Have Sword, Will Travel

This is a good old-fashioned movie in the style of wu-chia, full of sword fighting, flying, and, needless to say, a bit of romance.With these kinds of films, it may take a little while to catch on to the plot; I don't know whether it would be easier to view it in the original language and not have to rely on captions. But give it twenty minutes, and the states of affairs will become clear. Without giving away anything obvious, the plot centers on the transportation of a rather sizeable amount of money, the various people whose mission it is to protect it, and the robbers who want to make off with it.If by the second half you have already figured out the most likely ending, you're probably right, but it isn't really obvious for the characters of the script, and I won't tell you what it is. The fight scenes are great. Of course, they're improbable, if not impossible. That's what wu-chia is all about. The highly improbable must becomes the possible after all.In this connection, it might be helpful to point out that, although the characters refers to their skills in martial arts as "kung fu," films in the wu-chia goes far beyond the venerable style of of the original Shaolin methods of unarmed go far beyond fighting without weapons.Wu-chia is the style that was most dominant for Hong Kong films prior to the advent and hey-day of strictly Kung Fu films, spearheaded by Bruce Lee. Jet Li and Jackie Chan, among others, continued that style, but with the advent of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and the re-issue of Iron Monkey, wu-chia has made a big comeback.Once you've caught on to the plot, it seems to be pretty straight-forward, but there are a sufficient number of scenarios to keep you on your toes and not take anything fro granted. Defying all medical odds, injuries that you and I would consider to be fatal wounds , will not inhibit a central character to continue to fight his heart out.The subtitles aren't perfect, but not to far from the ideal.I've seen a few reviewers of Hong Kong films refer wu-chia as "wire fu," a really ignorant description and that's revealing of the character of some of the reviewers. If you spend an entire rainy Sunday afternoon going through a Hong Kong film trying to find the one place where a wire might actually show up, I wish you the opportunity to make a little bit more your life.Overall a very nice film though not in the class of Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, and Jet Li. A wu-chia director and easily make use of wu-chia devices to get a character out of a spot of trouble without exerting his fighting techniques.Overall, a nice addition to the ever-increasing wu-chia films, but don't a Crouching Tiger.

First off, I've been a huge martial arts movie fan in general, and a Shaw Brothers fan in particular since I was a kid when I used to watch Drive-In Movie on Saturday afternoon. All I can say is God bless Image Entertainment. Getting your hands on decent versions of Shaw Brothers' classics in the past were very frustrating. Celestial Pictures (thanks to Vee King Shaw) made the right move totally restoring these classics. Unfortunately, they were only Region 3 and could only be bought through a HK website. I know Red Sun was doing a great job at restoring and releasing SB flicks (just ask the Morgoth dude), but I could never find them. Now we have Image, yes!The movie itself is the second film the godfather of HK cinema, Chang Cheh, made with his "first team", which mainly consisted of Ti Lung & David Chiang. It's the usual Chang classic involving brotherhood, intrigue, honor, bloodshed (lots of it), chivalry and redemption. I'm not going to go into the plot because it's already given in the editorial review & product description. Let me just say that it's a period piece, and the choreography is old-school. The choreography isn't bad, but it lacks the finesse of Bruce Lee (who came later), and it lacks the quickness and precision of the Venoms, Jackie Chan, Samo Hung or Jet Li. So what, it's a great film.Now as for the DVD, crystal clear picture - really shows the glossy SB cinematography, perfect widescreen, original Mandarin language track and remastered subtitles. If you like Chang Cheh, Shaw Brothers and old-school fu (like me) get this. This is definitely the way these films should be seen. That goes for "The Wandering Swordsman", "The Water Margin" & "Legendary Weapons of China". I'm sure the Morgoth dude concurs.

Movie is in Mandarin with English subtitles. This is a very artsy movie that includes romance, sword fights, jealousy and good vs. bad. This movie has the feel of cowboy movies. A loner travels through a town on his horse and he's low on cash and is a good guy. The town has a security company that has to transport $200,000 to the capital for the government. The owner of the company is an old man named Ko Fong, who normally can fend off anyone. Outside the town is a bandit that is stationed at a pagoda tower waiting for the opportunity to attach the security transport. However, this time around Mr. Ko Fong is sick and lost his ability to fight, but he doesn't want anyone to know because that would weaken the company's reputation and would cause bandits to pounce on his transports. To keep his secret, he brings on his niece and her boyfriend on the journey as they are highly skilled fighters who can substitute for him. However, his niece, not confident that they can truly protect the convoy invites the loner to help them. The loner complies as he likes her and she's into him, but this creates jealousy with the boyfriend, so the love triangle creates friction withing the company while still having to protect the loot.

This, in my opinion, is one of the better blood splattered Chinese swordsplay movie by the director considered The Godfather of this genre of movies from Hong Kong. Some people make fun of the male lead David Chiang being extra small and skinny, but he is one of the most nimble, as well as the fastest and swiftest sword fighter I have seen. He may not be classically handsome, but there is something cute and charming about him, especially when he smiles. The lead actress Li Ching is lovely, and the other lead actor Ti Lung is very striking and handsome (even though he wasn’t given too much opportunity to act in the screenplay). The love triangle is quite understandable and touching. I am moved by the scene where the penniless Chiang sold his beloved horse for very little money and Li Ching bought the horse back for him. And for that, she won his heart — enough for him to be willing to sacrifice his life to save the man to whom she was betrothed.