Word: swordsman
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...Until 1967, Hong Kong films were largely musicals and comedies headed by female stars. But that was B.C.C.: before CHANG CHEH . With his 1967 One-Armed Swordsman, Chang created a scowling hero who turned his disability into a vengeance?and Hong Kong film into the violent, burly, balletic male preserve it has been ever since. Born Chang Yi-ying in China's Zhejiang province, this energetic craftsman wrote romance novels, film reviews and a newspaper column under three different pseudonyms. Then he set about defining the Hong Kong action movie. Such swaggering epics as The Savage 5, Shaolin Avengers...
...timer," insists director Toto Natividad, whose resume lists 45 Philippine action films. But while close-ups make clear the physical training and cosmetic surgery Ogami underwent for the role, he had apparently decided against acting lessons. "His name is Genta Ogami," rumbles the voice-over on the trailer. "Master swordsman, a man with a mission to fight evil in a foreign land...
...Khost, Janjalani made up for his diminutive size with ferocity and his oratory, honed at Islamic universities in Libya and Syria. He reverentially appropriated Sayyaf's name (which means "swordsman" in Arabic) for his group back home. In 1991, Abu Sayyaf struck its first blow by killing two American evangelists in a grenade blast in Zamboanga. This was followed by a string of kidnappings, massacres and extortion operations. Cassette tapes of Janjalani's jihad sermons began circulating, and other gangs of Moro brigands in the Sulu islands?who specialized in running drugs and guns, kidnapping and growing marijuana?accepted Janjalani...
...which he founded in 1984, quickly became the Amblin of Hong Kong. Four of its films became terrific franchises: A Better Tomorrow (the action epic that made Chow Yun-fat a superstar and John Woo a world-class auteur), A Chinese Ghost Story (a magical romance with Leslie Cheung), Swordsman (whose two sequels displayed Brigitte Lin in all her pansexual glory) and Once Upon a Time in China (which brought Hong Kong stardom...
...operation to re-attach a finger and thumb he lost while trying to shield himself from the swordsman's blows was postponed after doctors grafted the digits on to his other arm to prevent the tissue from dying," the Scotsman reports...