The Return of the
Deadly Blade
Director: Taylor Wong
Year: 1981
Rating: 6.0
This wuxia film from
1981 has acquired a strong if somewhat obscure reputation over the years
based on its action choreography and the stellar cast. It is also one more
developmental step in the career of Ching Sui-tung that was soon to take
off. Ching was the action choreographer for both this film and for The Sword
that had been made in the previous year. Though done on a much smaller scale,
both films show elements of the kinetic and flashy style that Ching was to
bring in a sumptuous mind-bending flurry in his groundbreaking film Duel
to the Death in 1983.
Unfortunately, the copy of this film that I was able to view was only subtitled
for the first ten minutes, pan and scan and had some awkward edits that made
me wonder if I was watching a badly cut version. Taking all this into account,
it was still an enjoyable film to watch but it was difficult to follow the
plot and understand the relationships of the characters. I also rarely felt
that I was seeing something exciting and innovative taking place (even taking
a historical perspective). Many of the action scenes feel overly edited at
times – and the film lacks the sense of aesthetic and exciting style that
Ching brought to The Sword. This could of course be more the fault of the
director of this film, Cho Chin-man, than of Ching.
As best as I could understand, the film revolves around two swordsmen – David
Chiang who leaves his sweetheart behind to search for the person responsible
for killing his father - and Yasuaki Kurata who seems to have a bounty on
his head and has countless killers chasing after him. Much of the film follows
the two of them on separate journeys through the Chinese countryside until
they finally meet up.
Yasuaki is a kind-hearted fellow and does his best not to hurt the various
hunters who are trying to trap him and defeats them in comical ways. He also
meets up with Sharon Yeung Pan Pan and has a few low-key duels with her that
are closer to flirtation than fighting. Chiang on the other hand is singly
focused on gaining revenge – and slowly works his way towards the unknown
killer – though along the way he does save Flora Cheung from being raped.
She attaches herself to him – but there is clearly more to her than meets
the eye. Keeping tabs on all of this from a distance is a crippled Norman
Chu (who also starred in both The Sword and Duel to the Death).
There is a lot of action in the film – some done humorously – some of it
quite deadly – and Ching employs one of his favorite visual devices – the
elusive Ninjas for a terrific attack on a boat in the middle of a lake. He
was of course to use the Ninja even more imaginatively in Duel to the Death.
I have no doubt I would have appreciated this film much more with a better
transfer and with subtitles – but as it stands: