The Legend of the Shadowless Sword is a flawless example of a Chinese martial arts film - however, it is actually Korean. All of the heirs to a kingdom have been killed except one, a exiled scapegrace who has been spending his time away drinking and carousing. A beautiful swordswoman, So Yi Yun is sent to retrieve him, and guard him until he is back in his kingdom.
There are many wonderfully staged fights, some humor, fine cinematography, a plot you can follow - in general, a state of the art wu-xia movie. Highly recommended.
The Shaw Brothers' 1976 The Magic Blade on the other hand, is not quite so delightful. I suppose it gets points for being an early instance of the modern wu-xia genre (sword fight movies), which the Shaw Bros. could be said to have invented. The story involves a pair of squabbling good guys against a gaggle of bad guys, fighting for control of the Peacock Dart, a funky explosive super weapon. The weapons are wild, the fights fantastic, the plot is convoluted and... I fell asleep before it was over.
That doesn't mean that it's bad, but honestly, I would skip over this one unless I were trying to complete my Shaw Bros. experience. Go with Shadowless Sword instead.
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Inspirations and Obsessions
Podcasts
Movie Time!
Blog Archive
About Me
- Beveridge D. Spenser
- I'm Beveridge D. Spenser, but you can call me Cool Bev. Or Fruity Bev. I'm 6'2", so Tall Bev also applies.
2 comments:
Yeah, I enjoyed Shadowless Sword considerably - particularly the crystal-sharp cinematography and the charismatic heroine/villainess stand-off. The narrative was indeed model wu xia stuff. Some points deducted for those red powdery deaths, though. I wasn't sure if that was an attempt at something visually original or an attempt to skirt some sort of censorship. Either way: silly.
I had forgotten the red powder blood. I guess I figured it for "style" like Frank Miller's white blood.
Post a Comment