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Visually innovative and brutal in its action sequences, “The Blade” is essentially a traditional tale of revenge, rivalry and romance. In the town of Empire Field, a desolate waste-land laden with booby traps and populated by gangs of bandits, lies the best sword making factory in the country - Sharp Manufacturers. Introduced from the point of view of Ling, the master sword maker’s daughter, she contemplates her place in such a world and dreams of workers Iron Head (Moses Chan) and On (Chiu Man-Cheuk) vying for her affections. When her father hands over the industry to On, he discovers his father was killed by the tattooed bandit, Lung, and vows to avenge the father he never knew. Ling, not willing to let On go follows after him with Iron Head. Overtly concerned with halves and incompleteness, On’s father leaves the legacy of half a sword, On is injured in a fight with bandits and loses an arm, and when he finds the manual that will teach him the necessary intricacies of being a master swordsman capable of taking on Tung, half the manual is missing. On’s incompleteness adds fuel to his fire of revenge to right the wrongs of the dispossessed in a society where only the strong prevail and On rises to become the One Armed Swordsman. In Cantonese with English subtitles.
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How to watch
Collection
In ACMI's collection
Credits
Collection metadata
ACMI Identifier
312853
Language
Chinese
Audience classification
R (18+)
Subject categories
Action & Adventure → Action films
Action & Adventure → Martial arts films
Advertising, Film, Journalism, Mass Media & TV → Foreign language films
Advertising, Film, Journalism, Mass Media & TV → Martial arts films
Armed Forces, Military, War & Weapons → Combat
Armed Forces, Military, War & Weapons → Weapons
Crafts & Visual Arts → Metal-work
Economics, Philosophy, Politics, Religion & Sociology → Gangs
Family, Gender Identity, Relationships & Sexuality → Fathers and sons
Feature films → Feature films - Hong Kong
Food, Health, Lifestyle, Medicine, Psychology & Safety → Revenge
Sound/audio
Sound
Colour
Colour
Holdings
VHS; Access Print (Section 1)