The Blade
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Director: Tsui Hark Run Time: 106 min.
Format: 4K DCP
Release Year:
1995
Starring: Austin Wai Tin-Chi, Moses Chan Ho, Sonny Song, Vincent Zhao Wenzhuo, Xiong Xinxin
Among the boldest accomplishments of Hong Kong cinema’s golden age, this uniquely visceral martial-arts movie puts a gritty new spin on the story of the one-armed swordsman, an iconic figure from the moment he was introduced by the Shaw Brothers studio in 1967. Composed in a whirlwind of immersive close-ups and fractured editing, THE BLADE follows the young sword-maker Ding On (Zhao), who, after losing an arm in an ambush, transforms himself into a furious avenger. With its intentionally disorienting stylization and starkly brutal tone, THE BLADE was a rare commercial disappointment for Tsui Hark, but it has since been reclaimed as one of the director’s most radical visions—a tour de force of action expressionism, and a scathing reappraisal of the wuxia genre’s code of masculinity, that achieves a feverish intensity. – Criterion Collection
Format: 4K DCP
Release Year:
1995
Starring: Austin Wai Tin-Chi, Moses Chan Ho, Sonny Song, Vincent Zhao Wenzhuo, Xiong Xinxin
Among the boldest accomplishments of Hong Kong cinema’s golden age, this uniquely visceral martial-arts movie puts a gritty new spin on the story of the one-armed swordsman, an iconic figure from the moment he was introduced by the Shaw Brothers studio in 1967. Composed in a whirlwind of immersive close-ups and fractured editing, THE BLADE follows the young sword-maker Ding On (Zhao), who, after losing an arm in an ambush, transforms himself into a furious avenger. With its intentionally disorienting stylization and starkly brutal tone, THE BLADE was a rare commercial disappointment for Tsui Hark, but it has since been reclaimed as one of the director’s most radical visions—a tour de force of action expressionism, and a scathing reappraisal of the wuxia genre’s code of masculinity, that achieves a feverish intensity. – Criterion Collection
