Swordsman II (1992)
A classic ruined by BAD translation/subtitles
29 April 2004
Asia the invincible? what the hell's that? the guy's surname is Dong Fang, which is a normal chinese surname, means "the east", he call himeself Bu Bai, coz he has not, did not, and thinks would not be defeated, so it means The Undefeated.

I know translation is a tough job, no matter how good you think you did, you still cannot transform all the meanings, undertones, indications in a culture sense. But not like this one! This is a very beautiful movie, all the lines, the scenes, the costumes, all very authenticly chinese, and stunning. And the poems recited in the movie, and the haunting song...hate to see all of these been ruined by the rediculous translantion.

You know, many things are just not meant to be translated, many words in chinese, they just can't be properly translated, such as "tian xia","qian kun", they are somewhat close to the meaning of "the world", but never is in the same sense of it.

So, for those who deminished the plot of the movie, I just wana tell you, it was based on one of the best selling Wuxia books in China, and the lines, they are very beautiful, in chinese. And for those who talked about the wire works, hello, this is a fantasy movie, and even with the wiring, have you ever seen body movements as beautiful as this in other movies, say the matrix? Wiring doesn't neccesarily mean it's not googd KongFu, This movie has some of the best fight scenes I have ever seen, wiring is only a basic requirement for action fantasies, but the thing they did with the fight scene, that's art, man. You have to be a KongFu master and an artist at the same time to be able to design, to creat such beautiful things.

In short, advice for people from America, Europe, Africa...no-china£¬If you wana have a better understanding of the movie, READ THE BOOK FIRST, and before that, LEARN SOME CHINESE! :)
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