Zhi zhuan yi jian

Not as convoluted as any Chu Yuan's films, but it's business as usual: revenge plot, a magic sword, and sacred scroll among others. The first half wasn't that impressive, especially with the silly sped-up action. The second half was like making The Supreme Swordsman a different film altogether. The actions and suspense were more polished with some interesting plot development.

From about 1965 to 1985 the Shaw Brothers studio produced some of the most lavish & spectacular action films ever made. Many of them still stand up well to modern films, though there are obvious stylistic & choreography differences, they are not always 'advances'. In fact it is almost impossible to do action scenes as well (intricate long takes, suburb forms etc) due to the lack of fully trained talent.

This film is one of the last Shaw's productions- and also one of its best, up there with gang Master, Lady Assassin, Long Road to Gallantry, B*stard Swordsman & the like.. with a few quibbles.

The story is fantastic, simple yet gripping, a true homage & culmination of tales set in the 'Martial World' of WuXia/Swordplay Myths. In some ways a riff on the Jimmy Wang Yu gem of obsessive misery THE SWORD (1971).

This film makes a great double bill with DUEL FOR THE DEATH as well.

The direction is excellent & dynamic, emphasising a lot of dark humor without resorting to slapstick & gurning.

The fight chorography in this film is as good as it gets... however..... a few of the very early fights are far too undercranked (ie sped up during filming & not a post production trick, hence why they may have misgauged the resulting speed) which utterly ruins about 3 & a half brief fights. Hence a 9/10 , tho it should be 9 & a half.

Thankfully they soon settle down into some of the most impressive action you will ever see.

The change of pace halfway through is a refreshing masterstroke for possibly all of us familiar with the genre, viewers unfamiliar with the conventions of the genre may be disappointed & somewhat confounded by it.

I think the other reviews already touched on the awkward change of pace and story that occurs roughly an hour in. I really liked the story early on, and even at that point it was a bit different. The villain had certainly killed many but was painted as more of an ambitious swordsman than someone ruthless. He was given a bit more focus early than I was expecting. But then you also had the great Ku Feng, who is by far one of my favorite actors from the Shaw era. Things were going pretty well and it felt like things could be wrapped up and the film length would be rather short, yet still be satisfying, but then things change. It really messes up the momentum, and though you still get the expected encounter at the end, it was a very odd detour that makes me pull back on my support a bit. Also, these are talented action actors -- why did they bother to speed up their movements in post production? It looks rather strange.

THE SUPREME SWORDSMAN (1984) was part of the final wave of swordplay films to come out of Shaw Bros. before it wrapped up feature film production in 1985 to focus on television series production. This one's surprisingly focused on its theme and has a relatively small number of main characters. It has the usual hyperactive swordfighting, but few of the fantastic flourishes found in most Shaw costume pictures from that period. Jason Pai Piao plays a swordsman who wants to be Supreme Swordsman and acquire 100 swords from other heroes by killing them in duels and taking their swords. Early on, he reaches 99 and sets his sights on a particular sword and swordmaster. However, the real Supreme Swordsman (Wang Jung), handily defeats Jason, sending him on a quest for a better sword and, in the course of it, finding another key swordmaster (Ku Feng) leading a reclusive life and keeping hidden the treasured Cold Eagle sword of Jason's own Black Magic Clan. Jason, furious at being kept out of the loop on the clan's treasures, now wants that sword. Ku Feng's son, played by Derek Yee, gets into the act and at about the one-hour mark goes off for some needed training in order to take on Jason. And then Jason comes back into the film for the final set of duels.

The first hour had a great deal of momentum, but goes off on a tangent when Derek undergoes new training with a trio of crazy old monks (including kung fu regular Lee Hoi-sang), one of whom has a pretty granddaughter (Li Tien-lang) who becomes Derek's companion. By the time Jason comes back into the fray for the final battle, the initial momentum has dissipated and the film never quite picks it up again.

Still, Jason and Derek have good parts and Ku Feng has one of his best late Shaw roles. Yuen Wah has a good part as well, playing a defeated opponent who becomes Jason's reluctant assistant. The film's got a lot of well-staged action and is one of the few martial arts films made at Shaw after 8-DIAGRAM POLE FIGHTER that focused on a distinct martial arts theme to the exclusion of other plot elements, in this case Jason's pursuit to be the best in his field and defeat all others. The director, Li Pai-ling (aka Keith Li),was making his directorial debut, having been an assistant director beforehand. It's not among the best of late Shaw swordplay films (I'm quite partial to BASTARD SWORDSMAN and RETURN OF THE BASTARD SWORDSMAN myself), but it's a bit different from the others and does have its distinct pleasures.

The wuxia genre had become quite stagnant by the time this film was made. It had also split into a separate genre which emphasised magic and crazy wire driven fight scenes that defied logic. This film is an odd attempt to mix the two genre back together.

The first 55 minutes is actually a rather interesting, but very typical, wuxia plot as the the main character, Chin Wu-hsin, goes on his quest to kill 100 hundred swordsmen to become the top swordsman in China. He finally reaches 99 but fails when he goes against "The Supreme Swordsman". Despite being told that he doesn't have the right mental clarity to beat the Supreme Swordsman, Chin Wu-hsin decides that he failed because his sword was no good. He tries to bully an elderly sword smith into forging a new sword but he suddenly hears of the special "Cold Eagle" sword. Complications ensue as the sword smith and his son are drawn into the quest for the legendary Cold Eagle sword. It's old school but a better than average movie at this point.

That's the interesting part of the movie, the next half hour is interesting as well but for different reasons. Suddenly the sword smith's son, while battling Chin Wu-hsin, falls off a ledge that we never see and crash lands in the home of three old martial artists. Here we enter crazy kung-fu land where the masters exit the scene by yelling, "Hu-wa!" and flying straight up into the air. Chin Wu-hsin is forgotten as the sword smith's son receives healing from the fall and kung fu training. He eventually has to go thru a kung fu gauntlet before facing up with Chin Wu-hsin.

This film is certainly paced fast so it's never boring. The change of genres is off putting and by the end I didn't really care about the story anymore. There are better wuxia films and better crazy kung fu films out there.