Le règne par le sabre

Well, what can I say -- great movie. The comparison to House of Flying Daggers of course is inevitable ;-) Shadowless Sword is more humorous (but not comedy-fun), there is a bit of adventure theme, the story is simpler (so there is less who-is-who guessing), and has two dazzling beautiful (!) women as leading characters. I almost would say I like Shadowless Sword more if only director didn't made special effects awkward.

Maybe it is just me, but I expect that after hitting objects can explode, but not after cutting. And here some objects fall apart (with great speed and energy) what looks amazing (with proper music) but some... explode, which is not funny, not spectacular, not magical, not mysterious -- it is simply bizarre. It is so out-of-place that it spoils every fight scene when director decided to put explosion after sword cut. Pity...

Now I'll start off by saying that there is no reason to compare this movie to the Asian blockbusters such as Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon or Hero etc. It doesn't matter if you've seen them or not because I think this movie has it's own atmosphere and feel to it. I guess it's because this film is Korean. There is a distinct difference between Korean and other Asian action movies. They have their own style of making these fantastic action/epic/drama movies. Another great Korean movie in the same veins is Musa The Warrior, so if you've seen it you have some idea what to expect. Some other comment stated that there are some weird comedic features in the fight scenes, but I wouldn't point that out in the review. It was only one short scene and that's all she wrote. On the contrary I found this movie to be quite serious in the whole. Though everyone would say there wasn't much of a plot I answer; There is an adequate plot to carry this movie without a problem, it is after all made for entertaining purposes, not for the Oscar nomination.

Now more about the movie. The fighting is mostly sword-fighting. There are a few more exotic arms with some of the fighters too like bows or poles. The fights were made watcher friendly in a way that you can actually see what is happening in the fights all the time. So it's not just a clinging sound and a million swordstrikes per second where you can't tell which sword belongs to who. So you can see every small detail in the fights which is in my opinion definitely a good thing. And yes, there is a lot of flying in the movie, but used much more tastefully than for example in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. The fight choreography in general was amazing. Saw many moves that I hadn't seen before in similar films. The actors were good, especially the leading actress was very convincing. When I watched this film, I had been bored out of my mind all day and was about to fall to sleep. NOT after the movie started rolling. I was glued to my seat from start to end. Summary: Good action and choreography, good acting and very, very entertaining.

this is one of my new favorite movies...yes it may be odd for them to not show more significance of the sword...yet i think overall a great movie and not quite like hero or crouching tiger...so go get this awesome movie...and don't forget all movies not heard of with big release dates or announced as "THE SUMMERS BIGGEST BLOCKBUSTER" can be sick...just to mention though it has subtitles and if you haven't seen a movie with subtitles this could be your first...go to you closes movie retailer and pick this up...also those girls are a added bonus (guys you know what i mean ;) and now on to another movie and more reviews toodles...

First thing first: "Shadowless Sword" doesn't have much of a plot. Nothing much happens, which is pretty ridiculous considering it is a 2 hour movie. Basically, you could describe it as one long trek/chase sequence, periodically interrupted by the fight scenes, a la "Ice Age 2: The Meltdown" or the 2nd half of "The Island".

Having said that, the fight scenes are the main point of this movie, right? It is rare to see something new or original in martial arts movies, but here the filmmakers have a great eye for visually interesting fights. The backgrounds are gorgeous, and contribute a lot to the fights themselves. For instance, a lot of stuff breaks: pillars, tiles, and other objects all explode violently from destructive weapon swinging (think of the "Matrix" lobby scene but with swords instead of bullets). Roofs are there to enable aerial battle, and even being submersed underwater can't stop the sword fight from continuing!

I saw this film had an average rating around 5 the other day, so I figured I'd chime in on it, because I think a 5 is a bit harsh. I enjoyed the film, it has some decent fight scenes, and the acting is fine imo. Yeah, it borrows a lot from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, House of Flying Daggers, etc..., but I enjoyed the film regardless of that.

I really liked Ji-Woo Choi(who played Yeon Soha) in this film. She was great in the fight scenes and had a seriousness about her character that she portrayed very well. One thing I didn't like was some random oddness in the film. Could have been the script or it could have been the director, its hard to tell, but there were times where there seemed to be a comedy direction out of nowhere during some fight scenes and conversations and whatnot. I felt the film worked better as a serious drama, and the random comedic parts didn't fit in well imo. Also I felt the explosion kill move that is seen a few times throughout the film was a bit corny as well.

Anyhow, I think a rating of 5 is a bit harsh. House of Flying Daggers, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, and Hero are three of my favorite films, and while this film is not in a class with those three, its worth watching if you enjoyed those three films. I think a 7.5 is a fair rating for this film, rounded down to a 7.