Jian (1971)

User Rating:

6.5/10   

Director:

Lei Pan

Writer:

Lei Pan (writer)

Genre:

Action | Drama

Cast

Pei Ling Chen
Fan Chiang
Han Chiang
Xiangting Ge
Su Han
Chun Ku
Ying Lee
Ming Lei
Ping Lu
Ting Meng
Tien Miao
Ming Min
Feng Sun
David Tang Wei
Hung Tsai
Lai Wang
Yu Wang

Also Known As:

The Sword (International: English title)

Country:

Taiwan

Language:

Mandarin

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Changjiang Film Company

Pivotal film in the evolution of the martial arts genre.

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Jimmy Wang Yu has been involved in some of the most important wuxia films ever made. His work in ONE ARMED SWORDSMAN was one of the first examples of the brooding manliness that Chang Cheh would push into the genre through the entirety of his career. But he's seemed to have lost his place in history as an innovative star because of the timing of his career. He was just becoming a big deal when Bruce Lee came onto the scene, and Lee's early death has cemented him as a pop culture phenomenon, while Wang Yu is just another name only known by people who are obsessively fond of early wuxia movies or the crappier Taiwanese independents. But this film, THE SWORD, is probably one of the best the genre had to offer during the early seventies, and the defining moment of the wuxia genre.

The movie chronicles the life of Jimmy Wang Yu as a spoiled young prince who is obsessed with swords. In order to procure allegiance from his estate, a corrupt lord sets up a tournament, and the winner's prize is what is considered to be the best sword in the world. Wang Yu, of course, wins the tournament, and is more the pleased with his weapon until a traveling hermit tells him that there is a sword more precious, though less famous, than the one he's earned. Not being content to accept anything less than the absolute best, he goes off to find the owner of the sword, a former soldier living like a recluse in the woods with his pretty daughter and a manservant who's obviously taken with her. He tries to pay the man for the sword, but being that he's unwilling to part with it, Wang Yu then decides to steal it instead, only to find out the old timer is stronger, faster, and a better martial artist than him. Wang Yu returns home training to an insane degree, letting his obsession consume him to the point that his mother is sick with worry and his appearance is noticeably changed, deciding then to return to the old man and challenge him for the sword.

That's only a smidgen of the actual plot to the movie, which isn't entirely uncommon for a wuxia film, but for the time in which it was released, it was fairly uncommon to have a film that treated its characters as actual human beings as opposed to comic book heroes and distressed damsels. The idea of a man consumed by his obsession might seem a bit cliché these days, but it was not only novel when THE SWORD was made, but revolutionary. At the same time, Wang Yu gives the best acting performance of his entire career. He goes from being a arrogant, vain, prissy young man to being dangerously psychotic with an ease that belies the fact that he could usually only pull off one at a time. It combines his performance in early Shaw Brothers films like TEMPLE OF THE RED LOTUS with his more established screen persona from GOLDEN SWALLOW. This is no doubt due to the influence of Lei Pan, who's direction is among the best of this particular era. His film is visually attractive, his best shots usually being towards the end of the film and the impressively filmed slaughter in a snowy woods. But his greatest strengths as a director are not visual -he doesn't have compositions that recall the best of classical Chinese art as King Hu's COME DRINK WITH ME, neither does he utilize hand held camera work in unusual (though suspiciously familiar to that of Sam Peckinpah) ways like Chang Cheh- Lei's best ability is that of story telling. THE SWORD works well because of the believability and horrific nature of its central character's decent into raving lunacy, and its effects on those surrounding him. That it manages not to be as melodramatic as many similar films of the era, and that nobody (save a single actress) allows there performance to descend into wild histrionics saves this movie from being one that is remembered most fondly for its fight scenes.

Part of the reason why the movie has a more realistic look to it than those of Shaw Brothers is in part because of the authenticity of its sets, costuming, and props, all of which are quite accurate and the biggest problem here is that the sets are fairly underpopulated. But that's a minor quibble considering the unusual attempts for verisimilitude. As for the fight scenes, they're there and they're good. Really good as a matter of fact. Wang Yu has never been a great martial artist, but his sword handling here is fast and the choreography is such that it makes him look good. Although not balletic as future wuxia movies would be balletic, it does help that there isn't a single instance of wire work and that flashy moves are kept to a minimum so that their visual impact is preserved, rather than diluted by being used in every shot. And for those keep count, there is both a training scene and a tournament scene, although the training is done in a tasteful montage and the tournament is short. Don't expect MASTER OF THE FLYING GUILLOTINE here, because what we got is much, much better. Lei Pan is not as well known a director as Chang Cheh, Chor Yuen, King Hu, and other luminaries of the genre, but along with his Shaw film THE FASTEST SWORD, I think he shows a grace that's not usually seen, and a focus on real characters and actual stories that transcend what is normally conceived for a genre film. The Hong Kong film archives picked THE SWORD as one of the thirty best wuxia films of all time, and they couldn't have possibly made a better choice for film that is not only well realized, but a genre definer and innovator.