Dragon - Wu Xia - 武俠

Dragon (Wu Xia/武俠/Swordsmen) is an 2011 film out of Hong Kong. The movie stars Donnie Yen and Takeshi Kanoshiro. The supporting cast include Tang Wei, Jimmy Wang Yu, Kara Hui, Li Xiaoran, Jiang Wu, Ethan Ruan. The movie was released as "Dragon" a couple of years after its Asian release. This movie is an suspense thriller action movie.



Liu is a quiet family man that accidently kills two robbers that come to his farming town. One of the robbers is a highly sought after by the government which draws the attention of investigator, Xu. As Xu investigates, he has to piece together the robbers, Liu, the villages, and many other things. Eventually finding that Liu is a highly skilled bandit, things start to get interesting.



This was one of the better movies of 2011. Donnie goes minimalistic for this role and shows his acting chops. TK does his thing well and takes on a accent that is quite good. The investigation is intriguing and the results come half way through the movie. The second half includes most of the action, but it's not without consequences for the main leads. In the Donnie cannon, this may not be the most action packed, but it is one of my favorites due to the story and his acting. Donnie is a star and he shows it here.

The One-Armed Swordsman - 獨臂刀

The One-Armed Swordsman (獨臂刀) is a 1967 Shaw Bros. film starring Jimmy Wang Yu directed by Chang Cheh.

The movie starts with Jimmy's father sacrificing his life to save the master. To repay this debt, the master accepts his elementary age son as his student. Fast forward to when Jimmy is a teenager. Jimmy still performs servant duties and is an excellent student of his teachers martial arts. But he is picked on by the master's daughter and other students from rich families. A duel is set between Jimmy and the other student. Jimmy shows his martial arts is far superior to all three of them combined. But the master's daughter in a fit of rage, chops off Jimmy's right arm. Jimmy gets away and is saved by a passing farmer girl.

Nursed back to health and without an arm, Jimmy accepts life as a peasant. But inside, Jimmy still longs for something more. And that eventually leads to the creation of a new style of martial arts based on a short sword and his one arm.

I thought the movie was great and the extras from the Dragon Dynasty release were excellent.

Master of the Flying Guillotine - 獨臂拳王大破血滴子

Master of the Flying Guillotine is deserving of its reputation as one of the classics of the 70s kung fu films.

Sequel to the One Arm Boxer, it continues as Jimmy Wang Yu trains rebels loyal to the Ming Dynasty. The Eagle Claw clan has set up a tournament to see who's martial arts is supreme. Various schools and clans from China and foreign fighters join. You get to see various martial arts displayed during the tournament. However, its interrupted when the Master of the Flying Guillotine appears, who also is blind. The story continues until this blind Guillotine master and Jimmy Wang Yu meet in the movies climatic battle. Along the way, Jimmy Wang Yu has to defeat Indian, Thai, and Japanese fighters.

It's a 70s martial arts film and it is not in the vain of "A Touch of Zen", but more Shaw Bros. style. Fighting to the max and very entertaining if you suspend belief. It is almost non stop fighting once the eagle claw clan is introduced.