HK cinema had a tendency to employ many people during a film production, but “The Swordsman” must be a unique case. King Hu, Ching Siu-Tung, Tsui Hark, Raymond Lee, Ann Hui and Andrew Kam are referred as directors and Wong Ying, Edward leung, Tai Foo-ho, Lam Kee-to, Lau Tai-muk and Kwan Man-leung as scriptwriters. Btw, this is not an omnibus, just a compact movie based on a novel by Louis Cha titled “The Smiling, Proud Wanderer”. Of course, there is a story here, since King Hu was originally credited as the director, but allegedly left the project midway, and the film was completed by a team led by producer Tsui Hark. Ann Hui was also part of the team, although uncredited, and since we tend to be completionists here at AMP, we decided to include “The Swordsman” in her project.
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The story is set in 16th-century China during the Ming dynasty. Gu Jinfu, a eunuch from the spy agency Eastern Depot, leads a team to retrieve the Sunflower Manual, a martial arts manual stolen from the imperial palace. They track down and attack the thief, Lin Zhennan. Around this time, Fox and Kiddo, who are returning to Mount Hua martial arts school, get involved in the case, with Lin telling Fox the location of the book and begging him to tell the secret to his son, Lin Pingzhi. Expectedly, the whole deal draws much attention to the duo in their return back, with a number of people, including swordsman Feng Qingyang and another duo who perform a musical piece and entrust it to Fox, getting involved with them. Furthermore, our protagonist learns at some point that his master is not exactly who he thought him to be.
Expectedly, when one considers all the people involved here, the tonal issues that appear throughout are to be expected, to a point at least. Particularly the fact that at points, the directors are not sure if the movie is a martial arts drama or a comedy, becomes painfully evident, with the transition between the two not working at all, either. Furthermore, the musical moments add even more to this aspect, while the story frequently appears as a kind of soap opera, particularly due to the interactions between men and women. These include some notions of sensualism, but for the most part, make very little sense, with a number of scenes involving women essentially being here just for fanservice.
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The aforementioned issues, though, do not mean that the movie is not fun. On the contrary, it remains entertaining from beginning to end, mostly due to two aspects: the action and the casting/acting. Regarding the former, the wire-fu finds one of its zeniths here, with the characters flying around constantly during their fights, while the way comedy is mixed with the violence is excellent to behold. Essentially all of the plethora of action scenes are impressive, with the ones in the boat, the one involving snakes, and the final ones, being the most memorable. Ching Siu-tung won an award for Best Action Choreography at the 10th Hong Kong Film Awards which is utterly deserved.
Sam Hui as Fox and Cecilia Yip as Kiddo present a captivating duo, with his cockiness and humor and her tomboyish style (except from when she is taking a bath) providing a rather appealing antithesis. Han Ying-chieh as Feng Qingyang is iconic by himself in his final performance. Jacky Cheung as Ouyang Quan is a great villain, while Sharla Cheung as Ren Yingying and Fennie Yuen as Lan Fenghuang are among the most memorable secondary characters here. Lastly, Lau Siu-ming as Yue Buqun, the final villain, plays the part with gusto.
Andy Lam and Peter Pau’s cinematography highlight the fact that this was a big budget production, with the presentation of the plethora of settings being as impressive as the action scenes. Marco Mak and David Wu’s editing result in an expectedly frantic pace that mirrors the chaos of the story, and occasionally masks the gaps in logic.
Although not a Shaw Brothers production, the movie follows the recipe of the iconic company, having, though, better production values. The chaos and the lack of logic are here as always, but so is the fun, which definitely makes “The Swordsman” a film worth watching. Now I am only curious to know what exactly Ann Hui did in the film.
