Zhang Che not only has a unique style in the Hong Kong and Taiwan film industry, but also sets many precedents for Hong Kong, Taiwan and even Chinese martial arts films. He directed the first "million" box office film, The One-Armed Knife (1967).
The story tells that the great hero Qi Rufeng raised Fang Gang (Wang Yu), the son of the servant Fang Cheng, who saved him, and wanted to make him the head of the house, which caused Fang Gang's brother to be jealous. Qi Rufeng's daughter Qi Pei, who pursues Fang Gang, joins forces with her brother to compete with Fang Gang, but she accidentally cut off Fang Gang's right arm, and Fang Gang fled the Qi family with injuries.
Fang Gang, who only had his left arm, was once depressed after being saved by the young girl Xiao Man (Jiao Jiao), but finally regained his confidence under the encouragement of Xiao Man and practiced the "Left Hand Divine Sword" skill with the secret book "Left Hand Atlas" left by Xiao Man's father. Qi Rufeng's enemy, Smiley Erlang and the Long-Armed Demon, killed Qi's disciples and imprisoned Qi Pei and Qi Rufeng. Taking into account Shi En, Fang Gang was determined to help the Qi family regardless of his previous suspicions.
Zhang Che is either a shot or a famous work. Previously, he had also made three martial arts films, all starring Wang Yu. Tiger Man Annihilation (1966) is a black-and-white film that is difficult to see now; "Three Heroes of Border City" (1966) is a clumsy remake of the hero of the Five Societies, "Three Horses of The Servant"; "Broken Bowel Sword" (1967) also inserts Huang Mei and the set of divine monster martial arts, which are not similar. Unexpectedly, after a few months, Zhang Che and his team (starring Wang Yu, wuzhi Liu Jialiang, Tang Jia) all made rapid progress, and even made "One-Armed Knife", an epoch-making martial arts masterpiece.
"One-Armed Knife" has a wonderful story and delicate emotions, both the great hero and the children. Wang Yu has a strong temperament and a wonderful performance, and the Fang Gang he plays has both the sadness of bearing the burden of humiliation and the arrogance of being indifferent. Li Rengang, who has made a new version of "One-Armed Knife", said that Zhang Che's deepest feeling for him in this film is "faith", knowing that it is impossible to do anything, and telling the meaning of a person's existence.
"One-Armed Knife" is not a fluke to obtain such a status as "epoch-making martial arts masterpiece". "One-Armed Knife" establishes the values of martial arts films, or rather, clarifies the values of martial arts films. Playing this role is the role of Xiao Man (Jiao Jiao). She has the life of a child of the jianghu, not an ordinary country girl. Therefore, in addition to her kindness and duty, she will fall in love with such a Fang Gang and give him the family heirloom half of the sword recipe, and it is she who has achieved Fang Gang. On the other hand, she resisted the jianghu creed in martial arts films with simple family values: "Jianghu children, they even disregard their lives for the reputation of what division." This kind of man is a hero, a face fighter, looks righteous, bloody, and a man who is dignified is the most likely to confuse women and like them." Fang Gang, a chivalrous figure with "faith", was extracted and refined because of the existence of Xiao Man, and was solidified, otherwise it would definitely become general.
Fang Gang's answer to Qi Pei (Pan Yingzi) cut through the gold and cut iron, justifying Xiao Man's name, too cool! It can even be said that Yang Guo also gave a bad breath to Guo Fu.
The film has a strong sense of shape. The mysterious back of the long-armed demon (Yang Zhiqing) with five javelins, the pose of Wang Yu holding a broken knife in his hand, the naked and strong upper body of Gu Feng, Wang Yu and Zheng Lei, the Qimen weapon "Golden Knife Lock" and a series of killing methods, can these be placed in the 1967 movie, can it not be attractive? Later, Xu Ke's remake of "Knife" learned a full life.
The soundtrack and cinematography are beautiful and powerful, complementing the film's deep and powerful rhythm. The introduction of handheld photography into martial arts films was a breakthrough for Zhang Che. At that time, the photographer refused to shoot in this way, so Zhang Che promoted a photography assistant (Kwong Han Le) to shoot. There are one or two mistakes in the plot logic, editing, and soundtrack, but the flaws are not hidden.
Entertainment has always been the main appeal of martial arts films, and Shaw's mid- and late-stage martial arts films basically have no values. Zhang Che himself bore the brunt of it, filming the sequel "One-Armed Knife King" (1969), upgrading "One-Armed Knife Fang Gang" to "One-Armed Knife King Fang Gang Hero", although full of style, the plot is only modeled on "Tsubaki Thirty Lang", without any new ideas. In the past twenty years, Shao's martial arts films have been more beautiful than "One-Armed Knife", but the values of martial arts films have never entered the realm
For Hong Kong cinema, the one-armed knife is a very important landmark work, and its influence is not limited to martial arts films.
First, in 1967, the one-armed knife grossed more than one million. What is the concept of this "million"? At that time, Wang Yu bought an MGB sports car for 1500 Hong Kong dollars, and in 2018, Beckham's son Brooklyn drove an MGB, with a market price of about 30,000 pounds, about 260,000 yuan. So this "million" we calculate, it's about 170 million. The 2018 Hong Kong box office champion was Avengers 3 with 139 million. The box office of "One-Armed Knife" is such a concept.