In the conclusion to this epic, three-part martial arts saga, ‘Iron Bridge’ Sam (Do Siu-chun) becomes the new head of the Navy and takes on Japanese pirates and corrupt officials in defense of the people and pays a high price.

One Arm Hero is the final chapter in an epic martial arts movie trilogy that includes White Lotus Cult and Sam the Iron Bridge. Looking similar to the Once Upon a Time in China series in story, production, and choreography, the series has generally gone unnoticed for lacking big name stars. Yet it’s comparable in production values, quality action direction by Philip Kwok, and good cast performances. Unfortunately, One Arm Hero continues the series’ decline that began with the previous film. The first half features limited action, there are too many blatant similarities to OUATIC, and it’s just a depressing end to the series.

The principle cast is back in their respective roles. Leung Kwan-sam (Do Siu-chun) has previously gone from lowly rickshaw puller to winning the court’s coveted title of Supreme Master of Martial Arts. He is also awarded the position of Customs Service Officer and is now head of the Navy. With this good fortune, he marries his love Butterfly (Yip Chuen-chan). But this puts him at odds with his fellow corrupt officers, one of whom tries to offer his daughter (Fennie Yuen) to Sam as a bribe to ignore their skimming of funds and failure to address the problem of Japanese pirates. Against the wishes of Hung (Lily Li), his martial arts master who is a Ming loyalist, Sam accepts the Manchu position and immediately sets out to defeat the pirates by raising funds to buy rifles while going against his superior. Sam and his loyal navy troops defeat the pirates in an ambush, but Sam is arrested for insubordination. He becomes a fugitive after escaping a plot to kill him before he’s tried and loses an arm and those closest to him. He eventually leads a last-ditch effort to assassinate the official responsible for his troubles.

This trilogy can be thought of as a big-budget version of one of China’s many martial arts TV series. Unlike your typical 90-minute martial arts feature, these series have huge story arcs where a large cast of characters go through many dramatic changes. Like American soap operas, they are generally targeted towards female viewers and include a lot of melodrama. As the final chapter, One Arm Hero brings the story to a rather disappointing conclusion. The first half of the film meanders with little driving force or action to sustain interest. It’s basically all a setup for the fall of Sam as the hero.

The one action climax midway through occurs when Sam takes on the pirates. it features a large cast of extras, but with the introduction of guns for our heroes, don’t expect much in the way of kung fu action. The action doesn’t get good until Sam is taken prisoner and is waylaid by assassins while being transported to Peking by train. Philip Kwok’s choreography pretty much matches the action in the OUATIC series, although it’s not quite as inventive and it’s obvious he had less time to work on it. The best combat can be seen in the last 20 minutes and nicely features former Shaw Brothers starlet Lily Li. She performs more kung fu in this film and the rest of the series than in most of her martial arts films two decades prior. Do Siu-chun is no Jet Li or Wu Jing, but performs well enough. Chiu Cheung-gwan plays the lead villain, but he’s virtually unknown in the West apart from also being in White Lotus Cult and Sammo Hung’s Blade of Fury. He plays his role well, but it’s not a very memorable one.

One Arm Hero should not be mistaken as a One Arm Swordsman remake like Tsui Hark’s Blade. The missing limb is just one of many genre elements the film borrows to fill out an unremarkable, wire fu-infested martial arts film. Although there is a recap of past events, viewers should watch the two previous films in the series first. Besides, the first (White Lotus Cult) is the best of the three. As a whole, the series is a less-enjoyable knockoff of the OUATIC series, but it is good enough that it should satisfy fans of ’90s wire-fu movies.

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