"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".
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".