Rating of
2.5/4
"The Blade" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 07/06/12
A remake of Shaw Brothers classic , The One-armed Swordsman, this high octane slice and dice-athon is a little crude and melodramatic by today's standards, but it still has power. Tsui Hark's use of extreme camera angles and close ups is a little hit and miss, sometimes having stunning results, others making it almost impossible to follow what's going on in the frenetic action scenes. But it's amazing to think that this was made before the days of stop-motion camera techniques and CGI; some of the breathless action sequences are filmed in extremely long single takes which is a testament to the skill of the actors and stunt co-ordinators involved. But it's the timeless plot of a total bad-ass giving the villains their just desserts as a kind of one man Seven Samurai that makes the film.
