the opening sequence. It’s a brilliant score, and I wasn’t expecting it, but it certainly adds to the film’s tone.
One-Armed Boxer wastes no time jumping into the action. There’s a full-on brawl within the first several minutes that only takes a quick breather before jumping into another action scene. The majority of the film is one after the other. It only slows down for a few minutes when Wang Yu’s character loses his arm and has to learn to fight with only one. Those scenes really show off Yu’s skill and prowess, proving just how energetic and enigmatic he is as a performer. Yu would reprise the role in 1976 in Master of the Flying Guillotine.
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Arrow Video delivers One-Armed Boxer on another fully loaded Special Collector’s Edition. It features a 2K restoration from the original elements provided by Fortune Star, the Original lossless Mandarin mono audio, alternate Mandarin soundtrack, and original English dubbed audio, English subtitles, commentary by Frank Djeng from the New York Asian Film Festival, a never before released career-spanning interview with Jimmy Wang Yu from 2001, trailer gallery, and more.
This is another beautiful Arrow release for a brutally satisfying action classic.
