Swordsman: La légende d'un guerrier

Having been a big fan of Hong-kong fantasy action movies(chinese ghost story 1,2,3..and etc..) especially I completely captivated by this one. When I first saw this movie, I was only 14. this movie was brought a great popularity and main stars Brigitte Lin and Jet li became household name in here, South Korea. I still remember when these two stars visited here to promote, Brigitte Lin had to escaped from being run over by her fans in Korea.

She plays "Asia the invincible" who's gave up his manly symbol to become the best sword man. Jet li plays another great sword man who's pure, sincere to his belief. On the way to find his men, came across "Asia the invincible" several times. although "Asia the invincible" is a villain who's so brutal when he eliminates his enemy, starts attracted to Jet li. and Jet li does too.

But the development relationship between Jet li and "Asia the invincible" can hardly describe. actually both of them are men. It can be called "Homosexual interest". but it doesn't a big deal. In fact I think this made this movie more unique, and sensual, joyful to watch.

Striking, powerful performance by Brigitte. she had been my idol for years. it's a really pity that she had disappear from the screen after getting married. it's a role really hard to play. but she's charismatic enough to command the whole movie. her last scene still haunting me. can't believe she was almost 40 when she did shoot this one.

The early Jet li so cute, and I really admire his martial arts skills( although most of his martial arts here are computer-generated or wire actions ) I can't count how many times I've seen this movie. action sequences so beautiful and stunning. See this movie. it will be unusual experience!!!

Provided you are slightly interested in fantasy, horror, and a little kung-fu, this film is the best in the genre. Great choreography and music, ok humor, very good lighting, nearly perfect sound (unlike many fantasy flicks), a very good story and colorful and dynamic cinematography (Lau Moon Tong) that surpasses even Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (Lee, 2000) sometimes though it is nine years older. On every other fields CTHD is simply crushed by this fabulous film. I can't believe CTHD got 22843 votes and Swordsman 2 less than 1% of that. Mwahahahehe: have all these guys missed something! :-P

In Asia Jet Li is very famous and most Chinese who are interested in movies will probably have seen this already. In the rest of the world this is probably only seen by people who liked Evil Dead (Raimi, 1982), Chinese Ghost Story (also directed by Siu-Tung Ching, 1987) AND at recently CTHD. Featured are Recoiling whip, Flying bomb, Rotation of the stars (massive action scene with 6 swordfighters), Essence absorbing stance, Invincible Dawn, Kiddo and Scum Bag (last two are characters). Some of the story elements are hard to follow, but that doesn't diminish the entertaining value (story continues AND action continues): just go see it again if you didn't understand it 8-)

THIS is groundbreaking: not CTHD. The action scenes in CTHD may be shot beautifully and without many cuts, but Swordsman 2 definitely has more fantasy and the director isn't afraid of showing blood like Ang Lee WAS unfortunately. Swordsman 2 tries to embed the story in Japanese civil war and therefore the film starts with Japanese swordfighters (speaking Kantonese though) and Japanese music. After the titles we are left with gravity-defying swordfighters of Chinese AND Japanese origin and ninjas as they fight in South China in the 22nd year of Emperor Sun. Also there is a megalomaniac who slowly changes into a woman and there is a girl who constantly is mistaken for a man (not exactly like Vasquez in 'Aliens'). Don't ask for the significance of that plz. Swordsman 2 (haven't seen part 1 yet) is NOT over-rated with 8.6 (211 votes), and provided you liked Iron Monkey (Woo-Ping Yuen, 1993), this one will blow you out of your socks and chop you in half. Finally, the popular Stormriders (Wai Keung Lau, 1998) also couldn't come near this masterpiece.

10 points out of 10 :-)

Ling Wu Chung (Jet Li) is a great young swordsman with a big problem: the question on which side he shall fight means only choosing the lesser of two evils. On one hand, there is master Wu (Shi-Kwan Yen) who became mad during his imprisonment. Ling frees him from the prison, but does not wish to support Wu's cruel and merciless vengeance afterwards. On the other hand, there is Asia (Brigitte Lin), a wicked, mysterious woman of great beauty who hides many secrets from Ling and cannot be trusted. The movie has many wild, over the top action scenes from the director of "Chinese Ghost Story", but it was impossible to find a happy ending for it. Along with the sad music, visual beauty and spectacular effects, without a doubt a classic of its genre in the 1990s. My only little grudge is that the characters in the first Swordsman movie were more sympathetic than here in the sequel.

You know it's going to be a wild ride when bodies are being chopped in half five seconds into the film. The manic pace of this film never lets up, the assault of flashing swords, flying bodies, snakes, needles, throwing stars, whips, needles and kitchen sinks (all right, not really, but I think you get my point) is almost too much to absorb all in one sitting. But what really makes the film is the striking performance by Brigitte Lin as the villain. She's fast becoming my favourite HK actress, and her wicked performance here is a big reason why. Her character is so captivating that the next "Swordsman" film was apparently centered around her character. The only letdown is that for the bulk of the film, she's dubbed (with a male voice), but since that's integral to the plot, I'll let it slide. For fans of HK fantasy/action films, this is very much worth your while.

Asia the invincible? what the hell's that? the guy's surname is Dong Fang, which is a normal chinese surname, means "the east", he call himeself Bu Bai, coz he has not, did not, and thinks would not be defeated, so it means The Undefeated.

I know translation is a tough job, no matter how good you think you did, you still cannot transform all the meanings, undertones, indications in a culture sense. But not like this one! This is a very beautiful movie, all the lines, the scenes, the costumes, all very authenticly chinese, and stunning. And the poems recited in the movie, and the haunting song...hate to see all of these been ruined by the rediculous translantion.

You know, many things are just not meant to be translated, many words in chinese, they just can't be properly translated, such as "tian xia","qian kun", they are somewhat close to the meaning of "the world", but never is in the same sense of it.

So, for those who deminished the plot of the movie, I just wana tell you, it was based on one of the best selling Wuxia books in China, and the lines, they are very beautiful, in chinese. And for those who talked about the wire works, hello, this is a fantasy movie, and even with the wiring, have you ever seen body movements as beautiful as this in other movies, say the matrix? Wiring doesn't neccesarily mean it's not googd KongFu, This movie has some of the best fight scenes I have ever seen, wiring is only a basic requirement for action fantasies, but the thing they did with the fight scene, that's art, man. You have to be a KongFu master and an artist at the same time to be able to design, to creat such beautiful things.

In short, advice for people from America, Europe, Africa...no-china£¬If you wana have a better understanding of the movie, READ THE BOOK FIRST, and before that, LEARN SOME CHINESE! :)