After seeing the masterful Father (2020-also reviewed),I decided to check if any new titles were available in the Korea bundle I had purchased at the 2021 Glasgow Film Festival. In the mood for a action flick,I got set to draw swords with the swordsman.

View on the film:

Whilst clearly inspired by the " Zatoichi" films, writer/director Jae-Hoon Choi & cinematographer Won-ho Son strike their own path with spellbinding,ultra-stylised fluid Action set-pieces.

Glimpsing Tae-yul's worsening blindness in first-person sequences,Choi unveils Tae-yul to still be a master of the blade with glossy arc-shots and close-ups putting the audience up-close to the clashing of shining blades, until Choi pulls back to fantastic bursts of deep red unleashed by Tae-yul,unleashed across the stilted calm wide-shots of the Joseon Dynasty.

Forced to rely on instinct as his sight fades, Jang Hyuk gives a wonderful performance as Tae-yul,whose sharp mind-set Hyuk expresses with swift performance of his fighting moves,while Man-sik Jeong gives a thrilling, snarling turn as Min Seung-ho faces up against the swordsman.

This is a Korean film (subtitles) that takes place in 1623. Tae-yul gets caught up in a war between rival Masters and Kings. When his daughter is taken the film eerily looks like "Kill Bill" with long one on one fights, a quick battle with the 88 and then some more one on one. If this was based on a true story then it is the foundation for "Kill Bill" as "Romeo and Juliet" was to "West Side Story."

For me the various relationship with characters that looked too much alike with shifting loyalties proved confusing and I had to just settle for watching people getting sliced and diced. BTW our hero has "blue eyes" (cataracts) and has blurred vision.

No swearing, sex, or nudity. Attempted rape.

THE SWORDSMAN is another decent action film from Korea, this time a Joseon-era swordplay movie. It features three distinct swordsmen in the cast: one of them is a Qing invader, as played by Indonesian breakout star Joe Taslim; another is a soldier serving his kingdom while the third is a hermit hero with failing eyesight and a daughter to protect. The first half of the film is all plot, a little convoluted at times; the second half coalesces into pure action with bloody one-against-the-odds set-pieces and a duelling climax. I preferred this to the RUROUNI KENSHIN films as it has more heart and the fight scenes are better choreographed.