The New One-Armed Swordsman is a 1971 wuxia movie starring David Chiang as the titular One-Armed Warrior. This is the first One-Armed Swordsman movie not to star Jimmy Wang Yu, who played Fang Kang in the previous movies: One-Armed Swordsman, Return of the One-Armed Swordsman, and Zatoichi Meets the One-Armed Swordsman.
Lei Li is a young warrior who duels Hero Fung under one condition: the loser has to chop off his right arm. Lei loses and willingly mutiliates his right arm. Three years later, Lei has adapted to using his left hand and is now ready to take on Hero Fung again.
Tropes applying to The New One-Armed Swordsman:
- Almighty Janitor: Lei Li three years after losing his arm, becomes the teaboy in a teahouse.
- Cool Old Guy: Lung Er Zi, who, while the Big Bad, is able to put up a hell of a good fight towards Lei in both their first and last battles.
- Deuteragonist: Feng Junjie, who many people have also felt takes up the role of the protagonist in the middle of the film before his death.
- Elite Mook: Lung Er Zi's acolytes, a dozen of his "best students and trainees", whom are clad entirely in black and red and are frequently shown following Lung Er Zi. Although their skills are more of an Informed Ability, considering as they went up against Lei-li, they all die under a minute (or maybe Lei-li is just that good).
- Foreshadowing: Before Feng's death at the hands of Lung Er Zi, Feng tells him that if he had three swords, he'd be able to counter his three-way staff. In the final showdown against Lung Er Zi, Lei uses two swords alongside his one to counter the staff by throwing the additional two up into the air and attacking Lung Er Zi before grabbing them and incapacitating him. Even Lung Er Zi points out that Lei inadvertently followed up on what Feng said.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: Feng was killed by bisection at the waist.
- I Gave My Word: How Lei Li lost his arm. He and Lung Er Zi duel under the condition that the loser would have to chop their right arm off. After receiving a beat-down from the villain, Lei wishes to fulfill his end of the deal, but Lung Er Zi tells him not to, saying that Lei is good but a bit too young and that they should forget about their deal. However, Lei, thinking of Honor Before Reason, explains that a warrior should never go back on their word and chops his arm off with his sword whilst also impaling the to a tree with said sword.
- Karma Houdini: The old man owning the teahouse where Lei works in. He always tells Lei to hurry up with the orders given by customers, despite, you know, only having one arm. Also, when Pao is being grabbed by two guys who intend on potentially hurting and raping her, but is saved by the intervention of Lei and Feng Junjie, the old man gets angry and says that it would have been better if they just let the villains have their way, even saying that they 'just wanted a bit of fun'. Not once through-out the movie does anyone call him out for his dickery.
- Mook Lieutenant: The four generals of Tiger Hall, whom are often seen leading the lesser mooks around and putting up a much better fight than the regular mooks. One of them gets killed by Feng during the night ambush to kidnap Pao Chiao, and later in the climax when Lei-li storms the Tiger Hall all by himself, he battles the remaining three generals and kills all of them, one at a time.
- One-Hit Kill: The Curb-Stomp Battle in the beginning and the one in the end have Lei kill every single minion with one blow.
- One-Man Army: Lei-li in the finale, where his bodycount skyrockets as he massacres his way through a graveyard, pagoda, bridge and the Tiger Hall's mansion, leaving behind a field of dead bodies from the Tiger Hall's mansion.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After Lei-li kills off Chief Chan, the leader of Tiger Hall, the remaining 15 or so mooks quickly scrams. Wise move, since they just witnessed Lei-li kill more than 80 of their members and they'll very likely fare no better than their dead comrades.
- Take It to the Bridge: The climax have an extended battle scene on a bridge, where Lei fights off wave after wave of enemies while making his way across. He later confronts (and defeats) Lung Er Zi on that very same bridge.
- Time Skip: After Lei impales his mutilated arm to a tree in the forest, we see the banners and arm, then the next shot is still in the area three years later, but we see it stormy and the arm now decomposed to the point where it's just bone. It's only through dialogue later on that we discover three years have passed.
