The Blade
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DVD: Region Code 1Movie Reviews of The Blade
Movie Review: Tsui Hark's dark and brutal take on a Shaw Bros. classic
Summary: 5 Stars
"After the master of the Sharp Manufacturer saber factory abdicates and appoints On, his least popular worker, as his successor, On, unwilling to lead his surly colleagues, embarks on a quest of revenge to kill the evil, flying, tattooed kung fu master who killed his father"... that's the description of the DVD that Amazon provides above, I suppose it does a fairly good job of giving a brief synopsis of the film, except for one little tiny detail that they may have let slip through the cracks... our lead also loses his right arm to a group of unruly bandits early on. Yeah, that kinda changes things a bit doesn't it?! In 1995, hot off the heels of his final "Once Upon A Time In China" film (part 3), director Tsui Hark decided to take a classic Shaw Brothers film from 1967 entitled "The One-Armed Swordsman," and remake it with his own personal style and flare. The outcome is "The Blade," which can only really be called a remake in spirit alone because ultimately it shares very few similarities with the original beyond the aspects of revenge (different reasons) and, of course, one-armed sword fighting (way different style). Whereas the original masterpiece by Chang Cheh played out almost like a martial arts fairy tale, Hark's vision has more in common with the grime and harshness of a film like "The Taxi Driver" (you may feel like you need a shower after this one). In fact, the first 3/4 of the movie is almost too depressing to enjoy as we follow our lead through nearly unsurmountable misfortune after misfortune (after misfortune!)... of course, this just helps to make the last 1/4 that much sweeter when Ding On does finally begin his bloody path to vengeance. With plenty of interesting characters (even the bit characters pique a sense of intrigue), gritty action, and some of the best direction of Hark's career, "The Blade" provides the goods for more than just the martial art and action crowd, but rather anyone interested in an intense and edgy (albeit bleak)viewing experience. Now to the bad news, the only DVD version available for standard region 1 players is by infamous bootleg distributor Red Sun. That being said, the widescreen picture is very clean with crisp readable subtitles (which you will want to go with because the English dub is awful and really detracts from the film) and the sound is equally sharp (which just means Red Sun has stolen some very good source material to copy). Unfortunately if you want to see the film (without investing in a region free DVD player)this is the only way to go, my only reccomendation being to instantly buy the official release if/when it comes out and destroy this copy shortly thereafter(until then though, enjoy!).
Summary of The Blade
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