Rusty Blade

Typical Chinese movie that has no soul. Chinese movies always seem to copy, imitate, or mix and match from foreign movies that include Hong Kong, Taiwan and American movies. The acting is super weak and characters always have very exaggerated emotions and/or facial expressions. One can easily figure out the whole story after 10 minutes of watching, and lose interest once you figured it out. . There is 0 creativity and all over used cliches. No pleasant surprises but all same old predictable lines and story. I was so bored after 10 minutes of watching it I started reading something else on iPad and glanced at the movie, and never missed anything.

Good fighting moves shown by both adversaries and heroes. Skillfully and smoothly enacted evade and attack sword fight circling with some muscly shoving and hilt punches.

The plot serves well to drive the action as well as to show quieter, behind the fight-life, scenes where character's are rounded out and home life or personal motive is put forward. Plot effectively reveals haves and have-nots cultural setting without overuse of costumes, bureaucrat's posing, and palacial sets to weigh-down the story.

Crew of four swordsmen make a trim, mobile, cohesive force to carry out a key mission needed to sustain each man.