Sword Fish

Sword Master (2016) is an odd one. I put it on because it was streaming and Ms. Spenser had some work to catch up on. She doesn't care much for kung fu movies, and it doesn't disturb her if I watch them if the dialog is in Chinese. Also, it was directed by Derek Yee, but produced by Tsui Hark.

It starts with a fight on a bridge above a frozen river. A sword master fights an assassin (Peter Ho) with the skull of a snake tattooed over his face. The assassin wins - I guess that isn't the sword master of the title.

That would be Lin Gengxin, who wants to hide his identity. He spends all his money in a house of dancing girls, and winds up working there as a lowly janitor. When Snake-face comes to fight him, his clan tells him he is dead. Now Snake-face has no one left to beat - his life is hollow and empty, and he is dying of a fatal illness (?).

Of course, they meet unknowing, and the master/janitor teaches the assassin/Snake-face all his tricks and philosophy - before either knows that they will have to fight to the death in the last act.

There are also some stories about the dancing girls. One is an aristocrat with martial arts skills. Another is a country girl, keeping her family fed on the wages of sin. At least I think that's the case. There may have been a few more. Once the women are in dancing girl make-up, it's pretty hard to tell who's who.

In fact, I wasn't sure about a lot of what was going on. These martial arts films are always a little puzzling to me. But I don't mind if the spectacle is wild enough.

And this one certainly is spectacular. Wild and fun.