Siu ngo gong woo

The first part of the Swordsman trilogy can be compared to a wuxiapian version of "Star Wars": it boasts paladins of the sword and virtue, leaders of sects being deranged by thirst of power and ambition, plus a musical score no less epic than the Lucas movie soundtrack. The story centers on the theft of the "Sacred Book of Power", a scroll which can bestow invincibility on the bearer and which everyone wants to attain for themselves. The only one unaffected by the hypocrisy and egotism that such search generate seems protagonist Lin "of the Wah Mountain", who regards swordsmanship as an art rather than as a means of dominating the rivals and who would prefer a quiet life of wine and singing, but unwittingly is thrown into the turmoil of the clash between sects. Besides the epic tone, a couple of other factors contribute to the success of the movie:

• the richness of the people who, friends or foes, surround Lin. Much attention is put to their characterization: as they have different age, background, culture and social status, every one has his/her own distinct way of speaking, of acting and harbors different desires, in accordance to their position. In particular, the character "Blue Phoenix" is full of surprises! while Sharla Cheung donates charisma, regalia and beauty to her role.

• the awkwardness of the "hero": he and his pupil don't exactly "aid" their ally in the beginning of the movie and in general are quite fun to watch! 8/10

...the plot needs to be tightened up a bit.

The first in Tsui Hark's Swordsman trilogy of movies adapted from a book or series of books (I'm not sure which) suffers from a wandering plotlines that seem to go nowhere. Interesting characters appear briefly to show off, then suddenly drop out of the plotline. In other movie adaptations, this happens in an effort to stay true to the book, but I, being chinese illiterate, can't tell you whether that's true for this series.

Despite the scattered presentation, the thrust of the plot seems to have a strong overall direction, perhaps thanks to the novel(s). The bad guys are well established as both evil and deadly. A few stereotypes are thrown into the mix. Not many people in the American audience "got" the female voiceover for the eunuch. A theme of betrayal is used effectively.

The martial arts work is good! Characters magically fly through the air and attack each other with kinetic ferocity. They destroy various objects wit h invisible forces from their palms or flicks(!) with ease thanks to slick editing and some simple effects. The effects fly at you so fast that it all seems believable. Yet Swordsman I is only a preview of a more masterful use of this stable of effects in Swordsman II.

Main complaint is that Song. Anyone who sees the movie will know the Song I'm talking about! Maybe because of casting Sam Hui, a by-then-aging HK pop star, the Song, gets repeated as a musical number no less than 3 times, including once as a flashback! Perhaps that's why he was replaced in the role by Jet Li in the sequel.

I found the English subtitling to be of the usual poor accuracy.

This movie has all the ingredients needed for a great martial arts movie: The base for this movie is that a powerful martial arts scroll has gone missing and everyone and their eunuch is out to find it.

Throw in several clans, each with their own unique martial arts style.

Stir in a shifty official with an even shiftier underling.

Add several dashes of mistaken identity.

Several betrayals and double crosses add a touch of spice to the film.

Quickly add an old martial arts master, snake throwing poisoners, and a mysterious birthmark.

To top off add a song bellowed by two old men that will never leave your head, and you have the best movie in all the Five Ranges!

If none of these things made sense, then watch the movie as soon as you can, it will all be very clear.

Since Swordsman 2 is one of my favorites, I was delighted to find part one finally released on DVD. It is nearly as good, even better in some ways.

If you have not seen either, start with this one and get ready to enjoy 4 hours of primo wuxia.

Too bad that the cast completely changed between the 2 films (except for the excellent Fennie Yuen as Blue Phoenix) Most of the players in part one are as good, and I even preferred Cheung Man as Chief Ying to Rosamund Kwan who takes over in part two. I do think Jet Li in 2 is far better than Sam Hui in this one. Jet copies Sam Hui's style and character well, but is far more athletic and intense which really helps the action scenes in part 2. Sam sings well at least, which is important considering how much singing of "Hero of heroes" there is in part one!

A note about the cast list above: Michelle Reis and Rosamund Kwan are NOT in this film. Kiddo is played by Cecilia Yip and Ying by Cheung Man.

A classic pair of films then. Too bad part 3, "The East is Red" was such a letdown. The first two films stand on their own though, so no real loss.

One warning, if you are new to wuxia or Hong Kong films in general you may find the action in these films often too fast and incomprehensible. Repeated viewing will accustom you to the pacing, as well as allowing you to savor all the rich density of the storyline and its numerous characters.

I bought this for 2 bux at a video store cause i thought it seemed good and it had jet Li in it. but i didn't really think it was a very good film. the story is good and some of the action scenes are pretty cool but some of them are at night and are hard to see. some of them also seem sort of stupid looking when they jump around because it looks unrealistic. it is a good film don't get me wrong but they should've filmed it better. i was a bit bored by it but i didn't really mind it. it's not the best kung fu film i have seen but it's better than some i've seen. you should check it out if you don't mind bad lighting and some bad camera angles (not many though)