It's a shame that a wonderful movie such as THE BLADE received so little coverage/attention from the masses. The only time I have heard about it was from a renounced film critic in HK, and he RAVED about it. And he sure was RIGHT! Tsui Hark did an excellent job here. The atmosphere is good, and the characters are real. As for the action, yes, it's a little too fast, but nonetheless beautifully choreographed.
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Kinmui12 April 2000
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Bogey Man25 December 2002Tsui Hark's Dao aka The Blade (Hong Kong, 1995) is an updating of the old one armed swordsman legend that also has been depicted earlier in the history of Hong Kong cinema. Tsui's new vision is something that dropped my jaws now that I watched it for the third time after many years and without remembering almost anything about it. The film turned out to be among the best Hong Kong cinema miracles from the nineties I've seen so far.
Vincent Zhao Wen Zhuo aka Chiu Man Cheuk is Ting On and Moses Chan Ho is Iron Head and they're both very loyal to their master, an old monk who has teched them during their young lives. The film's narrator and lead female is Ling (Song Lei) who is secretly in love with both of the men but is not quite sure which one will be her loved one. Soon a violent murder takes place, a hand gets chopped off and revenge comes to mind, but none of the characters seem to care or think about their emotions but only to go after their insticts which in this case are mostly about violence and getting even. What follows is more or less (usually more) amazing imagery and bits of sword fighting from this unique film maker of East.
The film depicts people without the willing or ability to express their emotions and that's why many of the reviews seem to dislike the film telling the characters are very cold and inhuman. Of course the film would have needed an example among its characters of how a brighter life could be achieved but still the coldness and lack of expressing emotions is not there without its purpose because this is exactly the film's theme. The ending, the imagined happiness, is fortunately there but still I think there should have been more contrast to the characters' inability to be like a feeling human being. This film is pretty pessimistic as it hasn't any happy or "natural" characters at all, but since we know (those who dare to accept these sides in themselves) what kind of a creature human being is, films like this start to make much more sense and force us to look at the mirror. Would you have gone to take revenge if you were in the one armed swordsman's shoes?
The visuals here are quite amazing and this belongs alongside Ringo Lam's Burning Paradise (1994) and Billy Chung's The Assassin (1993) to the Hong Kong's hyper dark martial art films that never are as near as "light" and also humorous as some Once Upon a Time in China (1991) for instance or other box office hits. Hardly any mainstream audience will like films like Dao because they lack almost every possible entertaining or pleasant element that can be found in Hong Kong martial arts films. The film is very dark and haunting especially when the guy has lost his arm and is training in agony in the misty and menacing house with hysterical female (this character is also very bad and should not have been so noisy and really brainless all the time) taking care of him. Again the smoke and darkness is something that I simply cannot mention having found in too many Western films.
The action is so incredible it again makes me wonder how they edit their films like this. The editor in Dao is Kam Ma who has also edited John Woo's A Better Tomorrow films (1986 and 1987) among many others. The action scenes consist of many close ups and unconventional camera movements that create the kind of hysterical impact I can remember from Jackie Chan's Drunken Master 2 (1994) for example. The action goes even further in the final 15 minutes during the big fight when all the main characters finally get to take their mission to the end. This end fight is like the mind blowingly incredible finale in John Woo's A Better Tomorrow 2, choreographed by the great Ching Siu Tung: both of these finales get so over the top and (thus) separated from the rest of the film that it gets even surreal and thus makes the film's own world look even more impressive and striking and hammers the message and images to the viewer's head. The blood sprayed in these both cases is much more than just results of blade cutting flesh as it all depicts things from our main characters and their values much more effectively and graphically (to say the least) than words likely could. The finale in Dao is among the most jaw dropping scenes from any Hong Kong film of all time and once again these makers have shown their talent and capacity. Dao is not only very dark film, it is also very violent and has sudden bursts of very angry gore during the film and of course mostly in the mentioned last fight. Since there are no any real heros, no good characters and not too much sunshine in Dao, it is easy to expect that sadly this kind of film won't appeal to masses but considering that it starts to look even more valuable that films like these get still made despite that fact.
Dao also lacks all the possible stupid bits of dialogue that often can be found in Hong Kong films. The mentioned female in On's new apartment of course excluded. The film has some very effective silent scenes which is pretty rare in Hong Kong films I think. Especially the montage during On's painful training sequence is very effective as well as some of the scenes depicting Iron Head's unwillingness to use violence in the bar filled with drunken men. He just watches and tries to hold his temper and not hurt anyone. Details like these tell much more about the characters than any fastly and badly written unnatural words ever could.
Dao is a stunning experience even with its flaws and if they were corrected and fixed, this film would really be a masterpiece and maybe perfect of its kind. Now it definitely is a masterpiece of its maker, Tsui Hark, and it has the kind of potential and power that keeps on reminding the admirers of Eastern cinema of what makes these films so unique, precious and overwhelming. 8/10 -
KingLouie6 December 1999It's rare to see unique perspectives on film during the later '90's. The camera work was interesting. I knew nothing of the director, nor of any of the actors before seeing this movie. Therefore, I "went in blind", with no pre-conceptions. The movie has good action and some gore. Well, ample gore (a plus in my book).
Anyways, some people may find the movie a bit confusing and dis-orienting because the action is fast and furious when it happens. In fact, at times it was difficult for me see who was gashing who. I have to suppose that the camera was speeded up, but it wasn't obvious except that a person should be breathing harder than they were if they were actually moving as fast as it looked they were.
I liked the realistic "gritty" aspects of the lifestyle of the characters that was portrayed in this film. I read in another of the "comments" that the film basically "flopped". Thats unfortunate. People missed out on this one.
I can't comment on the dubbing because the film I saw was in Chinese with English sub-titles, so there was none of that "cheesy voice-makeovers" that usually go on Asian films. Were do they find those voices anyway?
Oh, and the final battle, Excellent! -
atomic_gymnaste29 March 2004The greatest Wu Xia Pian I've ever seen in my life (and god knows I've seen a lot). The final action sequence, including Hung Yan-Yan, is now a legend in Kung-fu movies, just like the duel between Jet Li and Donnie Yen in Once Upon A Time in China 2... Tsui Hark's direction is fabulous despite an obvious lack of money. And Chiu Man-Cheuk is a tremendous actor/kung-fu artist, as charismatic as Bruce Lee himself in his quest for revenge. Too bad this actor is now semi-retired from movie industry...
(sorry for my horrible english, but I'm french) -
Apparently, this is quite difficult to see in theatres. I managed to, but it is on video. I imagine that on video, the subtitles are as difficult to read as the ones in "A Chinese Ghost Story" (Another Hark title). Many of the fight scenes are, like the other title, shot on a set in near total darkness with some artificial light as "moonlight". Again, on a screen, beautiful, but on video, a bit hard to see. There is A LOT of fighting, chopped arms legs and heads. (What do you expect, with the action centered around a knife/sword factory?) It's so violent that after a while I found myself laughing to relieve the tension. And the spewing blood can be comical. Like many of these movies, even the "good" guys have questionable motives.
I was interested in this because I'd read that Hark stopped production in the middle because of one of the actress's complaints and rewrote it from a woman's perspective. Still, the main female character is whiny, silly and sheltered, little more than a typical HK plot device to get fights going. I found her character very annoying.
Plot: 4 of 10, fight scenes 8 of 10 IF you can see them on a large screen. Subtitles are lousy, but not really necessary. -
jesse_beach8 March 2002"Dao" was a great entertainment from the first minute to the end credits. Xin Xin Xiong is amazing and the action scenes with swords are something you do not forget. Tsui Hark is a great director and action seemed to be his "thing". The best action scenes are almost as good as in John Woos best films. "Dao" was a good movie, even though the story gets maybe a little bit too boring in the middle of the film. Don´t worry there´s some amazing action coming right after the boring part!! 7/10
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fudomayo1063 April 2005I heard this was really good from an internet review. SO I obtained a DVD copy of it. Now about the copy I saw, the picture quality made me think that this film was shot through a lens smeared with mud. The voice acting in the dubbing made my skin crawl.
Beyond the manner in which this film was presented to me, it is a beautiful, brilliant film. This is Tsui Hark's best film. I would trade one of my kidneys for a subtitled, letter boxed, digitally remastered version of this film. Every time I watch my copy I am still blown away by how good it is but at the same time, how bad my copy is hurts.
Ah well, about the film itself: It is narrated by Ling, the daughter of a master sword smith. She likes nothing better than to play with the emotions of two of her father's employees Iron Head (Moses Chan) and Ting On (VIncent Zhao Wen Zu). Eventually they both grow tired of her teasing so they begin to ignore her.
The Death of a Shaolin monk at the hands of some local baddies gets the employees of the Sword factory really up in arms. Iron Head wants to lead an assault on the bad guys, but Ting On, following the master's wishes, preaches restraint. This alienates him from the rest of the employees (that and the fact that he was named as the successor) so he decides to run away. While leaving, On overhears Ling and her (Mother? Grandmother?) discussing his past, specifically the death of his father at the hand of a flying, tattooed assassin.
On retrieves a relic which he learned was the remains of his father's gigantic sword and leaves. Ling, perhaps driven by guilt follows him. Their paths go through the camp of the bandits who attack, resulting in On losing one of his arms. On is able to save Ling before Iron Head and the Sword workers arrive but goes over a waterfall.
ON is rescued by a dirty orphan who lives in a shack who is bullied by the same group of bandits. ON discovers a Kung Fu manual that he tries to learn from despite his handicap. Meanwhile, Iron Head and Ling decide to search for him.
Just to show how rich the plot is, THOSE four paragraphs cover just about the 1st quarter of the film. Also, I DID NOT go into great detail.
The fight scenes are sometimes too under cranked and jerky but overall they are high quality. Yes it IS a remake of The One Armed Swordsman, but Tsui Hark makes it HIS. The Blade can make you forget there even WAS a One Armed Swordsman. It is poetic, dark, depressing and violent. Hopefully Tai Seng or some other distributor will release a GOOD DVD edition of this masterpiece. A great film for not just HK Cinema fans but for film fans as well. -
rbverhoef25 January 2004There is almost always something amusing, entertaining or something good in movies like this. I was not disappointed watching 'Dao' ('The Blade'), a dark movie with great visuals. It is about a one armed swordsman who seeks revenge. We see how he loses his limb, how he trains in martial art and will seek that revenge.
Like I said this is a dark movie, with dark themes as well. Light is something hard to find in 'Dao'. There is a lot of violence and blood, and sometimes the movie goes over the top. This will be stupid for some, totally in its place for others. I like these kind of sequences when they have a certain effect for the movie, and here I think it was the right choice. The cinematography and editing help creating a certain atmosphere and they help to make the action look amazing.
May be this is not the best movie in the genre, I prefer a John Woo movie, but it is pretty good. Not for all audiences but if you like the genre there is a good chance you will like 'Dao'. -
zdac24 April 2000The Blade is a whirlwind of blood, dust, and psychedelic colour. Beneath its rough, brutal appearance lies an uncompromising and technically evolved offering from Hong Kong's prolific director/producer giant Tsui Hark. Based on the old-school kung-fu classic The One-Armed Swordsman, The Blade tells the story of a young man adopted by a renowned blacksmith, who discovers that his true father was killed by superstitiously powerful bandit named Lung, "who it is said can fly!".
When he impulsively goes out seeking revenge, he runs afoul of a gang of desert scum and loses his right arm in the encounter. Ashamed, he goes into hiding but after finding an broken weapon and the tatters of an old swordfighting manual, he begins to come to terms with his self-loathing, and eventually learns to compensate for his loss. With half a sword, half a technique, and still one arm short of a pair, he returns to his old home to confront both his past and the man who murdered his father.
A simple tale of vengeful perseverance here gets a nihilistic gritty art-house treatment. The action takes place in an amoral, almost post-apocalyptic desert landscape. Hark's camera speeds around with abandon, capturing both the bleak setting and the lush expressive palette of the characters' internal emotional landscape. In terms of camera style and visual dynamism, this is Hark's most adventurous film. Although seemingly frantic, it is never random. The cinematography bears a meticulous attention to detail, and the editing has a razor-sharp rhythm of its own.
There's a lot going on under the surface here. The simple story is fleshed out with a dark sensuality. Along with themes of surmounting obstacles through hard work, and misplaced honour in a harsh and selfish world (kung fu movie essentials), we find commentary on lust, gender, and simple pragmatism as well. Early on, a Shaolin monk, icon of heroism, meets a grisly, inglorious end, signifying that this is not just another heroic martial-arts fantasy. And yet heroism survives, in the form of a crippled man with a broken, cleaver-like weapon... just one more way The Blade offers new twists on old conventions.
This being a Hong Kong martial-arts movie, the action is to be noted. Where fluid idealized wushu forms might normally prevail, a certain street-level grittiness and desperation takes hold. Even when characters are performing incredible feats, you find yourself thinking "So this is what kung-fu fighting was really like."
Although Chiu Cheuk and villainous Xiong Xin Xin can certainly deliver spectacular physical displays (as seen in Hark's later Once Upon A Time in China films), in The Blade the camera and editing take the lead. While some reviewers tend to forget the "cinema" part of "martial arts cinema", and complain that much of the action is concealed by the breakneck editing and moving camera, there is still an impressive amount of wushu on display in this film, and the frenzied cutting serves to heighten the excitement and the abilities of the performers, even without implied supernatural powers or gratuitous wire stunts. As a result, the final 15 minutes of this movie frame possibly some of the most furious, breathless, vicious fight sequences in cinema history.
Believe it! -
Leofwine_draca17 February 2015THE BLADE is a well-regarded Tsui Hark martial arts flick that was envisaged as a remake of the Wang Yu Shaw Brothers classic, THE ONE-ARMED SWORDSMAN. It's very familiar to fans of 1990s Hong Kong cinema, full of dark and moodily-lit scenes, hysterical characters and a predominance of action over storyline.
That's not to say that the plotting isn't interesting: this film resembles a western in that much of the action is limited to arid desert villages where gangs of bandits roam and kill at will. Chiu Man Cheuk (THE BLACK SHEEP AFFAIR) is the eponymous hero, a man driven into exile by the machinations of a frustrated girl who finds himself compelled to avenge the death of his father.
I'm no great fan of Hark as a director, because sometimes his films feel bitty and all over the place, and his editing is a little too sloppy for my liking. Still, this is one of his better movies, and the fast, hard-hitting action sequences that dominate the production certainly make it an entertaining ride. It's just a shame that the DVD version I saw had such poor picture quality... -
I'd heard many good things about this movie and having enjoyed much of Tsui Hark's work before, was looking forward to a masterpiece, especially seeing as it's a remake of the Shaw Brother's Classic, One Armed Swordsman, but ultimately I was quite disappointed. Maybe I am being overly harsh as this is a film that really serves as a set piece for violent sword fighting spectacles and here it certainly delivers. On, the sword foundry worker turned one armed, whirling dervish of death cuts a striking figure as he slices his way through the bandits that ruined his life and there is plenty for action fans to sink their teeth into here. The initial ambush where On loses his arm is riveting, as bandits seemingly fly out the woodwork and numerous hidden bear traps snap shut on limbs and the later fight sequences such as On defending his adopted home or the bandit assault on the sword foundry are packed to the rafters with flashing blades and high body-counts, blood spattering everywhere.
However, what lets it all down is the narrative component and the overall impression I got was that Tsui Hark came up with the idea for several sword fighting showpieces, then tacked the storyline on as an afterthought. We get no real introductions to the characters whatsoever and narrative strands seem to be dropped in and out with little thought. What makes this worse is that the film spends way too much time focusing on the female narrator, a girl in love with both On and his co-worker Iron Head. Not only is her story of searching for her true love nowhere near as entertaining as On's quest for revenge, but she seems to spend the entire film either getting in the way or screaming and throwing tantrums. Throw in some flimsy philosophical musings (she's constantly going on about the war in her heart) and she becomes a very unsympathetic character, each time her voice over crops up you can't help but looking at the running time and hoping she finishes soon so we can get back to more about sword fighting and revenge.
It's not a bad film, but far below the standard that I had hoped for. If they'd paid as much attention to the storyline as the action and got rid of the ridiculously irritating female narrator, it could have been so much better. -
I must tell you that i'm a little bit shocked and really can't believe that nearly no one has fully grasped this one of the most meaningful and prominent films of our time. Everyone criticizing the surface and the effectiveness but in fact truly missing the point what this film is actually about! A little bit of analysis: At first i have to point out that THE BLADE is enormously similar to Sam Peckinpah's shocking masterpiece from the 1971 STRAW DOGS (and a bit to his companion A Clockwork Orange) both films depicting violence as a natural element or something habitual, in other words the film is implying resonating message that we're just animals with big brains and endless violence we can not be rid of. Blade, SD and ACO are fictitious, ambiguous, allegorical and shocking but in reality are very symbolical and showing the true face of humanity that we are all so scared of! I strongly believe there's also somewhere in those films actually the answer if the peace in the world is even feasible. The Blade has so many symbolical meanings that even the fictional violent world the movie takes place in, only prompting us to apply it to ours. Why? Because the world we're living in is also about the survival like in the film (where is everything only simplified and exaggerated for us just to see the true reality of our world, that's the whole trick). The paradoxical, inadvertent and sometimes very futile violence in the film breeding and producing another violence (e.g. On's revenge for his dead father (where's no redemption) or those exposed little kids watching the bloody fight between that monk and bandits, which is if you think about it enormously provocative vestige of how the world must be so cruel when even a monk has become such a violent beast who then will only manifest that little hint of his smile at those small kids as some kind of a symbol of an inspiration for them - which is very morally inverted). Very common thing in our world is also an involuntary or unconscious act that only brings about another killing and death to others - examples: Ding On inadvertently kills the prostitute Iron Head brought to himself, Ling's father is in fact responsible for a lot of hurt to come when he told Ding On the truth about his father. Chiu Man Cheuk's Ding On initially was against the revenge (mind you the scene after the monk is dead) but Iron Head was all for it who also inadvertently divulged the place where they are from to bandits which would lead to another killing at the end at the Foundry, and etc.. The film even mentions things like buying and selling and at the same time showing the dog approaching some chunk of meat planted right in the big bear jaggy trap which ultimately kills him, the scenes like this are only exaggerated just to give us an idea and feeling of how hard it is to make it through in this world but Tsui Hark de-facto made it clear enough when increased or leveled up the whole hardness of the life in this film and showed us the way how to survive which systematically should be only motivating and inspiring for the viewers of this film. Every time you watch this movie you can find more and more connections between this demented world and ours, which is also the powerful and timeless element of The Blade.
Not Ding On or Iron Head, it was in fact Ling all along who's the most important character (not so strange that the whole film is also off her point of view) as she was also the only one left at the end of the movie still feeling the love for other people but as we see it's late because there's already no one to return her love. What is so paradoxical is that everyone (save for her) in the film was actually neglecting the most important and powerful weapon for this violent world "love", what they were doing was absolutely futile, fruitless, nothing for anyone things which means they ended up as individuals with the complete lack of affection and love for anyone and by this ended up only producing another ceaseless violence that would lead only to downfall of the whole mankind, there was no end to this. So everyone could take the film Blade as the warning or advice - what is virtually the most important for our world!!
I have a more extensive analysis (too long for these comments) of this masterpiece, check out my thread here on The Blade message board! -
Although Hark Tsui seems to be a productive man in the Hong Kong movie business - he has acted, produced, written and directed really a lot of movies - I can't say that I've heard of him before. Not that this is a big surprise. I haven't seen many movies of this kind yet and it's only since I saw "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" that I'm quite intrigued by the genre of the Kung-Fu movie. I'm not saying it is my favorite genre, but it's always nice to see the many spectacular moves, the many fights,... as long as they contribute to the story.
"Dao" or "The Blade" as it is called in English, starts with telling how the daughter of the master of a saber factory is in love with two men that work for her father. Because she can't decide which one she wants, she has come up with a cunning plan. She will make them fight over her and the winner will get her. But her plan doesn't work and instead of fighting with each other, both man refuse to talk or even to look at her... One of them is Ding On. He was adopted by the master when his own father was murdered and now the man chooses On to become his successor. But On has other things on his mind. All he wants is to find the evil Kung-Fu master who is said to be able to fly and who has brutally murdered his father...
Like I said before, I'm very new to the genre, but it's already obvious to me that there must be some different styles in these movies. When I compare it to "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", then this movie is definitely a lot more realistic, but also a lot darker. It's closer to reality because in this movie you don't see anyone jump over a roof or fly from one tree top to another. When they fight in this movie, they do make jumps, but not 50 feet high. The people in this movie are still subject to the rules of gravity and everything what they do is still possible for a human being. But as I said, the movie is also a lot darker. The fights are very brutal and blood is spilled like if it's nothing. And next to all the blood you also get things like a head on a stake, a skinned man hanging upside down, limbs being thorn of,...
I guess both movies have their fans and their opposition, but personally I must say that I feel more for this kind of movies. Although I was able to enjoy the other one too, I liked the more realistic approach of this movie better. I know that must sound strange to a lot of people - "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" hasn't obtained a real cult status for nothing - and when you see the overall rating of both movies I'm probably one of the few, but that doesn't bother me at all. I give this movie a rating in between 7/10 and 7.5/10, just like I did with the other one. -
vailsy21 May 2006i've heard a lot about the inventive camera-work and direction in this movie. i thought both were a mess
also some truly terrible acting. the main 'heroine' in the movie is irritating beyond belief and has absolutely nothing useful to contribute in any situation. everything she does or says is stupid, and she generally just seems to mess peoples lives up. if she could fight, i might forgive her
overall all the women in this movie are stereotypical 'broads' in need of a man to save them. and all the men in this movie are muscle bound dim wits capable of saving no one
this is a poor movie, and i urge you to avoid it. watch something like 'the sword of doom' instead, it's much better than this confusing mess of a film. -
Snowman_Mcknives22 March 2005i unfortunately could not enjoy this film as it could have been thanks to the great enemy of kung fu fans: dodgy subtitles. thus the characters spouted lines that translated as "why did father my die so sad". i know, but anyhow the rest of the film is jaw dropping. little to no wire work, and some of the most inventive martial art choreography ever seen make this a special treat. worlds away from the graceful, but impact-less fighting of CTHD and HOFD, this is nasty, characters are surrounded and chopped to pieces heroes get beaten in all sorts of nasty ways. the editing and camera-work seems to have influenced gladiator, with choppy nasty hits.
the plot is rudimentary, something about sword-makers, evil bald men who probably eat little children and have swords with more gadgets than 4 James bond movies, and two badass friends who kick said guys bald ass. this has no political subtext, no unnecessary complications, just good old fashioned fighting, worth checking out -
chambara811231 October 2004Almost every image in this film has a million unspoken words and many expressed words actually hinting at many images your mind can conceive at that very moment - it's just up to you what you take from it. In reality of this bleak world Tsui Hark showing us the way how to survive and at the same time there's searching for non-existent love and harmony (almost i'd say the lost paradise), it is so far away from a usual action film, it's more about a wicked human behaviour and feelings, very interesting demonstration of a corrupt world wherein is not a way of escape. Though not a revolutionary landmark film of the high caliber of "Seven Swords", yet, this masterpiece is another proof (with many more - Chinese Feast, Don't Play With Fire, Peking Opera Blues, Green Snake, Butterfly Murders, Once Upon A Time In China, Seven Swords, Legend Of Zu) that an innovator and revolutionary perfectionist "Tsui Hark" rightfully belongs to the same league of such greats like H.Hawks, O.Welles, A.Kurosawa, F.Truffaut, S.Leone, S.Fuller, J.L.Godard, R.Polanski. After all, he's responsible for many more classics than even the great A.Hitchcock himself! Which seems to me quite ironical.
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Rea-410 November 1998
- What a delight. Tsui Hark had the guts to do an "arty" martial-arts flick in a time when Hong Kong's cinemas were filled with boring street dramas and uninspired movies made by temporary Wong Kar-wai wannabes. THE BLADE is simply the best Hong Kong film of 1995. The directing is mind blowing and the mood is very dark, very "violent". Obviously inspired by the critical success of "CHUNGKING EXPRESS", Tsui Hark (like many other directors of that time) tried to do a film for a thinking audience. Unfortunately for him (and for us), "THE BLADE" was a big flop in Hong Kong. the critics kind of liked it but HK audience were not in the mood for such a film. Too bad...
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kriplinman16 February 2001This movie was the one of the first true martial artist films I have seen. Since which I have collected a fine library and yet this one still stands out for the story line. A very impressive movie that managed to keep me in rapture during the whole scenario. I would give a big recommendation to any who appreciate martial artist films or just action films to take a look at this one. Even though the movie as I saw it was fairly dark that is easily looked over as the story line pulls you in.
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NedGill30 April 2020The story was great. But I had a tough time watching the movie because the camera work was terrible. Wenzhuo Zhao is a great martial artist but I can't hardly see his movements. Every action scenes were zoomed in it is almost disappointing not to be able to see the actions. The editing was also terrible. It was as if they wanted to put every shot in the final product. I wish they've made more wide shot on the actions. Why did they have to shake the camera so much? I was cringing when I watched every actions. I ended up having a little head ache.
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Allansia30 January 2002This movie is special. Yes, it's another HK movie with great demonstrations of martial arts -with swords and blood-, heroism and revenge. Behind the wonderful and very violent fighting sequences, it's more about life, lust and frustrations. Tsui Hark puts unusual sadness in his movie and a strong sexual atmosphere : Valerie Chow is really amazing as a crazy prostitute and Chiu Man Chek is much sexier and a better actor than Jet Li or Chow-Yun Fat. Between the efficiency of Tai-Chi and the melancholy of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Perfect.
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nightside_of_eden19976 January 2006I've watched hundreds of kung fu movies and I've heard some good thing about this movie, so I decided to give it a try. What I saw was one of the worst displays of movie making I've ever seen.
I can't help but feel like the director want to have every muscle guy in Hong Kong in this movie. Everyone overacts to the point of stupidity. Even Conan the Barbarian had some civility. This movie just has half-evolved men screaming in every scene and stupid women who has no self-respect. The narrator's character should've be killed for sucking so much...she really didn't deserve to live til the end. The entire movie was a melodramatic mess, with horrible acting, bad directing and bad action. They should've just rename this movie to 'The Stupid One-Armed Caveman with a Blade" Here's a question...why do some director use quick cuts for some action movies? Answer: To can hide the deficiencies of the actors. Nearly every scene was close up and quickly cut without any kind of flow. The movie tried so hard to show intensity, but it became almost laughable. Please stay away from this movie it you have any kind of taste in kung-fu movies...or any taste in movies. -
z_zen18 December 2002"The Blade" is the finest martial arts film I've seen. A gritty, dark actioner deriving in equal measures from it's wuxia (martial arts) roots and Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns. The climax includes some of the most compelling fight sequences I've seen on film.
It's a violent and savage yet beautifully shot and composed film. Hark infuses his film full of frenetic camera angles and stark atmoshpere to the point of being nightmarish. The story unfolds in flashback from the perspective of an old woman relating to two men who she imagined will fight for her. A revisionists approach not unlike Kar-wei Wong's "Ashes of Time" but without the surreal narrative.
Are art house films and martial arts films mutually exclusive? I use to think so, but not after seeing "Ashes of Time" and "The Blade". -
jinbao_91 November 2000The feel of the whole movie is simply surreal..! The plot's rather straightforward but the little nuances found in the symbolism that Tsui Hark loves to embellish his films with adds to the whole. Look for the cross symbolism! Zhao Wenzhao is fantastic as the hero..Together with Xiong Xin Xin, they put up some of the most amazing fights that had to be seen to be believed. That the fighters remain mostly on the ground gives credibility to their abilities. And the cool weapon that the hero totes around is, to say the least, utterly fantastic!
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Ian-9613 November 1999The Blade is The Best movie ever, I don't care about anyones arguments, this film is the best movie ever.
From the beautiful photography to the highly original score and extremely high octane sword battles, this film comprehensively kicks every movies arse. -
stuartmcd6 February 2003The great thing about this film (and the sort of thing that upsets people who like seeing martial arts fights where you can see every kick and every punch) is that most of the fighting is just blurs of motion punctuated by shouting and clashing blades. This is what I love in HK fantasies: fight scenes that are so incomprehensible you're left going: huh?
Tsui Hark's best example is Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain, where the viewer has to actually fill in the blanks for themselves. It's edited in such a way that that the film we see feels like only a portion of the story. In some contexts this technique would be stupid, but in fantasy it's wonderful. It's the inverse of the computer graphics bare-all approach, and it's lucky that we had the HK film industry to provide an alternative to Hollywood in this regard. (I say had, because, since Storm Riders, cg in HK is more prevalent than before.)
This approach to fight scenes is impressionistic, and with the final fightscene in Dao it's almost operatic. At no stage do you get a feeling that the fight is actually rational. The use of sound and music in the film is also wonderful, especially in the menacing flashback scene. It's hard to think of a more effective way of setting up a backstory, and gives new life to that tired old cliche, the revenge story.
So that's all good. Sometimes, however, the impressionism gets a bit out of hand. Things take on a Wong Kar Wai pretentiousness, like the horrible Ashes of time, where Leslie Cheung sits around feeling sorry for himself for no appreciable reason. In Dao, the voiceover of the female character gets really annoying. Her mutterings only really serve to remind us she is there, as she has only one pivotal scene in the film (where tells the hero his origin story).
The film is also a bit over-bloody for my taste, but it certainly leaves one with no illusions about the brutalness of the world in which the film is set.
Dao is one of those films that is so strange and vivid it leaves a strong resonance with the viewer long after it is over. It has faults by the barrel, but I'd rather have it and Tsui Hark with us than a legion of James Camerons and Roland Emmerichs.