The Swordsman

One thing that really gets me in Good Guy vs Bad Guy films is when the "Bad Guy" over plays his snarky nature with an arrogant smirk. The bad fellas in this are just ate up with this characteristic. It is great, at least for me, because it makes me dislike the character that much more and I feel more drawn into what's going on.

This was a well made film. It has some well choreographed swordplay and martial arts but there is also an underlying story that offers some emotional drama so it isn't all action. It is well put together making it suitable but it could have benefited from a little more detail about our main characters. I would've liked to have seen just a bit more in that regard.

I would totally recommend this if you are into Korean period films with great sword play. I don't think you'd be disappointed.

Tae Yul used to be well renown as a terrific swordsman and former guardian of an imperial family. Now aged with deteriorating eye sight he travels the mountains with his daughter in apparent hiding. Tae finds his way to a village named Joseon where he crosses path's with a swordsman from his past, Min Seung-ho, Joseon's greatest military warrior. As Tae attempts to keep a low profile a member of the Qing imperial family and the proclaimed best swordsman of that region by the name of Gurutai reaches Joseon with menacing plans for the village as he doubles as a slave trader. When Tae's daughter is taken by Gurutai and his men he is left with no other option than to fall back into the way of the sword to rescue his only family. In order to accomplish this Tae Yul is up against the two best swordsman in the empire as well as the entire Qing imperial army.

A visually stunning piece of filmmaking as the scenery, wardrobe, and sets take you to a different place entirely. The sword fight sequences are top shelf and are pure cinematic magic. The level of difficulty for the fight choreography is impressive and delivered incredibly, really some of the best camera work out there. The script and dialog are not winning any awards but the amazing fight sequences more than make up for that. If you can stand a foreign subtitled flick than you'll more than appreciate this superb film.

If the story was better told it could become a classic.

The fights scenes are very good.

The protagonist is moved by duty for his king and daughter. He's an interesting character and built on the tradition of the japanese Zatoichi.

I've have seen so many incarnations/recreations of Korean Joseon history in movies I'm beginning to feel as if I must have been there in some previous life. For some reason they all seem to follow the same plot structure with characters extremely similar.

The usual one lone nice guy against hordes of baddies. Ballpark kill count for our hero is 54.

Wow! Silent and deadly. Will need to watch again but this is no doubt one of the best sword fighting movies in the year. I really liked Jang Hyuk in this movie, he really nailed the performance of the main character. I highly recommend this movie, a bit slow but fun to watch with modern effects and fighting skills👌🏾