O Espadachim Sentimental

"Sentimental Swordsman" epitomizes the film era of Later Old School, which were martial arts films that came out later 70s and early 80s. They bridge the gap between the early 70s chop socky fests and the New Wave wire-flyers of Tsui Hark, et al. LOS works tended to have more lavish budgets than Early Old School, firmly established stars and directors entering their prime, and much more complex plots.

The story begins with a nobleman in exile, with his trusty sidekick in tow, walking through a melancholy snowy landscape. He is returning home to protect a woman he reluctantly left to protect her from the elusive Plum Blossom Bandit. Through a series of betrayals, he is accused of being the villain in question. He spends a good deal of the film protesting his innocence, with words and fists. It was a fantastic performance by Shaw Brothers legend Ti Lung. Another standout performance is Derek Yee (Er Tung-sheng), who plays Ti Lung's comrade-in-arms. He's another wandering sword-for-hire who doesn't suffer fools gladly, but repays respect with loyalty. The film features beautiful cinematography, including one lovingly shot scene of a fight in a plum blossom garden. Sentimental Swordsman is a solid sword flick, and one of director Chu Yuan's better efforts.

There are the inevitable cheeseball elements, such as the Plum Blossom Bandit's pink ninja outfit and the rather dubious martial art of snake hurling, but hey, this is Shaw Brothers. Fans of the genre will find it only adds to its appeal.

A worthy addition to your Kung Fu library.

The opening scene is like the opening scene of "Pursuit of Vengeance." Enter Ti Lung as Li Chin Huan and Fan Mei-Sheng as his assistant Chuan Jia. Ti Lung carves a doll and buries it in the snow. The back story is ten years ago he gave up his fortune and his woman to a man who saved his life. Next they encounter a man walking. Then at the tea house "Black and White Snake" attack an escort company. The man walking kills them and joins Ti Lung. They go off to the woods to drink and talk. Attack! Everyone is after the package – an armor useful against the Plum Blossom Bandit.

Yes there is too much going on in the movie and it is hard to follow. I thought the Plum Blossom Bandit's choice of colors annoying and now I call him the "Pepto-Bismol Bandit". I did find very fun the scene where all were starving but feared poison in all the available food.

This movie may have had a landmark first. At about 1:24:45 there is a physical, not a special effects, wipe. The actress goes behind a wall as the camera tracks to the right then the stuntman comes out from behind the wall and does the acrobatics all dressed as the actress. Was this the first time this effect was ever done? I'm surprised it was not done more often but maybe it was and I am just now noticing.

during shaw brothers in hong kong dominated the Chinese wuxia (martial arts/swordsmanship) genre, most of the films were shot inside of its gigantic studio with all the phony or fake props and scenes. it did not like what the Japanese samurai films that mainly used open-air natural surroundings to make their films more realistic, the studio arrangements were just when they were necessary. shaw brothers' studio just rigidly used the studio to shoot almost all of their films in this genre with fake silk flowers, dead trees, fake houses facades and etc. to do the shooting in order to avoid any unpredictable weather conditions in the south east asia. but this never changed shooting format also inevitably reduced those films' value so low that most of such films simply looked so unreal and so pretentious. during that era, most of the screenplays were adapted from the popular Chinese wuxia (martial arts) novels written by some of the popular writers from taiwan while china at that time was in the turmoil cultural revolution. but the adapted scripts were just way too pretentious with stupid dialog that never felt natural but strongly staged like Shakespearean dramas. one the famous directors in this genre was chu yuen, who used most of the novels written by gu long, a wuxia writer who was so famous in writing the most pretentious dialog and scenarios just like the staged plays. chu shot all such films in the studio with artificial lighting and fake props. all the fighting scenes either with fists or swords or any kind of weapons were heavily rehearsed and synchronized with man made sound effects. since they were shot in the studio, the lighting arranged from different angles also inevitably cast lot of different shadows on the fake ground or floors, actors usually would have so many shadows in different shades following them around. the synchronized fighting scenes with awkward sound effects, including the moronic ho hung from the never perfected dubbed voice-over to match their fake fightings simply further reduced their real values in movie making.

you have to watch the Japanese samurai movies to compare with the Chinese wuxia movies to know what were not correctly done by shaw brothers and their directors. because every scene, every spoken word of the dialog, even the moon in the night sky, just looked so fake. you have to force yourself to watch these movies as watching plays performed on the stage just like watch Chinese bejing operas.

this film was a horrible viewing experience, so pretentious and so fake in every way you could imagine.

If The Shaw Brothers were known for only one thing, it was for their martial arts flicks. The genre wasn't their sole strength, and other studios could claim excellence of their own, but there's a reason they were the go-to name in Hong Kong cinema. Exquisite choreography weaves together a diverse range of styles, and excellent stunts, with smart cinematography and editing that never shortchanges the blows and impact as is all too commonly true of modern action flicks. To this add reliably gorgeous, heavily detailed sets and costume design that effectively rival the kung fu - and in some cases, like here, an abundance of beautiful filming locations that are very easy on the eyes. The Shaw Brothers put the "art" in "martial arts," and 'The sentimental swordsman' is no exception.

Not all is well, however. To be frank, the storytelling is astonishingly forthright, blunt, and downright tactless, to the point of being painfully gawky. The first twenty minutes or so, in particular, are so rough that I almost reconsidered watching; while the writing does improve in some measure as the length draws on, the suspension of disbelief that the plot requires far exceeds most any other picture I've ever seen. Yes, in many cases the tale on hand is only a vehicle for the martial arts action in the first place, but whether one wishes to ascribe the difficulties to the root story or to the screenplay, the writing here comes across to me as sloppy and ill-considered. There are plenty of great ideas here, certainly, yet from one moment to the next a preponderance of the dialogue, scene writing, and each narrative beat in turn are penned with a Just So sensibility that pointedly strips away every last vestige of nuance. In exact inverse proportion to how magnificent and finessed the visuals are, the storytelling is dubious and clunky.

I still think 'The sentimental swordsman' is enjoyable, for the action alone is outstanding, and even at its most tawdrily club-footed there remains just enough strength in the saga to keep it interesting. Even through to the very end, however, when we learn who the Plum Blossom Bandit is and their motivations, one can only respond to the tale with a confounded "what?" What it comes down to is that if you want marvelously, spellbinding, meticulous stunts and fight choreography, and supreme martial arts action, then you've come to the right place. If you want a feast for the eyes, generally, then you've come to the right place. If you want a good narrative to accompany that splendor, you emphatically need to look elsewhere. And for the fact that we get everything we could possibly want out of other Shaw Brothers flicks, including those qualities that this lacks, the question unfortunately becomes why we would spend time here in the first place.

It's worth checking out if you come across it, but definitely don't go out of your way for it. 'The sentimental swordsman' is good, but distinctly flawed in important ways, and it's not nearly as much fun as it could have been if as much care were taken in the writing as had been applied to the action sequences and the sets. Oh well.

Chin Huan (Ti Lung) returns home to his brother after 10 years to defend his family against the mysterious Plum Blossom bandit whose identity is unknown. On his way, he becomes a friend of Ah Fei (Derek Yee); they both have a strong sense of honor and mutual respect for each other. When the local people suspect that Chin Huan himself could be the Plum Blossom bandit, because he is such a skilled fighter, Ah Fei defends him. Together they try to find the actual bandit.

This is a colorful and entertaining movie, well directed, and - quite rare - staged in a snowy landscape. Even the smaller characters, for example the drunken doctor, the Shaolin abbot and the master of poisons, are always interesting. Also the story has the unusual twist that the hero is fought most of the time by the good guys, as they mistake him for the villain, so instead of killing everyone, he often tries to avoid fights. Recommended!