After almost fainting from excitement when the New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles announced that they were having a month-long tribute to Shaw Brothers for September, I quickly pulled myself together and chose which double features to go to. And it was such a hard decision because there were so many different screenings to choose from. I would love to go to the New Beverly every week, but driving through LA traffic too often would drive me insane (No pun intended). This means that I could probably only make it out to two of the screenings. I decided not to go to the horror/exploitation screenings because I’m not a huge fan of either. Also, I’d already seen The Avenging Eagle and 36th Chamber in 35mm so I eliminated those too. I love both, but I wanted to go for a new experience.
I decided that it'd be best to go to The One Armed Swordsman double feature on the 16th and the Lo Lieh double feature the next week on either the 23rd or 24th. I got my 36 Styles shirt on and headed through some exceptionally bad traffic to get to the theater. For those of you who don’t know, 15 miles in LA traffic means at least an hour of driving. Also, parking in LA is pretty much impossible (Note the picture to the left). After stopping by Subway, we finally made it back to the New Beverly. The last time that I went to the New Beverly was in late March for The Blade and King of Beggars. It was kinda cool that the next movie that would see over there was the movie that inspired The Blade.
In the lobby, there were a few cool posters on display including two English posters for The Avenging Eagle and The Kid With the Golden Arm. Before they showed One Armed Swordsman, one of the employees very briefly introduced the films and they played an incredibly fun Shaw Brothers trailer reel. This reel included an original English trailer for The Kid With the Golden Arm. There was also an original Chinese trailer for Five Element Ninjas which really got my heart pounding (Surprisingly, the fire ninja nudity was left out, but it did include the scene where Lo Mang’s blood rockets out of his chest). Then there was a trailer for The Chinese Boxer retitled The Hammer of God.
In the lobby, there were a few cool posters on display including two English posters for The Avenging Eagle and The Kid With the Golden Arm. Before they showed One Armed Swordsman, one of the employees very briefly introduced the films and they played an incredibly fun Shaw Brothers trailer reel. This reel included an original English trailer for The Kid With the Golden Arm. There was also an original Chinese trailer for Five Element Ninjas which really got my heart pounding (Surprisingly, the fire ninja nudity was left out, but it did include the scene where Lo Mang’s blood rockets out of his chest). Then there was a trailer for The Chinese Boxer retitled The Hammer of God.
MINI REVIEW:
Watching The One Armed Swordsman at the New Beverly with an audience made me realize how incredibly quiet and slow this movie is. This movie is certainly dated, but I still really enjoyed it. Though the story progresses very slowly, it still has an engrossing story with some great characters. The fighting is meh and the movie itself is very dated, but it’s still quite good. But still, I really would’ve liked some music in certain scenes...or the sound of footsteps or something other than utter silence. Still great, but probably not the best movie to see with an audience except for some unintentional comedy. for example, when Fang Gang saves Qi Pei Er from the bad guys while wearing a mask, he asks her “How did you know it was me?,” to which she replies “I could recognize your voice...and you only have one arm.”
Usually movies that really slow and quiet put me to sleep. Even if the movie’s great, I need some music to keep me awake. I actually hadn’t seen The New One Armed Swordsman before and didn’t really know what to expect. One of the regulars informed me that “It’s not a remake or a sequel. Come to think of it, it has no connection with the other films in the series expect that there’s a swordsman with one arm in it,” which was good to know. I got to see another one of the regulars, Warren (wackiechan), who I got to talk to briefly during the intermission. The lights dimmed and the next trailer reel started. There were three English trailers for The Delinquent (retitled Street Gangs of Hong Kong), The Water Margin (Seven Blows of the Dragon), and an awesome trailer for King Boxer (Five Fingers of Death).
Watching The One Armed Swordsman at the New Beverly with an audience made me realize how incredibly quiet and slow this movie is. This movie is certainly dated, but I still really enjoyed it. Though the story progresses very slowly, it still has an engrossing story with some great characters. The fighting is meh and the movie itself is very dated, but it’s still quite good. But still, I really would’ve liked some music in certain scenes...or the sound of footsteps or something other than utter silence. Still great, but probably not the best movie to see with an audience except for some unintentional comedy. for example, when Fang Gang saves Qi Pei Er from the bad guys while wearing a mask, he asks her “How did you know it was me?,” to which she replies “I could recognize your voice...and you only have one arm.”
Usually movies that really slow and quiet put me to sleep. Even if the movie’s great, I need some music to keep me awake. I actually hadn’t seen The New One Armed Swordsman before and didn’t really know what to expect. One of the regulars informed me that “It’s not a remake or a sequel. Come to think of it, it has no connection with the other films in the series expect that there’s a swordsman with one arm in it,” which was good to know. I got to see another one of the regulars, Warren (wackiechan), who I got to talk to briefly during the intermission. The lights dimmed and the next trailer reel started. There were three English trailers for The Delinquent (retitled Street Gangs of Hong Kong), The Water Margin (Seven Blows of the Dragon), and an awesome trailer for King Boxer (Five Fingers of Death).
MINI REVIEW:
when the opening for The New One Armed Swordsman started playing, I got really excited and thought to myself “I might actually really like this movie.” And thankfully, I did. I actually might’ve liked it more than the original. First off, it had a nice soundtrack. Even hearing the sound of footsteps was refreshing. Also, the story and characters were both great. It was very exciting and even emotional at times. The pairing of David Chiang and Ti Lung was also a lot of fun. Seeing the over the top action scenes was amazing. It was also clear from their reactions that the audience was really digging it. I’d say it’s a near-excellent kung fu movie with an awesome finale and a bittersweet ending. Definitely recommended.
Also, this movie teaches you a valuable lesson: Even if you don’t practice martial arts for more than a year, but you continually juggle with one hand, you can literally defeat an entire army.
Overall, it was a great night at the New Beverly and both of the movies were a lot of fun. My mom went with me too and also enjoyed both films, the second movie especially. It’s great to finally be back at the New Beverly and I’ll be returning very soon for the Lo Lieh double feature (King Boxer and Clan of the White Lotus). I honestly haven’t seen either of those movies before (I know, shame on me) and I’m not sure if I should attend the English dubbed version of King Boxer on the 23rd or the subtitled version on the 24th. I need to do some careful consideration, but I’m still totally looking forward to it.
Images from MartialArtsActionMovies and HKMDb
when the opening for The New One Armed Swordsman started playing, I got really excited and thought to myself “I might actually really like this movie.” And thankfully, I did. I actually might’ve liked it more than the original. First off, it had a nice soundtrack. Even hearing the sound of footsteps was refreshing. Also, the story and characters were both great. It was very exciting and even emotional at times. The pairing of David Chiang and Ti Lung was also a lot of fun. Seeing the over the top action scenes was amazing. It was also clear from their reactions that the audience was really digging it. I’d say it’s a near-excellent kung fu movie with an awesome finale and a bittersweet ending. Definitely recommended.
Also, this movie teaches you a valuable lesson: Even if you don’t practice martial arts for more than a year, but you continually juggle with one hand, you can literally defeat an entire army.
Overall, it was a great night at the New Beverly and both of the movies were a lot of fun. My mom went with me too and also enjoyed both films, the second movie especially. It’s great to finally be back at the New Beverly and I’ll be returning very soon for the Lo Lieh double feature (King Boxer and Clan of the White Lotus). I honestly haven’t seen either of those movies before (I know, shame on me) and I’m not sure if I should attend the English dubbed version of King Boxer on the 23rd or the subtitled version on the 24th. I need to do some careful consideration, but I’m still totally looking forward to it.
Images from MartialArtsActionMovies and HKMDb