The Blade is a 1995 Hong Kong Wuxia film directed by Tsui Hark, starring Vincent Zhao, and is a remake of the Shaw Brothers classic One-Armed Swordsman. While most of the plot is rehashed from the original, the remake features plenty of Tsui Harks'unique style of choreography (as seen in Once Upon a Time in China) such as dramatic close-ups, intense fight choreogaphy, plenty of parkour and acrobatic moves in fights, and frenetic camera movements.
The new protagonist destined to lose his arm is Ding-on (Vincent Zhao), an orphan adopted into a blacksmith's foundry. Ding-on is romantically attracted to Ling, his master's daughter, but he had to contend with bullying from Iron Head, a rival blacksmith who looks down on him for being an orphan, as well as roaming gangs of bandits and gangsters led by the sinister martial artist and bandit leader, Flying Dragon. When an assassination attempt on Flying Dragon goes awry, resulting in Ding-on losing his arm, it seems like Ding-on will be forced to give up his hopes of being a swordsman, until the discovery of a martial arts manual for fighting with only one arm comes into Ding-on's possession.
This film contains examples of:
- Accidental Murder: While trying to locate Ling in the brothel, Ding-on hears someone approaching from behind a door, and quickly draws his sword. Alas, that is the good prostitute whos trying to help Ling escape, and Ding-on just sliced her up by accident.
- An Arm and a Leg: Naturally, given how this is a remake of One-Armed Swordsman. Ding-on loses an arm early into the film, and later during the battle against the Flying Dragon gang he severes several arms and legs of enemy mooks.
- Bald of Evil: Flying Dragon, the Big Bad.
- Band of Brothels: One scene before the climatic final battle has Ding-on infiltrating a brothel frequented by the Flying Dragon gang to save Ling from being pimped off.
- Battle Amongst the Flames: Ding-ons first fight against the Flying Dragon gang occurs between rows and rows of flaming bamboo stacks, where fires are burning everywhere and combatants (including Ding-on) have their clothing catching alight while they battle.
- Bear Trap: The Flying Dragon gang had several of these traps outside their base, and Ding-on loses his right arm when he accidentally gets it clamped in one of the traps. Later when Ding-on fights the Flying Dragon mooks he throws one of them head-first into a nearby trap, killing him.
- The Blacksmith: Ding-on is raised in an entire family of sword-smiths, and there are several scenes of Ding-on and his foster family making swords throughout the film.
- Combat Parkour: Ding-on does this several times in his fight once his training is complete. Like in the above screenshot.
- Decapitated Army: In the climatic final battle, after Ding-on kills Flying Dragon, the remaining mooks serving Flying Dragon quickly beat a hasty retreat.
- Dual Wield: Flying Dragon, the Big Bad, alternates between twin swords and his Fuuma Shuriken as his weapon.
- Fuuma Shuriken: Flying Dragons swords can be attached together by the hilt, turning them into a three-sided giant shuriken.
- Handicapped Badass: Ding-on, after losing his arm, although to reach the badass part he still needs to go through a Training Montage to perfect his skills with the one-armed blade.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: In the final battle, Flying Dragon, realizing hes no match for Ding-on, decides to fling his Fuuma Shuriken towards Ling instead, but Ding-on trips him and pulls Flying Dragon back, causing the shuriken to bounce backwards and end up landing in Flying Dragons own gut.
- Hooker with a Heart of Gold: The nameless prostitute (Valerie Chow) who assists Ling to escape from the brothels.
- Man Bites Man: One of the Flying Dragon mooks dies when Ding-on chews his throat out.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The reason why Ding-on loses his arm in the first place, is because of his going to the Flying Dragon gang's hideout to challenge them directly, despite being outnumbered and ill-equipped to fight the entire gang by himself, and during his escape attempt he ends up getting his arm ensnared by one of their traps.
- One-Armed Warrior: Ding-on, who we see losing his arm and adapting to a new fighting style without it through training afterward.
- One-Word Title: The Chinese title, Dao (Blade), at least.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: The Big Bad, Flying Dragon.
- Plucky Girl: Unlike the original One Armed Swordsman where the main character is saved by a farmer's daughter, in this remake the hero is saved by a little urchin living all by herself.
- Quicksand Sucks: During their penultimate battle, Ding-on manages to defeat a Mook Lieutenant by stomping him headfirst into thick, wet mud which is soggy enough to count as quicksand.
- Sinister Scimitar: The dual blades used by Flying Dragon resemble classic scimitars.
- Spin Attack: Both Ding-on and Flying Dragon uses this method in their fights, spinning themselves like a human hurricane while slashing at each other. The final battle is pretty much a contest on how fast each combatant can spin themselves before inflicting hits on each other.
- Tattooed Crook: Flying Dragon, whose entire face and body is covered in sinister-looking tattoos which resemble some kind of ancient runes.
- Unwilling Suspension: Ding-on is subject to this punishment when members of the Flying Dragon gang seeking revenge discover he's now a cripple, so they decide to beat him up and hang him upside-down.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: Ding-on, after recovering from losing his arm. With plenty of focus on his abs.
