Blind Swordswoman
Director:
Chien Lung
Year: 1971
Rating: 4.5
Aka - Golden Sword
and the Blind Swordswoman
Dubbed on an Ocean Shore video titled Zatoichi,
the Blind Swordsman. There must have been a few angry customers since Zatoichi
doesn't come within hailing distance of the film.
What could be better than a blind swordswoman,
you ask? Well of course, two blind swordswomen! And to top that there is
a third swordswoman who pretends to be blind. It must have been the fashion
at the time. This had promise for the first fifteen minutes. Lin Hsuan plays
one of the blind women and the film opens with her fighting off and killing
a bunch of thugs. Then moves to a casino where she and the other blind woman
played by Shen Yi (was in a few Shaw films) kill a bunch more. Two blind
women just slicing and dicing. They do a few Zatoichi trademarks though -
tossing dice up in the air and cutting them into pieces with their swords.
Not as easy as you may think, I have yet to even hit the dice. These women
are good. Give kung fu films their credit - they were pro-disabled - lots
of blind fighters and one-armed ones. Also, women. If you dig deep enough
into Taiwanese kung fu films, there are always new female action stars popping
up. From the titles at least, it appears that Lin Hsuan was in a number of
wuxia films.
And yet another action scene comes along
about two minutes after the casino scene in which the bad guys try and blow
up the two girls in a restaurant. Fifteen minutes in and three action scenes.
Not bad. Don't get used to it. It seems the film shot its wad till the final
ten minutes. A lot of confusing narrative sets in for about an hour. Characters
keep showing up - all wanting to kill Lee (Yi Yuan) who is responsible for
killing a whole lot of people including Lin's father and Shen's mother -
or is she dead - or a ghost. Another woman (Lee Kui-on) shows up pretending
to be blind for some reason and she too wants to kill Lee. Lee is clearly
not a popular fellow and in the end they all show up for the final showdown.
Not well choreographed or directed. Director Chien Lung helmed 75 films,
of which I have only heard of The Bravest Revenge and The Screaming Tiger,
both which were must better than this one. Of course, it is possible that
the Ocean Shore video screwed it up. But it again shows me how many films
were being produced in Taiwan during these years and how many seem to have
disappeared.
