David Chiang was a child actor before he joined the Shaw Brothers Studio as a stuntman and fight instructor; after seeing potential in him, director Chang Chen started to groom him. After the sudden departure of their biggest star, Jimmy Wang Yu, Shaw was looking for a replacement which led to the pairing of Chiang and Ti Lung in films like “Dead End” and “Have Sword, Will Travel” in 1969. However, with “The Wandering Swordsman” Chiang had a chance to shine as a solo leading star without Ti Lung hanging around him.
The film kicks off with a happy-go-lucky nameless young man (David Chiang) who prefers people to call him the “Wandering Swordsman”, quietly trailing two bandits who plan to rob a rich family. He shows up later and takes the loot from one of them during their getaway and gives it all away to a group of flood refugees including his own money. Back in town and after a meal, he has to hand over his twin swords as payment but a swordsman offers to buy them. H0ping to get his swords back, he follows the swordsman and before long, he finds himself involved with Kung Wu (Chang Pei Shan) and his followers.
In any case, the cunning Kung, also known as “Fail Safe” manages to convince him to join them in robing an escort agency in order to give the wealth to the poor. After discovering that Kung has no intensions to help the poor but plans to sell off what they have stolen, he realizes that he has done the wrong thing and decides to steal back from Kung and his gang of cut throats.
David Chiang is perfectly cast as the skillful, twin short sword wielding wandering swordsman with a smirk, who likes to toys with his adversaries. In addition, he is young, playful and inexperienced which eventually leads to his downfall. Still, he has a good heart; he gives all his bounty which he takes from the bandits to the poor. Furthermore, Chiang is convincing in portraying all those qualities especially with his infectious smiles and charms which will later become his trademark. But this light-hearted character is a far cry from the stone-faced and hardened wuxia hero he portrayed in “Have Sword, Will Travel”.
Likewise, Lily Li is equally good as the moody Jiang Ning, the young swordswoman who takes a shine to Chiang's character after a chance meeting. Βesides adding a much welcomed female touch among all the male characters, she is pretty mean with her sword too. As the main antagonist, “Fail Safe” Kung Wu, Shaw regular Chang Pei Shan is absolutely delightful playing the crafty and persuasive mastermind who leads a group of colourful but blood thirty bandits.
The other notable aspect of this production is the amazing collection of supporting actors. The forever charismatic Wu Ma shows up as “Foxy” Hou Jiou who uses a whip and wears a red outfit with two roles of darts striped to his chest. A young Chen Sing appears as “Iron King” Jung Sz Ha, a follower of Kung, while muscle man Cheng Lui cruises in as Chief Jiang Wei of the escort agency. However, the icing on the cake is the bodybuilder Mr. Hong Kong himself, the awesome Yang Sze, better known as Bolo in his first and too brief Shaw Brothers appearance as swordsman Unicorn Du.
Credited as the fight directors, Yuen Cheung Yan and Chan Siu Pan's action choreography is decent enough to keep the fans happy but it hardly reaches the level of greatness. Interestingly, each combatant has his own unique signature weapon but the emphasis is on sword fights. There is the heavy use of wires and trampoline particularly in the beginning as we see the wandering swordsman do his ching kung (light weight skill) routine. However the action mood takes a swing from playfulness to a more serious and bloody affair towards the end which is the film's highlight.
Still “The Wandering Swordsman” is a fairly solid and entertaining early sword fighting wuxia from Chang Cheh and writer Ni Kuang which features a youthful and charming David Chiang as a spirited but flawed hero which actually makes him more compelling and whole.
