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

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

THE BLADE is a well-regarded Tsui Hark martial arts flick that was envisaged as a remake of the Wang Yu Shaw Brothers classic, THE ONE-ARMED SWORDSMAN. It's very familiar to fans of 1990s Hong Kong cinema, full of dark and moodily-lit scenes, hysterical characters and a predominance of action over storyline.That's not to say that the plotting isn't interesting: this film resembles a western in that much of the action is limited to arid desert villages where gangs of bandits roam and kill at will. Chiu Man Cheuk (THE BLACK SHEEP AFFAIR) is the eponymous hero, a man driven into exile by the machinations of a frustrated girl who finds himself compelled to avenge the death of his father.I'm no great fan of Hark as a director, because sometimes his films feel bitty and all over the place, and his editing is a little too sloppy for my liking. Still, this is one of his better movies, and the fast, hard-hitting action sequences that dominate the production certainly make it an entertaining ride. It's just a shame that the DVD version I saw had such poor picture quality...

Director, producer, writer and actor Hark Tsui who also directed and produced other classic martial arts flicks, Once upon a Time in China II 1992, Once Upon a Time in China 1991 and co-directed another classic martial arts flick, Dragon Inn 1992 plus the classic flick The Big Heat 1988 and produced other classic flicks, A Better Tomorrow 1986, A Better Tomorrow II 1987, The Killer 1989 and the classic martial arts flick, Iron Monkey 1993 has created another gem in The Blade.Starring Xin Xin Xiong who was also in Hark Tsui's classic flicks, Dragon Inn and Once Upon a Time In China II.Also starring Moses Chan.Also starring Man Cheuk Chiu.I enjoyed the violent fight scenes.If you enjoyed this as much as I did then check out other classic martial arts flicks, Azumi 2003, Beach of the War Gods 1977, Born Invincible 1978, Burning Paradise in Hell 1994, Ninja in the Dragons Den 1982, The Prodigal Son 1981, Butterfly and Sword 1993, The Legend of Drunken Master 1994, Duel to the Death 1983, Fearless 2006, Fist of Legend 1994, Hero 2002, The Invincible Armour 1977, Ip Man 2008, Ip Man 2 2010, Kagemusha 1980, Kung Fu Hustle 2004, Lady Snowblood 1973, Lightning Kung Fu 1980, Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance 1972, Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart at the River Styx 1972, Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart to Hades 1972, Lone Wolf and Cub: White Heaven in Hell 1974, Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in the Land of Demons 1973, Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in Peril 1972, One Armed Boxer 1973, Ong Bak 2: The Beginning 2008, Ran 1985, Seven Samurai 1954, Shogun's Sadism 1976, Swordsmen 2011, The Swordsman in Double Flag Town 1992, Tai Chi Master 1993, Throne of Blood 1957, Zatoichi and the Fugitives 1968, The Man with the Iron Fists 2012, Arrow, the Ultimate Weapon 2011, Ngai sing 2016, Dragon 2011, Blade of the Immortal 2017 and Zatoichi Meets the One-Armed Swordsman 1971.

I heard this was really good from an internet review. SO I obtained a DVD copy of it. Now about the copy I saw, the picture quality made me think that this film was shot through a lens smeared with mud. The voice acting in the dubbing made my skin crawl.Beyond the manner in which this film was presented to me, it is a beautiful, brilliant film. This is Tsui Hark's best film. I would trade one of my kidneys for a subtitled, letter boxed, digitally remastered version of this film. Every time I watch my copy I am still blown away by how good it is but at the same time, how bad my copy is hurts.Ah well, about the film itself: It is narrated by Ling, the daughter of a master sword smith. She likes nothing better than to play with the emotions of two of her father's employees Iron Head (Moses Chan) and Ting On (VIncent Zhao Wen Zu). Eventually they both grow tired of her teasing so they begin to ignore her.The Death of a Shaolin monk at the hands of some local baddies gets the employees of the Sword factory really up in arms. Iron Head wants to lead an assault on the bad guys, but Ting On, following the master's wishes, preaches restraint. This alienates him from the rest of the employees (that and the fact that he was named as the successor) so he decides to run away. While leaving, On overhears Ling and her (Mother? Grandmother?) discussing his past, specifically the death of his father at the hand of a flying, tattooed assassin.On retrieves a relic which he learned was the remains of his father's gigantic sword and leaves. Ling, perhaps driven by guilt follows him. Their paths go through the camp of the bandits who attack, resulting in On losing one of his arms. On is able to save Ling before Iron Head and the Sword workers arrive but goes over a waterfall.ON is rescued by a dirty orphan who lives in a shack who is bullied by the same group of bandits. ON discovers a Kung Fu manual that he tries to learn from despite his handicap. Meanwhile, Iron Head and Ling decide to search for him.Just to show how rich the plot is, THOSE four paragraphs cover just about the 1st quarter of the film. Also, I DID NOT go into great detail.The fight scenes are sometimes too under cranked and jerky but overall they are high quality. Yes it IS a remake of The One Armed Swordsman, but Tsui Hark makes it HIS. The Blade can make you forget there even WAS a One Armed Swordsman. It is poetic, dark, depressing and violent. Hopefully Tai Seng or some other distributor will release a GOOD DVD edition of this masterpiece. A great film for not just HK Cinema fans but for film fans as well.

Tsui Hark's Dao aka The Blade (Hong Kong, 1995) is an updating of the old one armed swordsman legend that also has been depicted earlier in the history of Hong Kong cinema. Tsui's new vision is something that dropped my jaws now that I watched it for the third time after many years and without remembering almost anything about it. The film turned out to be among the best Hong Kong cinema miracles from the nineties I've seen so far.Vincent Zhao Wen Zhuo aka Chiu Man Cheuk is Ting On and Moses Chan Ho is Iron Head and they're both very loyal to their master, an old monk who has teched them during their young lives. The film's narrator and lead female is Ling (Song Lei) who is secretly in love with both of the men but is not quite sure which one will be her loved one. Soon a violent murder takes place, a hand gets chopped off and revenge comes to mind, but none of the characters seem to care or think about their emotions but only to go after their insticts which in this case are mostly about violence and getting even. What follows is more or less (usually more) amazing imagery and bits of sword fighting from this unique film maker of East.The film depicts people without the willing or ability to express their emotions and that's why many of the reviews seem to dislike the film telling the characters are very cold and inhuman. Of course the film would have needed an example among its characters of how a brighter life could be achieved but still the coldness and lack of expressing emotions is not there without its purpose because this is exactly the film's theme. The ending, the imagined happiness, is fortunately there but still I think there should have been more contrast to the characters' inability to be like a feeling human being. This film is pretty pessimistic as it hasn't any happy or "natural" characters at all, but since we know (those who dare to accept these sides in themselves) what kind of a creature human being is, films like this start to make much more sense and force us to look at the mirror. Would you have gone to take revenge if you were in the one armed swordsman's shoes? The visuals here are quite amazing and this belongs alongside Ringo Lam's Burning Paradise (1994) and Billy Chung's The Assassin (1993) to the Hong Kong's hyper dark martial art films that never are as near as "light" and also humorous as some Once Upon a Time in China (1991) for instance or other box office hits. Hardly any mainstream audience will like films like Dao because they lack almost every possible entertaining or pleasant element that can be found in Hong Kong martial arts films. The film is very dark and haunting especially when the guy has lost his arm and is training in agony in the misty and menacing house with hysterical female (this character is also very bad and should not have been so noisy and really brainless all the time) taking care of him. Again the smoke and darkness is something that I simply cannot mention having found in too many Western films. The action is so incredible it again makes me wonder how they edit their films like this. The editor in Dao is Kam Ma who has also edited John Woo's A Better Tomorrow films (1986 and 1987) among many others. The action scenes consist of many close ups and unconventional camera movements that create the kind of hysterical impact I can remember from Jackie Chan's Drunken Master 2 (1994) for example. The action goes even further in the final 15 minutes during the big fight when all the main characters finally get to take their mission to the end. This end fight is like the mind blowingly incredible finale in John Woo's A Better Tomorrow 2, choreographed by the great Ching Siu Tung: both of these finales get so over the top and (thus) separated from the rest of the film that it gets even surreal and thus makes the film's own world look even more impressive and striking and hammers the message and images to the viewer's head. The blood sprayed in these both cases is much more than just results of blade cutting flesh as it all depicts things from our main characters and their values much more effectively and graphically (to say the least) than words likely could. The finale in Dao is among the most jaw dropping scenes from any Hong Kong film of all time and once again these makers have shown their talent and capacity. Dao is not only very dark film, it is also very violent and has sudden bursts of very angry gore during the film and of course mostly in the mentioned last fight. Since there are no any real heros, no good characters and not too much sunshine in Dao, it is easy to expect that sadly this kind of film won't appeal to masses but considering that it starts to look even more valuable that films like these get still made despite that fact.Dao also lacks all the possible stupid bits of dialogue that often can be found in Hong Kong films. The mentioned female in On's new apartment of course excluded. The film has some very effective silent scenes which is pretty rare in Hong Kong films I think. Especially the montage during On's painful training sequence is very effective as well as some of the scenes depicting Iron Head's unwillingness to use violence in the bar filled with drunken men. He just watches and tries to hold his temper and not hurt anyone. Details like these tell much more about the characters than any fastly and badly written unnatural words ever could.Dao is a stunning experience even with its flaws and if they were corrected and fixed, this film would really be a masterpiece and maybe perfect of its kind. Now it definitely is a masterpiece of its maker, Tsui Hark, and it has the kind of potential and power that keeps on reminding the admirers of Eastern cinema of what makes these films so unique, precious and overwhelming. 8/10