Zhang Che's riveting revenge thriller is often identified as the key transitional film between the old-school wuxia swordplay picture and what we now think of as the kung fu movie. The eponymous hero Fang Gang, played with sullen charisma by Jimmy Wang Yu, is an orphaned “scholarship student” at a martial arts academy, a resentful commoner persecuted by the sneering gentry. He endures their bullying stoically, until his sifu's spoiled daughter spies the muscular peasant chopping wood, shirtless and gleaming. Infuriated by her own desire, she ends up lopping off one of his arms. During a sojourn in the wilderness, Gang masters the unfamiliar art of fighting left-handed and returns home to trounce his astonished enemies. One-Armed Swordsman created a revolution in the genre with its innovative emphasis on match-ups among various fighting styles and the warrior's training process.