Eye for an Eye, originally known as Mu Zhong Wu Ren, is a Chinese martial arts film inspired by the legendary tales of Zatoichi. The movie entertains with sympathetic characters, wonderful fight choreographies and beautiful settings through seventy-seven short but concise minutes. A sequel is already being worked upon which underlines this film's commercial and critical success. Director Yang Bingjia is a newcomer to the genre and already manages to deliver the goods with the first feature film. Lead actress Gao Weiman is also new to the cinematic industry and delivers a balanced performance propagating values such as loyalty and resilience. Lead actor Xie Miao has already been working on several great genre films in the past such as The Taking of Tiger Mountain and The Thousand Faces of Dunjia and his experience shows when portraying a character who is ruthless in his martial arts style but ethical in his decisions.
The story revolves around blind, calm and ruthless bounty hunter Cheng Xiazi who comes to a new town. He is coincidentally invited to the wedding of restaurant owner Ni Yan. However, the wedding turns into a nightmare when the lady's rebellious brother shows up. A group of thugs appears soon afterwards and massacres the family as well as the wedding guests. Only the restaurant owner and the bounty hunter survive. Cheng Xiazi decides to intervene to help Ni Yan and avenge her murdered wedding guests.
This movie convinces on several levels. As mentioned previously, the female and male lead characters have enough depth to build an entire movie series upon. Blind bounty hunter Cheng Xiazi has a strong moral compass and protects those who are alone, desperate and struggling. Restaurant owner Ni Yan delivers the goods as underestimated young lady who exemplifies loyalty, resilience and strength. Viewers will care about the fates of these two fascinating characters who are incarnated by experienced male actor Xie Miao and a promising young actress Gao Weiman whose name should certainly be remembered.
The fight choreographies are certainly stunning. Don't make the mistake to expect clumsy, repetitive and slow fight scenes just because the lead character is blind. The opposite is actually the case since Cheng Xiazi is constantly underestimated and thus defeats his opponents with grace, rapidity and skill. The different types of fighting styles as well as actual and improvised weapons used throughout the film will keep viewers entertained from start to finish.
The settings of Eye for an Eye are also definitely above average and bring ancient China back to life in an authentic manner. This includes rural landscapes as well as urban settings. While many contemporary Chinese movies overuse special effects which make movies taking place in the past look like video games from the last decade, this film here keeps the settings simple but real. This approach adds atmosphere, authenticity and depth to the film.
This movie however also has a few minor flaws that keep it from being considered an excellent or even perfect genre film. First of all, the idea to base a movie around a blind martial artist isn't new at all. The movie can't rival with the creativity of the Zatoichi movie series from the sixties and seventies that you should definitely watch if you appreciate this film.
Up next, the film's story is quite predictable. An underestimated martial artist supports an innocent damsel in distress and defeats a clan of ruthless criminals. This concept has been used time and again in martial arts film but also in numerous other genres such as westerns. Don't expect any creative twists or turns when watching this movie.
While the movie has no lengths whatsoever, the total running time of seventy-seven minutes is nonetheless particularly short, especially when purchasing a physical version at full price. The sympathetic main characters and intriguing side characters would have deserved some more screen time for sure.
At the end of the day, Eye for an Eye, originally known as Mu Zhong Wu Ren, is a good to very good martial arts film with profound characters, excellent fight choreographies and authentic settings. Genre fans should certainly give this movie a chance and look out for its upcoming sequel. It has been some time since a decent martial arts movie series has been around, so the release of this movie feels like a welcome breeze of fresh air.
