Chang Cheh had already directed an iconic "One-Armed Swordsman" (Jimmy Wang Yu) a few years earlier but for reasons unknown to me decided to 'reboot' with "The New One-Armed Swordsman", featuring David Chiang as the protagonist. Unlike stern and stoned-faced Wang Yu, Chiang plays the ever-jolly, jovial Lei Li, a very skilled traveling swordsman who is forced to cut his own right arm off after loosing a fight with villainous mastermind Lung I-Chih (Feng Ku), leader of the "Tiger Gang". Li retires from being a fighter and resigns himself to becoming an aid at a local restaurant, constantly subjected to the mockery of the patrons. When fellow traveling swordsman Feng Chun-Chieh (Lung Ti) rides into town, he and Li bond almost immediately but Feng likewise looses a battle with I-Chih and is killed in the process. Li swear vengeance and goes up against I-Chih, his supposedly unbeatable weapon, an interlinked, triple-iron staff (a weapon that "can only be bested by three swords") and his army of goons.
"The New One-Armed Swordsman" was one of the first Hong Kong films to become a hit in (West)-Germany (under the title "Das Schwert des gelben Tigers" or "The Sword of the yellow Tiger"), sparking a wave similar-minded films to flood the market. Indeed, during the early 1980s you'd have been hard-pressed to pass a cinema that was not showing at least one Kung Fu flick or a video store that wasn't stacked.
Especially David Chiang does an amazing job, being very charismatic, at the same time makes the viewer believe that he could pull it off and decimate a legion of fighters with only one arm. Like in many other movies that feature this duo, Chiang and Lung Ti have a very good chemistry, something like the Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis of martial arts movie. Perhaps even too good a chemistry: As some may have pointed out, the constant gazing at each other and assuring themselves of their friendship, at times reminds one of "Brokeback Mountain" (and relegates the supposed love-interest, the cute-as-a-button Ching Lee to a mere sister-figure). Feng Ku is a reliable baddie and is well versed in changing from an almost fatherly figure to a menacing fighting machine within an instant.
The special-effects are bloody but may seem a little dated, especially in times where most martial-arts-movies are saturated with CGI and actors flying around on wires. But for those interested in honest, hard-working Kung Fu and sword fights, there can be few better recommendations than "The New One-Armed Swordsman".
8/10
