The Blade

A young man named Ding On, adopted and raised by a swordsmith after his father was murdered, learns the identity of the killer: a bandit leader called Fei Lung. He sets out for revenge, but a violent encounter with desert bandits costs him his right arm. Nursed back to health, he develops a new way of fighting that compensates for the loss and returns to face his father's killer. His sweetheart Siu Ling and his friend Iron Head follow him into danger along the way.

The Blade was directed by Tsui Hark, who also produced and co-wrote the screenplay with So Man-Sing and Koan Hui. It was the sixteenth of the thirty-one films he has directed, arriving between The Chinese Feast in 1995 and Double Team in 1997, and it was made in Hong Kong by Orange Sky Golden Harvest and Film Workshop. Vincent Zhao Wenzhuo plays Ding On, with Xinxin Xiong as Fei Lung, Sonny Song as Siu Ling, Austin Wai Tin-Chi as Siu Ling's Father, Moses Chan Ho as Iron Head and Chung Bik-Ha as Black Head among a credited cast of thirty-two. Running 106 minutes, the film blends action, adventure and drama. On IMDb it holds a rating of 6.9 from roughly 3,900 votes, while on TMDB its rating is 7.1 from a much smaller base of 127 votes.