The Sword is what you might call an arthouse take on the kung fu flick – call it New Wave Wuxia. That sounds cool on paper, but this film did not work for me. Part of that is expectations. I saw down with it expecting a rock-em, sock-em martial arts movie and wound up with something slower, more thoughtful. It isn’t that there isn’t action, for there are quite a few fight scenes scattered throughout. Some of them are pretty good, too. There is a scene set on a wooden tower that is impressive and the grand finale is lots of fun. Rather, it is those slower scenes that were meant to say something about the destructive nature of ego and violence that didn’t do it for me.
Buy The Sword (1980) Blu-rayIt begins with a bang. A legendary swordsman takes a legendary sword to a legendary blacksmith. The scene is set inside a dark cave with a lone fire lighting it. The blacksmith tells the swordsman he should get rid of that sword, for it was forged in hate and will bring him harm if he keeps it. The swordsman disregards the blacksmith and keeps the sword. But he vows to not use it. Instead, he gives it to a friend for safekeeping.
I was totally on board with this scene. It is well shot and full of ominous foreboding. Then it becomes something more akin to the traditional kung fu films I’ve seen. Lee Mak-yin (Adam Cheng) has been studying martial arts his entire life. He is a master swordsman, but he wants to be the best. He is on a journey to find the best swordsman in all of China to challenge him to a duel. Along the way, he meets Ying-chi (Chui Kit), who is being chased by a bald man. These scenes are playful. These two meet when Ying-chi jumps into Lee Mak-yin’s bed, pretending they are lovers to hide from the bald man. They flirt and spar and become fast friends. The action is full of interesting wirework and swordplay.
Then Lee Mak-yin runs into his childhood sweetheart, Yin Siu-yu (JoJo Chan), and everything grinds to a halt while they pine for each other. Alas, their love cannot be rekindled for she is married to Lin Wan (Norman Chui). He’s kind of an asshole as we’ll find out when he smacks her about for daring to have a conversation with Lee Mak-yin.
Oh, and Yin Siu-yu’s father is that master swordsman Lee Mak-yin has been looking for. But first, we get that excellent (but all-too-short) action sequence on the wooden tower. Wait, before that, we got a scene where Lin Wan sends his bodyguard Tit-yee (Eddy Ko) to kill Lee Mak-yin. Our hero wins that battle but is wounded. He’s nursed back to health by Yeun Kei (Bonnie Ngai), who was that friend the master swordsman gave the cursed sword to at the beginning of the film.
The master swordsman who is Yin Siu-yu’s father (and is named Fa Chin-shu and is played by Tien Fang) agrees to the duel with Lee Mak-yin despite the fact that he is retired and rather ill. The poor boy has been planning this duel his whole life after all. Some bad stuff happens, some people die, and it is mostly due to the evil machinations of Lin Wan, but also maybe Lee Mak-yin shouldn’t have spent his life wanting to be #1.
Westerns and kung fu films are a lot alike in a lot of ways. They both often tread in this kind of plot where some kid challenges the best gunman (or best swordsman) to a duel but once they win they realize they are gonna spend the rest of their lives being challenged by some new kid wanting to dethrone them. That can make for an interesting film, but it isn’t exactly groundbreaking territory. The Sword feels like a film that thinks it’s breaking new ground but is just treading over old soil. There are lots of long, thoughtful passages that seem to be saying something, but that I found rather dull.
The action sequences are good and that final battle is pretty wild, but in between those moments is a lot of nothing.
Eureka Entertainment presents The Sword with a brand new 2K restoration.
Extras include:
- Limited edition (2000 copies)
- Limited edition O-card slipcase featuring new artwork by Grégory Sacré (Gokaiju)
- Original Cantonese audio and optional English dub tracks (original mono presentations)
- Optional English subtitles, newly translated for this release
- New audio commentary by East Asian film expert Frank Djeng (NY Asian Film Festival)
- New audio commentary by action cinema experts Mike Leeder and Arne Venema
- Andrew Heskins on The Sword – A new interview with film critic Andrew Heskins (easternKicks)
- Forging Ahead – A new interview with martial arts cinema expert Wayne Wong on The Sword and the wuxia genre
- Original theatrical trailer
- A Limited edition collector’s booklet featuring an archival interview with director Patrick Tam and a new essay by East Asian cinema expert Leung Wing-Fai
