If the title of Chang Cheh's 1969 martial arts/sword play film Have Sword Will Travel sounds familiar, that's because the production borrowed it's name to a certain extent from the popular TV western series, Have Gun Will Travel. The film has more in common with that series than simply its name, however, as it's basically a western set in China.

After a fantastic opening credits sequence where swordsman fly around and slash at one another, we meet Siang (Ti Lung) and Piau-Piau (the adorable Li Ching), two martial artists who are soon to be wed. These two answer to their master, Lord In (Cheng Miu), who is known for his ability to escort large shipments of valuables through bandit infested territory. In is getting on in years, however, and so when is asked to help bring a massive cache of gold across the province, he opts to send Siang and Piau-Piau in his place. He does this so that people won't think that he's in cahoots with the bandits, which is what he is told will happen if he denies the request.

As our two heroes begin their journey they soon run afoul of a gang of bad guys called the Flying Tiger gang, lead by Jiao Hong (Guk Fung), who are intent on stealing the gold and keeping it for themselves. When a strange but highly skilled swordsman named Yi Lo (David Chiang) and his horse show up in the area, he winds up saving Piau-Piau from the Flying Tigers just in time. Siang shows up a little too late to help out and Piau-Piau insists that Siang invite Yi Lo to accompany them to the Invincible City. Siang doesn't trust this man, however, and for good reason as it doesn't take long before he notices that Yi Lo is making eyes at his lady and that she's not at all upset by this recent turn of events.

Despite their differences, Yi Lo and Siang eventually team up to get the gold to its destination. They know that they need one another's help if they're going to make it through the Flying Tiger's territory which is laden with traps and which is patrolled by a spear fighter named Pestilence (Chan Sing) and a mute named Ghost Shadow (Wong Chung) who has insanely cool jumping abilities and martial skill.

An interesting story of how two men must put aside their differences and team up for the greater good, Have Sword Will Travel is a stylish swordplay movie full of the heroic male characters that Chang Cheh's films are known for. Yi Lo is akin to many of the lone gunfighter characters that were popular in Spaghetti Westerns of the time and despite the prominent romantic subplot, the film builds to a fairly violent conclusion full of slow motion accent shots and bloodshed. While the movie takes a little while to get there and doesn't provide as much action as a lot of martial arts movies made around the same time did, the finale makes it all worth while as our two heroes square off against the toughest that the Flying Tigers have to offer.

Performance wise, everyone is quite good in his or her respective roles with David Chiang stealing the show. His Yi Lo is a man of few works but does a great job of expressing himself with his eyes and his face. While the other performers might better him when it comes to martial arts form, none of them top him in terms of sheer coolness. The fight choreography in the movie is strong, with a big emphasis put on weapons fighting rather than traditional hand-to-hand kung fu combat. This gives the movie some additional flair and keeps it visually interesting even if many of the fights in the film are fairly quick and to the point. Piau-Piau's penchant for throwing little knives at her enemies is pretty nifty as are many of Pestilence's spear fighting maneuvers.

Chang Cheh would go on to make faster paced and bloodier fight films than this one but even with some pacing issues Have Sword Will Travel is a strong earlier effort from the man who would go on to give us classics like Vengeance and The Five Deadly Venoms.

The DVD

Video:

The 2.35.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer on this release is good, but like the Image/Shaw Brothers titles that have been release prior, it isn't perfect. Again, those with larger progressive scan set-ups will no doubt pick up on some combing and mild motion blurring, marring what is otherwise a very nice picture. If you can look past that problem (and really, it's there but it's should ruin the movie for anyone and it certainly isn't as pronounced here as it was on the first few Image/Shaw releases), you'll find that the image is clean, clear and strong. Transfer issues aside, the color reproduction looks just slightly toned down here, though there is a really nice level of both foreground and background detail present from start to finish. Flesh tones look lifelike and natural and there are no compression artifacts to complain about nor is there an abundance of film grain or debris noticeable on the picture.