The One-Armed Swordsman (1967): The Birth of Modern Martial Arts Movies

Rating: 4 out of 5.

With The One-Armed Swordsman (1967), a seismic shift of epic proportions took place. Because it is a martial arts film, its importance in film history is often underestimated. Every so often, films arrive that transform genres and redefine the way cinema is made and understood, and this is one of them. Before its release, martial arts cinema leaned heavily on fantasy and melodrama to tell its stories. With Chang Cheh’s new vision, the tone shifted toward a more physical, violent narrative fueled by the epic of revenge.

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The Baker’s Wife (1938)

Rating: 5 out of 5.

I remember as if it were yesterday the day that my friend Pablo Mustonen gave me that book. It was the first Christmas after Cineasta Radio was born and at a Christmas gathering he gave me “The 1,001 films you have to see before you die.” Obligatory reference would from that moment be Steven Schneider’s book. Days later, among its pages, I came across Marcel Pagnol’s The Baker’s Wife. Always revered, Pagnol is one of those authors who I could not find, much less could I get any of his films. The moment had come, and I could finally see the film and cross it off the long list that has become a kind of obsession.

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