Swordsman

Original title: Siu ngo gong woo

1990
TV-14
1h 58m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

Jacky Cheung, Sharla Cheung, Samuel Hui, Siu-Ming Lau, Cecilia Yip, and Fennie Yuen in Swordsman (1990)

A kung-fu manual known as the sacred scroll is stolen from the Emperor's library. An army detachment is sent to recover it. Meanwhile, a young swordsman and his fellow disciple are accidenta... Read allA kung-fu manual known as the sacred scroll is stolen from the Emperor's library. An army detachment is sent to recover it. Meanwhile, a young swordsman and his fellow disciple are accidentally drawn into the chaos.A kung-fu manual known as the sacred scroll is stolen from the Emperor's library. An army detachment is sent to recover it. Meanwhile, a young swordsman and his fellow disciple are accidentally drawn into the chaos.

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 4 wins & 11 nominations total

Photos30

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9:57

Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
King Hu was credited as the director but he allegedly left the project midway, and the film was completed by a team led by producer Hark Tsui.

Quotes
Ling Wu Chung: We are all made of flesh and blood, so why do we make such a mess of this world?

Connections
Followed by Swordsman: La légende d'un guerrier (1992)

User reviews15

Featured review

6/10

The Flying People Saga

Swordsman was so popular in Hong Kong that it sprang two other sequels, which starred Jet Li. I consider this film to be a classic which started the whole "flying people martial art" movement in the 90's.

The movie is about a sacred scroll stolen from the vault of the emperor's palace. Different groups of people wanted to get their hands on the scroll, from the master of the Wan San school, to the Eunuches. Along the way, there are a lot of fighting, a lot of singing, comic relief, even an irony of how the most powerful martial art is no match against modern weapons (In Swordsman III - the east is red, this would have reversed, culminating in the quote "You have science, I have mysterious kung fu, your science is s**t")

The movie does not take itself too seriously. One of the best kung-fu/comedy/flying sword fights combination.