The Sentimental Swordsman (1977)

Chu Yuan

Hong Kong

96 min, color, Mandarin (English subtitles)

Review © 2004 Branislav L. Slantchev

Here's a film whose title misrepresents half of its contents. Ti Lung plays Li Xun-huan, and he is sentimental (or, as some would say, a silly fool), but he is no swordsman. His weapon of choice is a fan with 12 daggers. At least he's pretty good with it.

Ti Lung sentimentally carving	Piercingly pithy saying

This being based on yet another Ku Lung novel, Chu Yuan's film feels (not surprisingly) compressed and one-dimensional. There is simply no time to convey all the nuance that I am sure the original novel had (almost nothing by Ku Lung has been translated into English, so I cannot be certain). Hence, we will be treated to an endless succession of peripheral but scrupulously named characters, surprising and sometimes unwarranted plot twists, and the usual narrative explanations to fill in the inevitable gaps in the audience's comprehension.

Thanks for letting me have your girl	Yu An-An: never a dry eye

Don't get me wrong, The Sentimental Swordsman is an entertaining film and has four of my favorite actors and actresses: Ti Lung, Yueh Hua, Ku Feng, and Ching Li. Just this cast is sufficient for me to buy the DVD and see the film (twice thus far). However, in the process of condensing Ku Lung's work, Chu Yuan has made several questionable choices. First, all characters are now completely one-dimensional. The worst offender is Ku Feng's Zhao who seems ridiculous: in every scene the supposedly wise and impartial Zhao tries to arrest (or failing that, badly mangle) yet another innocent man he suspects of being the bandit. Second, the background itself is totally implausible.

Ku Feng in goofiest role	Single beautiful female seeks swordsman

Briefly, ten years ago Li Xun-huan was a famous good guy trying to kill the mysterious Plum Blossom Bandit (PBB), known as such for his propensity to wear pink. Li failed and almost got himself killed when Long (Yueh Hua) saved him. In gratitude, Li started drinking and whoring, hoping that his love Shi-yin (Yu An-An) would give up on him and marry Long instead. She does and Li leaves, abandoning his property to his savior. Now, there's a silly story if there ever was one. That's not sentiment, that's just cruelty: Shi-yin never loved Long and was given away as property in repayment of a blood debt. Well, now that PBB has resurfaced, Li is back to protect his friend and his former lover.

Gratuitous shot of Ching Li	Derek Yee shaving Ku Feng

Almost immediately he is beset by a series of traps, with people trying to stab him, poison him, or otherwise separate him from his heavy cough caused by excessive drinking. In the process of not dying, Li befriends the proud but somewhat uncouth youth Ah Fei (Derek Yee) who proceeds to murder a guy so that he can get some money to buy Li a drink. Then we learn it's all about a special golden vest that is nearly as good as the chain-mail Bilbo bequeathed to Frodo. This is important because it will be saving the life of a few people except the one that was really after it.

Showing off new Versace undergarment	Norman Chu, the implausible flutist

Almost as soon as Li shows up at Long's residence and has a brief emotional encounter with Shi-yin, he is set up by Lin (Ching Li) who has offered to marry the man who kills PBB whom she blames for the death of her father. Of course, very soon we all realize that Lin cannot be judged by the (pretty) cover, and there's something deeply suspicious in her repeated attempts to off Li whom we all know not to be the bandit. To clear his name after killing You (Yuen Wah), Li remains at Long's until something happens that would clear his name.

Anti-MSG commercial	Here, kids, have some of these poisoned buns

That something appears in the form of Shaolin monk Xin-mei (Yang Chi-Ching) who is to escort Li to the temple where his innocence will be established. Just how he proposes to do that is not entirely clear but Shaolin's reputation is so high that nobody questions it. Nobody, that is, except Mr. Iron Flute (Norman Chu) who agrees to suspend his repeated attempts to kill Li because he is forced to admit that he cannot outfight Xin-mei. Ah, and of course, the forces of evil continue in their quest to off Li, this time by hiring Five Poisons Kid (Chiang Nan) to set up elaborate traps that eventually kill off all of Xin-mei's company except Li and his trusty servant Chuan-jia (Fan Mei Sheng), who unfortunately grabs the wrong frog and dies in a rather picturesque setting.

Fan Mei-Sheng in Shakespearean death	Gratuitous shot of Ching Li

At Shaolin Temple, we find out that someone has stolen an important scripture that describes the proper way of cooking rice. Naturally, Li gets blamed but eventually he succeeds in clearing his name by springing a laughably naive trap and catching the real perpetrator. This, unfortunately, does not bring us any closer to the PBB mystery, but at least Ah Fei finally realizes that the woman he loves (Lin) is really up to no good. So the two friends go to confront her and as a result Shi-yin (who has shown up unexpectedly to reveal PBB's identity) dies.

Ku Kuan-chung with hostage	You killed my father

At this point there's only one remaining character that has been beyond suspicion, so it's obvious that he is the PBB. In the final showdown, Li receives some philosophical pointers (e.g. "You are sentimental and I must kill you because I am ruthless.") but manages to keep his cool and prevail. Favorite quote:

Shi-yin: What's going on?
Long Xiao-yun: I have no idea.

This pretty much summarizes my sentiment for the larger part of the film.

And the Plum Blossom Bandit is...	Yueh Hua is way cool

While nicely done with competent fights, the film fails to stack up to classics like Killer Clans or Clans of Intrigue. It is just as confusing but for some reason it left me unimpressed. It may have been the acting or the Egyptian-dimensioned characters, I don't know. Even Ching Li's presence in many scenes (lovingly shot in soft focus or behind some fluttering veils, as is Chu Yuan's habit) did not help that much. I did not particularly like Ti Lung's character either. Far from sympathizing with him, I felt he had done Shi-yin a great wrong and was sorry to see her die and him live.

The Celestial Pictures DVD is decent. The 2.35:1 widescreen anamorphic picture is a bit soft (as usual) but is perhaps the best way we shall ever see the film. It has both Mandarin and Cantonese tracks (I prefer the former), and the English subtitles are serviceable despite the occasional inconsistent spelling of character names. The extras include a photo gallery, trailers, and talent files.

June 28, 2004