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Legend of The Swordsman, The
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment // Unrated // September 24, 2002
List Price: $29.99 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
Wires wires everywhere! Wow, there is an awful lot of flying around in this movie. All the characters know how to defy gravity in these supernatural martial arts films, but in this film no one is really special since everyone is doing it. There are even many scenes where the wires are clearly visible. I have seen only a handful of martial arts genre films so I am no expert on Hong Kong films, but I have seen several I really like with plans to see many more. It has been said that the real english translation of this film from "Xiao ao jiang hu zhi dong fang bu bai" is "Swordman 2", so I am unaware of why it is now called "the Legend of the Swordsman" on the DVD.
A young swordsman, Ling Wei (Jet Li) and the followers of the Sun Moon Sect are making a journey to the mountains to abandon the violent ways of the swordsmans life. They find that their clans leader, Master Wu, has been overtaken by Asia the Invincible (Bridgette Lin) and his highlander Clan, which is helped by some Japanese ninjas. Ling is largely indifferent and would sooner give up the fighting for a jug of wine. Ling encounters Asia in a strange aerial display on a lake, but through a combination of his drunkeness, hormones, and Asia's feminine features, believes Asia to be a woman. Asia leads Ling on and uses this advantage to capture Ling, conveniently putting him in the dungeon where the Sects leader, Master Wu, has been imprisoned. Reunited with his clan and using the hooks that imprisoned him as weapons, Master Wu is bent on destroying Asia. Ling is again, taken away and tricked by Asia, and returns to the Sect only to find almost everyone killed. Master Wu, Ling, and the three remaining members face off against Asia, but they find a hollow victory as Master Wu has gone insane and become just as drunk with power as Asia.
This film doesnt seem too grounded in any sort of reality. I understand it's a 'fantasy' style film, but the time spent on these hyper-realistic action fight sequences foreshadows any real story going on. Even when characters greet each other they do it with a 5 minute aerial display of swords swinging and leaf bouncing. It just gets a little silly when every character has these abilities and they are over-used in the film. A characters strength and abilities to fight should be secondary to his moral strength. Jet Li's character seems to have multiple love interests, all of which go nowhere and a strong desire to drink as much wine as possible. He bounces around with silly lines and a confusing boy-ish disposition leaving me unsure as to what part he plays in this film. The imagination to create all these intense acrobatic displays is indeed impressive and inventive, but its like a film trying to rely on special effects to make it a success - it just doesn't work without a good story. I can see how the silly slappy melodrama can be cute and comical in its over-the-top style, but this wears thin on me after awhile. This DVD version has apparently been cut down by at least 10 minutes in running time from the original.
VIDEO: 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen. Colors look rich and accurate. There is a lot of action, but I didn't notice any bad artifacts in the picture. Very little if any edge enhancement is noticed.
AUDIO: The 2.0 Dolby Digital track quality is dull and lacks any real use of dynamic range. English captions are included and the only audio is the English dub. This is really a disappointment to leave out the original recorded dialog. I believe there is another version of this DVD with the original audio intact.
MENUS: The menu designs are static and easy to navigate.
BONUS MATERIALS: Six Sneak Peeks - Dimension Cutting Edge Films, The Accidental Spy, Jet Li The Master, The Legend 2, Iron Monkey, and Gangs of New York.
Final Thought: Legend of the Swordsman is Lightning Quick action Hong Kong style. If you are a die-hard fan of the martial arts genre and love HK style films then this film will no doubt appeal to you. If you are new to Hong Kong film and love the more story driven traditional films like "Iron Monkey", and "Crouching Tiger...", then this may be a bit overwhelming and disjointed to you. I recommend renting it.
A young swordsman, Ling Wei (Jet Li) and the followers of the Sun Moon Sect are making a journey to the mountains to abandon the violent ways of the swordsmans life. They find that their clans leader, Master Wu, has been overtaken by Asia the Invincible (Bridgette Lin) and his highlander Clan, which is helped by some Japanese ninjas. Ling is largely indifferent and would sooner give up the fighting for a jug of wine. Ling encounters Asia in a strange aerial display on a lake, but through a combination of his drunkeness, hormones, and Asia's feminine features, believes Asia to be a woman. Asia leads Ling on and uses this advantage to capture Ling, conveniently putting him in the dungeon where the Sects leader, Master Wu, has been imprisoned. Reunited with his clan and using the hooks that imprisoned him as weapons, Master Wu is bent on destroying Asia. Ling is again, taken away and tricked by Asia, and returns to the Sect only to find almost everyone killed. Master Wu, Ling, and the three remaining members face off against Asia, but they find a hollow victory as Master Wu has gone insane and become just as drunk with power as Asia.
This film doesnt seem too grounded in any sort of reality. I understand it's a 'fantasy' style film, but the time spent on these hyper-realistic action fight sequences foreshadows any real story going on. Even when characters greet each other they do it with a 5 minute aerial display of swords swinging and leaf bouncing. It just gets a little silly when every character has these abilities and they are over-used in the film. A characters strength and abilities to fight should be secondary to his moral strength. Jet Li's character seems to have multiple love interests, all of which go nowhere and a strong desire to drink as much wine as possible. He bounces around with silly lines and a confusing boy-ish disposition leaving me unsure as to what part he plays in this film. The imagination to create all these intense acrobatic displays is indeed impressive and inventive, but its like a film trying to rely on special effects to make it a success - it just doesn't work without a good story. I can see how the silly slappy melodrama can be cute and comical in its over-the-top style, but this wears thin on me after awhile. This DVD version has apparently been cut down by at least 10 minutes in running time from the original.
VIDEO: 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen. Colors look rich and accurate. There is a lot of action, but I didn't notice any bad artifacts in the picture. Very little if any edge enhancement is noticed.
AUDIO: The 2.0 Dolby Digital track quality is dull and lacks any real use of dynamic range. English captions are included and the only audio is the English dub. This is really a disappointment to leave out the original recorded dialog. I believe there is another version of this DVD with the original audio intact.
MENUS: The menu designs are static and easy to navigate.
BONUS MATERIALS: Six Sneak Peeks - Dimension Cutting Edge Films, The Accidental Spy, Jet Li The Master, The Legend 2, Iron Monkey, and Gangs of New York.
Final Thought: Legend of the Swordsman is Lightning Quick action Hong Kong style. If you are a die-hard fan of the martial arts genre and love HK style films then this film will no doubt appeal to you. If you are new to Hong Kong film and love the more story driven traditional films like "Iron Monkey", and "Crouching Tiger...", then this may be a bit overwhelming and disjointed to you. I recommend renting it.
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