Memories of the Sword
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This Korean period wire fu martial arts film is lovely to look at but is as emotionally barren as a burnt out marriage. Not admittedly for lack of trying - it is overly wrought with talk of dying, revenge and fate but the script feels so manipulative and incohesive that none of it sticks. But the visuals and sets are gorgeous with some very graceful wire fu and a lot of killing by the sword. The film has two big Korean stars - Lee Byung-hun (Bittersweet Life) and Jeon Do-yeon (You're My Sunshine), but both of them spend the entire film just looking morose and weeping. Neither are at all likeable. The other main actress in the film is Kim Go-eun who won the Asia Rising Star Award at my old festival the New York Asian Festival but as cute as she is she seems more suitable for Korean comedies and romances.

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There is a tragic cloud that surrounds the story. Years previously three leaders of a rebellion against the crown have the King's son as a hostage, but one of them (Lee) betrays the cause and kills the main leader while his love (Jeon) looks on. But they spare the leader's baby girl who Jeon raises in guilt. But she raises her with a strange and convoluted logic - she tells the girl that her father was killed by two people and trains her to revenge them some day. Of course, she and her ex-lover who is now a high ranking official are those two people. There is also a half-baked romantic angle thrown in for no particular purpose between Kim and a fellow swordsman (Lee Jun-ho) who looks like he should be in a boy band - and as it turns out he is (2PM).

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The film shuffles along slowly towards the inevitable face off with flashbacks, vows of vengeance, tears and guilty suffering that turn it into a weepy melodrama as much as an action film. There are though a few nicely choreographed wushu scenes that are poetic and the final fight in the snowfall is well-done and finally hits some pathos that had been missing through the film.

Rating: 5.5/10

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