Listonixio Fresh and Exciting

Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Sarita Rafferty There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

poe426 You've gotta hand it to Wang Yu: he starred in some of the most ENTERTAINING martial arts movies ever made- very often, with one arm literally tied behind his back. ONE-ARMED SWORDSMAN VS. 9 KILLERS is a quintessential Wanger. As noted everywhere this one's been reviewed, this one has absolutely nothing to do with any of Yu's One-Armed Boxer movies, nor any of his One-Armed Swordsman movies. As also noted, Yu has more than a few tricks up his sleeve in this one. One of the funnier moments comes when he confronts a man whose falsetto suggests he may just be a tad light in the loafers- only he's not, because he's... a hermaphrodite! S/He proves no match for Wang Yu, of course. Another opponent, Mr. Lu, boasts a most impressive weapon (...): a six-foot long, twelve-inch wide broadsword... "The size of your sword doesn't matter," Yu deadpans. Before long, Lu is impaled on his own sword... ("I didn't come here to toot my own horn," Yu should've said: "My neck isn't long enough...") But that's not all: when Yu is betrayed by "9 Finger Chu," Yu, wounded, says: "But you have ten fingers..." "That's right," counters Chu: "But I've only got 9 TOES..." It's also revealed that the one-armed swordsman has two arms, and he never actually uses a sword in the movie. In fact, when he's asked at one point if he's a swordsman, he says no... ONE-ARMED SWORDSMAN VS. 9 KILLERS has all the earmarks of a Wang Yu movie and, as such, deserves a look.

MartinHafer A man has had his family wiped out by a group of nine assassins and their evil boss. However, you do not see any of this take place in the movie nor do you have any idea what's going on with the missing arm--at least until very late in the film. So, one by one our hero takes on the jerks and their many minions in order to exact revenge (a very, very common theme in the genre). The film is very scant on plot and offers practically non-stop martial arts action.This was a very big disappointment. While the American title is ONE ARMED SWORDSMAN VS. 9 KILLERS and it does feature Yu Wang, the film should not in any way be considered a sequel to the wonderful 1967 ONE ARMED SWORDSMAN film. The only sequel is THE RETURN OF THE ONE ARMED SWORDSMAN (1969). The differences are many between this 1976 film and the original. First, this guy's left arm is missing--not the right. This was the dead giveaway at the start, though it would have been pretty funny if they had just switched it and kept the original character! In addition, the killer is NOT a swordsman--only using swords on occasion. I think they called him the "one armed swordsman" to cash in on the prior films and I assume the film makers did NOT try this when the film was originally released domestically. The man's primary weapon of choice is instead the "bad martial arts chop"--consisting of a kung fu strike that obviously misses his foes!! In other words, this film is the standard not especially good martial arts techniques film--not a transcendent film from the genre like the original film.Another huge disappointment was that unlike the brilliant 1967 film, this 1976 film was packaged by an organization that could have cared less about the film or audience. Instead of offering BOTH the dubbed and subtitled versions, this film from VideoAsia only has the crappily dubbed English version and was made directly from a degraded videotape!! Several times, the picture skips and shakes and no effort appears to have been made to bring a decent copy to the customer--making me glad I only rented this thing. Viewers should insist on subtitled versions, as they are almost always better and lack the stupid sound effects and crappy dialog films like you'll find in this film (unless you are looking for a good laugh).Now if you don't compare it to the original One Armed Swordsman and only compare it to other crappily dubbed American versions of any martial arts film, this one actually is better than average. None of the fighters offer stupid gimmicks (except for the HUGE sword, though such stupid things as fighting gorillas, giant tongues or other amazingly ridiculous weapons are otherwise absent from the film) and while the martial arts used aren't great, they really aren't that bad either. Plus the story is reasonably engaging, there's a funny fight scene with four idiots, it has MANY twists and features a cool surprise at the end. So it isn't all bad news for the martial arts film fan. Just don't show this one to anyone you want to get hooked on the genre--they'll probably laugh at some of the dialog and fighting.

joeshoe89 I am only rating this 2 because there is a home made DVD going around under the title Der Foltergarten Der Gelben Schlange. While the other reviews here don't like this film too much, I didn't have as much problem with the movie itself but just this copy of it. This reminded me of when I used to watch movies on TV when they'd show them on a Saturday afternoon and everything was cut out. Every time Wang Yu goes to kill a guy there's a cut and suddenly we're somewhere else. Even the big "secret" when he is caught with two arms is so cut it's hard to tell what happened. The copy I watched was 77 minutes long and while there are rare copies on Ebay none of them gives a time so it's hard to tell if the ones being sold are heavily cut like this is. Hopefully a full version will come out on DVD. But beware! This cannot be the entire film but what I would call a cut TV copy dubbed in hilarious English. OK over a year later I rented the DVD of this movie. Sadly it is even worse than the homemade DVD I already reviewed. The DVD for rent looks like a bootleg of a really beat up VHS tape complete with tracking lines flashing scenes and drop outs. It's as if someone had an old tape they had used for years with no credits and put it on a DVD washed out bad color flaws and all. The home made DVD I reviewed (with Dutch subs) is a far better print and looks good as a DVD but it's missing all the stabbing, blood and some key scenes. Both of the DVDs have hilarious English dubbing. I think it's better to have the 83 minute DVD that is up for rent but here's hoping a DVD company will do Wang Yu justice and put out a remastered complete version hopefully in Chinese with English subs. All Wang Yu movies are worth getting this treatment. He is as important as Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Jet Li as a martial arts star.

Joost Jimmy Wang Yu has to avenge his families death and tries to find his enemies one after another. Of course he's very cunning and uses his smart tricks to find out where they are. Along the road he finds a girl who decides to go with him because she's got no where else to go. One person of the Chu gang decides to betray his clan and join up with Yu.Only the last fight is worth watching for the true kung fu fan because the old man at the end has got some skills (compared to Wang Yu), but it still isn't good. I don't get why Wang Yu got to make a lot of movies, because I haven't seen a good kung fu flick with him in it yet.I noticed that the music in this film was also used in "the mystery of Chessboxing", and since this movie is older, I start wondering where this music originally comes from. I can't believe it was originally for this movie because also the music was used in a very bad way (suddenly stops etc.)Not worth watching if you ain't a die hard kung fu fan.