To an arrogant, highly skilled swordsman-assassin Yan Shisan accompanied by the destructive consequences that his deadly talents give rise to. Just recognition is not enough for him, he wants to defeat the only Master who is better at handling a sword than him - Xie Xiao Feng - a descendant of a legendary family of swordsmen. Yan Shi San is in search of him, simultaneously looking for a good place for his grave, living the rest of his life to the fullest as he dies... And when his search comes to a dead end, he loses the purpose of life, preparing to leave it. But it suddenly turns out that his goal Xie Xiao Feng reappears on the horizon and it is closer than one might have expected. From now on, he again becomes inspired to complete his journey as a fencer with honor, defeating the best. But this gives rise to a certain internal conflict, because he already knows Xie Xiao Feng...
And Xie Xiao Feng, with whom Yan Shi San dreams of fighting, was tired of the bloodshed and violence from the world of martial arts, he exiled himself into the humble life of a vagabond, wandering around the edges of society in search of real life and his original spiritual simplicity, as if hiding from the innate will to fight for his clan. His close circle, at one time, considered him dead. But in the end, the violent past does not allow him to calmly walk along His Path; it learns that he is alive, arms himself with swords and is ready to meet him again, forcing him to take up arms.
The film simultaneously tells several rather interesting storylines, which at first may seem difficult to connect together and understand what and who needs it, because the stories are presented slowly and with quite long intervals between each storyline, because there are quite a lot of minor characters. But I talk about this as a virtue. Also, love stories are woven into the storylines of the characters, which make this film more enriched in feelings and universal in terms of gender perception. There are battles and honor and revenge, moral principles and their absence, love and jealousy, and dosed philosophy with a moderate amount of humor.
And all this rich content is accompanied by stunning visuals, which only true masters of Chinese cinema are capable of: Zhang Yimou, Ang Lee и Chen Kaige.
But in this case, the director and co-screenwriter was the professionally versatile Derek I, who in the film industry is an actor, screenwriter, producer, director and cinematographer. Russian viewers may be familiar with him from the director of the film. "Shinjuku Incident" с Jackie Chan, for which he also wrote the script. Produced by Tsui Hark, which does not need to be introduced to fans of Hong Kong cinema, but for others I will note the most significant hits: a series of films "Once Upon a Time in China", "Dragon Twins", "Dragon Tavern", "Colony", "Fuse", "Blade" and many others. The visuals here are impeccable, although some may find it too unnatural. But that's the style. Artists, designers and other lovers of high-quality visuals will appreciate it.
I can only say good things about the quality of implementation of other aspects. The film may not live up to "Hero", "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "House of Flying Daggers" in terms of its cult and cinematic value, but this can only be because these films raised the bar too high in their time and in a very powerful cast was involved.
Here, there are no first-tier stars, but everyone liked the characters and the actors performing them, they are all endowed with interesting drama, contradictory characters, and a sufficient degree of elaboration, which is accompanied by decent acting.
I rarely celebrate a musical series in a good tone, and this is just that case. The music here is memorable.
I watched the movie right after "Warriors' Gate" and the contrasts between the films may have played a role. "Sword master" was really received well, against the backdrop of Besson's fake, which only parodicly exploits Chinese themes and style. Here, in “The Sword Master” you can fully enjoy Chinese aesthetics and style in its original form. But it can hardly be recommended to those who don’t like the films of Zhang Yimou, Ang Lee, Chen Kaige and epic wuxia films in general. The fights here are staged well, in the modern style typical of the wuxia genre, but 90% refer to sword fights. There are flights and slow-mo, all sorts of exaggerated bells and whistles and pure technique, and everything looks quite beautiful and interesting, but only for those who like such choreography. The conceptual part of the action scenes is worked out very well.
Although the film’s cast does not include the first stars of Hong Kong and China, fans of Chinese cinema may find some faces familiar: Peter Ho ("The Monkey King" 1-2, "Brothers"), playing the assassin-swordsman Yeon Shi San, Kenny Lin ("Journey to the West: Demons", "The Great Wall", "A Fistful of Bullets") playing Xie Xiao Feng, Jiang Yiyan ("Reign of Assassins", "Four"), as well as Norman Chu (“The 36 Steps of Shaolin,” “Shaolin Calls the Ninja”), who plays Xie Xiao Feng’s father, has captured all the golden years and transitional stages of Hong Kong cinema from the inside.
Verdict
The film falls short of a masterpiece. In terms of feelings and emotionality, it is inferior to the films “Hero”, “House of Flying Daggers”, “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”. And there is not a single truly strong movie star in the cast. Some fundamentally important scenes are underplayed and not emotional enough, although everything called for this. This is the only drawback. Something was missing, but the film is very good in any case, especially compared to what is usually filmed now.
But I definitely recommend the film to fans of the genre and lovers of aesthetically beautiful cinema, both in form and content. After watching it for the first time, I immediately knew that I would watch it again. The second time I watched it with even more intense attention and interest.
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Tags: Sword Master, Derek I, Kenny Lin, Norman Chu, Peter Ho, Jiang Yiyan, Tsui Hark
Tags: Sword Master, Derek I, Kenny Lin, Norman Chu, Peter Ho, Jiang Yiyan, Tsui Hark
I don't like wuxia films, but this one was surprisingly good. He is, IMHO, not without reason compared to “Hero”.
The film is so good. Good actors, fantastic fights in the style of modern wuxia, several storylines, and interesting camera work. True, a lot of things are spoiled by crappy computer graphics. I watched the original once, but I couldn’t remember it enough to understand the differences and innovations.
I watched the Showdown trailer, it’s really the same music, why didn’t they come up with an original one?
Dave,
Maybe they just haven’t heard of such a “great masterpiece” as Showdown in Manila?
If you press your lips together like this, the hero seems cooler, this is unlikely, there is not one on this planet who has not seen the great work of art Showdown in Manila.
Off top. Trailer released
And by the way, a very cool trailer
Dave,
It would be nice if the music was original, otherwise it reminds me of the Showdown in Manila. By the way, why haven’t they posted it here yet?
No Anton, what reminds you of the Showdown in Manila? why didn't you post it? because now it’s fashionable to post articles about flying Chinese in, I’m sorry, shitty films, but there’s no need to post trailers for interesting action films.
Have you seen the Showdown trailer? It's just the same music in both places.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQ170fmKcjI
Is it possible to contact any of the news people? If not, I will send them a link via feedback.
Director Derek Yee starred in the original 1977 film Duel to the Death. Both films are based on Gu Long's novel The Sword of the Three Young Masters. A number of other works have also been filmed: “Kill with Intrigue”, “Sentimental Sword Bearer”, etc.
Merey Shudanbekov,
Mary, thank you for the valuable addition! There was something I didn’t know about.