During the introduction to Taiwanese The Rice Bomber (2014-also reviewed) I was absolutely thrilled to learn, that the HOME cinema in Manchester were soon going to present a season of obscure Taiwan Wuxia Action films, which included a screening of a 2021 remastered print of a Joseph Kuo title.
Discovering that this film was not in the recent box set dedicated to the auteur film maker,and I could not even find a trailer for the movie online, leading to me rushing to meet this rare fighter.
View on the film:
Spending 20 years preparing his sword to strike down those who murdered his parents, co-writer (with Tien-Yung Hsu and Shui-Han Chiang) / directing auteur Joseph Kuo & The Wheel of Life (1983-also reviewed) cinematographer Tsan-Ting Lin lay out the path of revenge for Ying-Chieh (played with a glittering flair by Peng Tien) with crystallized wide-shots displaying the superb fight choreography, grinding to close-ups of blood splattering against the backdrop of the high waves.
Pausing from moments of action, Kuo displays a striking skill for a lingering build-up to sudden bursts of violence, where close-ups on tea are shattered with ultra-stylized spinning arc shots circling spinning bladed hats, smash-cutting hand-cutting, and zoom-ins being placed on chopsticks getting used as a deadly weapon.
Dicing through the revenge tale in 85 minutes, the screenplay by Kuo, Hsu and Chiang superbly unveil Ying-Chieh's childhood with compact flashbacks bursting with ruthless violence which wipes out Ying-Chieh's family, which drips decades later into his uncompromising mind-set to take down all who destroyed his family home,as Ying-Chieh becomes the swordsman of all swordsmen.
Discovering that this film was not in the recent box set dedicated to the auteur film maker,and I could not even find a trailer for the movie online, leading to me rushing to meet this rare fighter.
View on the film:
Spending 20 years preparing his sword to strike down those who murdered his parents, co-writer (with Tien-Yung Hsu and Shui-Han Chiang) / directing auteur Joseph Kuo & The Wheel of Life (1983-also reviewed) cinematographer Tsan-Ting Lin lay out the path of revenge for Ying-Chieh (played with a glittering flair by Peng Tien) with crystallized wide-shots displaying the superb fight choreography, grinding to close-ups of blood splattering against the backdrop of the high waves.
Pausing from moments of action, Kuo displays a striking skill for a lingering build-up to sudden bursts of violence, where close-ups on tea are shattered with ultra-stylized spinning arc shots circling spinning bladed hats, smash-cutting hand-cutting, and zoom-ins being placed on chopsticks getting used as a deadly weapon.
Dicing through the revenge tale in 85 minutes, the screenplay by Kuo, Hsu and Chiang superbly unveil Ying-Chieh's childhood with compact flashbacks bursting with ruthless violence which wipes out Ying-Chieh's family, which drips decades later into his uncompromising mind-set to take down all who destroyed his family home,as Ying-Chieh becomes the swordsman of all swordsmen.