Tsui Hark is the definitive moviemaker of the Hong Kong New Wave, and it could be argued that The Blade (1995) is his best film to date, a visually dense and morally muscular martial arts epic that just about reinvents the genre from the ground up. Loosely based on the picture that launched the entire kung fu cycle, Chang Cheh's 1967 classic The One-Armed Swordsman, the movie goes beyond the visceral rush of conflict to question the basic assumptions of the form. The central character, Ding On (boyish Chiu Man-cheuk, who took over the Wong Fei-hung role from Jet Li in the Once Upon a Time in China series), is a skilled swordsmith who begins to wonder if craftsmanship alone is all that matters. Perhaps it is also worth considering how the finished weapon is going to be used? A theme that seems more timely every day! In a dusty, noisy, cluttered landscape reminiscent of Wong Kar-wei's Ashes of Time, Ding seeks to avenge the death of a selfless martial monk who was murdered after thwarting the rape of a young girl. In the process the hero loses a limb, struggles to learn new skills to compensate, and comes back stronger than ever--with the implication that mental dexterity trumps brute force every time. The long final showdown, which makes judicious use of slow motion to turn battling bodies into heroic sculptural forms, ranks with the best work of masters like King Hu and Akira Kurosawa--that is, with the greatest martial fight footage ever filmed. --David Chute
Spotlight customer reviews:
Customer Rating: Summary: what a ridiculous mess Comment: a messy screwup with a free-fall-for-all crazy screenplay directed by an often unstable and insane director. a story without any believable historical, time frame and regional backgrounds. just threw in anything that could come up, patched and pitched into this absolutely horrible film like koreans' food, throwing everything into a pot or pan, then adding chili paste and kimgi to mess up the whole dish, then well, eat with the cover as the plate, crazily spicy, awfully hot, but always turned out with just one flavor, a messy chili mixup.
an obvious very dry place supposed in the norther west of china, and then all the settings were full of bamboo sticks that only grew in the southern humid regions. all the costumes and makeups were extremely ridiculous, you've got northwestern regional and southeast asian costumes mixed with south american amazon rain forest and african inhabitants with whiteout bodies and faces. added with a totally pointless young female narration, then the music tunes played in this crazy film was another clueless screwup. then stolen some stuff from the 'one armed swordsman', his killing technique was nothing but whirling around with a broken sword (another crazy idea stolen from the western 'the captain with a broken sword'). then with one naive and childish blade manufacturer's daughter, a clueless pretty young woman and another tomboy-like girl playing the savior of the one armed young man, all three females did nothing but crying, screaming, laughing, running around. then you got that clueless flying dragon killer with tattoos all over like van damm's thai opponent...then again, one of the blade maker's workers also mysteriously got kung fu and sword killing technique from nowhere...then you got those bandits looting and killing people for nothing, and mostly sucked of all, the fighting scenes were nothing but a mess...wow, what a crazy and clueless mess.
this director's movie is everything but at the same time, nothing. trying so hard to draw a tiger's picture but turned out to be like a poppy. what a pathetic mess.
Customer Rating: Summary: Excellent drama ,acting and shooting Comment: This film is not about martial-arts. You wont see Jet Li or Jackie Chan flip in the air twice before a kick ,or wonderfully choreographed fighting scenes. It is the best HK drama I've ever seen.
About feelings ,and what they can make us do ,or achive. Ofcourse ,there are fights ,the protagonist must avenge his father ,but it's more about the revenge itself ,the drive ,than about how it's done. A story of human beings in a time and place so extreme ,that they are driven to the extreme themselves. great tale ,shot with more sensativity (and brutality) than any other film I saw.
Customer Rating: Summary: A film above all in it's genre! Comment: I have never seen anything like it. Beautiful camera, settings, story line, everything. The action is unmatched, and the fighting was so intense you would almost believe it was all real. This movie definately is a must see for any film lover, not just martial arts films. My all time favorite on screen hero, and im sure he'll be yours after you see this film. Customer Rating: Summary: Good Drama Comment: When I bought this movie I thought that I was about to behold one of the best fighting movies ever from all the rave reviews that I have read.But instead I got a very Dramatic intellectually challenging story line with complex subtitles that sometimes resemble a good novel.But as for fights this movie didn't pack much punch until the end although this movie does contain some very inventive and well coordinated fight scenes by no means should this movie be rated along those merits but rather for being a very well filmed,superbly acted,dramatic piece of HK cinema.Buy it for the story,very enjoyable,4 stars Customer Rating: Summary: THE BLADE Comment: The Blade is a classic Hong Kong movie. It's full of the ingredients that make Hong Kong action movies so cool - excellent martial arts, fantastic swordplay and an underlying theme of friendship and honour. If i have any criticism to make about the movie it's because sometimes it's just that little bit too hyper-kinetic. But who cares when the action this eye-bleedingly good. Now if only Tsui Hark would stop using Van Damme in his Hollywood movies and get Mark Dacascos or Jet Li instead.
