The Sword Identity

I found it initially long and boring like most artsy-fartsy (avant-garde) movies, but because of my knowledge in military history, it became fascinating. The cinematography is more modern than traditional kung-fu flicks. The primitive dialog and long pauses were very risky forays into the Cinéma vérité style. The scene of the four masters semi-recumbent along a table domino-style represented the solidarity and unyielding stubbornness of traditional Chinese Martial arts. It symbolized Traditionalists as unwilling to allow new weapons/fighting styles, labeling them as foreign, even though these new forms were made by their own people. The Yua Fei Dao (two-handed sword used during the 1st Dynasty Qin) was the precursor to the Chong Dao, the weapon featured in this movie. This movie was a small glimpse into the rich military history of early unified China and how Chinese weaponry adapted to the enemy and evolved with each succeeding dynasty. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wR7RlwSGj50

If you're looking for martial arts fantasy action, this is not the movie for you. In fact this movie was not meant for an international audience, or a blockbuster audience for that matter (unlike the much more extravagant productions Hidden Dragon Crouching Tiger, House of Flying Daggers, or Curse of the Golden Flower, etc.).

But as an artistic and philosophic film it's quite excellent. The "absurd/comical movements" one of reviewers mentioned are actually very realistic for the most part, compared to the above movies mentioned where people do completely impossible feats (they do make for nice action, yes, but that's not what this film was aiming for at all). In most other martial arts movies, what's on show is flourish, feats of fantasy, and badassery; in this movie it's a different kind of badassery -- it's simplicity and martial arts philosophy, "fighting like a true master."

If you can dig that, and if you're the type of movie-goer who pays attention to and likes all the little unspoken details that, if left unnoticed, makes you lose sight of the meaning and beauty of the story, then this is something you won't want to miss. The story itself isn't even the point, it's just the vehicle. That said, viewers with some knowledge of and appreciation for historical Chinese philosophy might enjoy this more.

This movie was not a martial arts epic, although the plot did revolve around the foundation of a new sword fighting school. Do not watch this movie for the action.

It was an unexpectedly absurd comic film which felt more like a stage play than a screenplay. The fight scenes, such as they were, seemed more like awkward, choreographed dances, including people jumping and gasping in unison in the background.

That said, I found it very enjoyable, once I got over the ridiculousness of it. The characters were likable and their motivations made sense within the film's twisted logic.

The directing choices were interesting, with the backgrounds being both stark and beautiful at the same time. Many of the scenes occurred at night, further focusing the viewers attention on the characters rather than the visuals.

At no point was this movie laugh out loud funny, but the director committed to the absurdity of it enough to hold my interest. I would recommend it so long as you don't enter into watching it with skewed expectations.

one of the worst Chinese martial arts movies. on second thought, perhaps the worst Chinese movie ever. horrible screenplay, scenario, dialog, directing. the only thing that might be okay to watch is the cinematography, the camera shooting angles that sometimes showed some beauty in it. this is one of the worst screenplays ever drafted by a Chinese comic writer with lot of weird so-called Chinese martial arts, the hands and the legs movement, lot of hollow and meaningless gestures dotted with sound effect to give false illusions. bad acting worsened by pretentious and ridiculous screenplay and dialog that almost affected bad acting even further to every character involved in this lousy funny movie. one thing amazed me greatly is how such terrible screenplay could still find investors to waste their money to make it into realistic production. nowadays, it seems that only brainless morons are rich.

This is not your typical martial arts movie, so if you're looking for that you will likely be disappointed.

This is a tale of tradition vs innovation. The directing style is also creative, reminding at times a theatre play, and injecting at other times paradoxical comedy. Some of the fights are intuited, not shown, in others most of what you see is the blade or the feet. It's worth it. It's also an incredible insight into the master's POV.

KungFuCinema states "The film is beautifully shot, with a Zen-like spareness to the compositions" - and they're right! check out the review, it's worth reading.

I wrote this review - the first time I ever did so - to compensate for the negs here, in my mind they just didn't get it. Yes at times it is slow-moving, yes if you are looking for action you'll have to work your way through it, but if you choose to watch it it's definitely rewarding.