Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by TAFKA Steve (A) on July 13, 2004 at 14:56:33

In Reply to: Best samurai flicks, I saw... posted by TimTaylor on July 13, 2004 at 11:29:42:

You got the title right. Jimmy Wang Yu played an iconic one-armed swordsman (directed by the legendary King Hu) and a one-armed boxer in a popular set of HK martial arts films, so it was only natural that the blind swordsman from Japan and the one-armed swordsman from China would fight each other. Two endings were filmed, one with Zatoichi dying for Chinese audiences, and one with the one-armed swordsman dying for Japanese audiences. It is about to be released on Region 1 DVD, but will have only the Japanese audience ending.

The One-Armed Swordsman was remade by Tsui Hark as a film called "Dao" (or "Blade" in English) in 1996. That film has a finale with the best swordfighting sequence I've ever seen. It was released on videotape and laserdisc, but I've never heard of a DVD version.