Director: Tsui Hark
Screenplay: Tsui Hark, So Man-Sing, Koan Hui
Starring: Vincent Zhao Wenzhuo, Xiong Xinxin, Sonny Song, Austin Wai Tin-Chi, Moses Chan Ho, Chung Bik-Ha, Michael Tse Tin-Wah, Jason Chu Wing-Tong
Country: Hong Kong
Running Time: 105 min
Year: 1995
BBFC Certificate: 15
Tsui Hark helped bring wuxia back in fashion in the 1990s, with Swordsman and the Once Upon a Time in China series. However, after directing the fifth instalment of the latter and bearing witness to countless imitators, Tsui decided to shake things up a bit with his next swordplay film.
He and co-writers So Man-Sing and Koan Hui took the concept of Chang Cheh’s groundbreaking 1967 wuxia classic, The One-Armed Swordsman, and used that as a template to attempt to deconstruct the genre. The result was The Blade, released in 1995.
Sadly, the experiment didn’t pay off, at least not in Hong Kong. The film was a flop in its home country. However, certainly over time, it has proved more successful elsewhere, critically, at least.
It’s been hard to get hold of for a while, never having received a Blu-ray release in the UK, though the old DVD is probably still floating around in second-hand shops. Thankfully, Criterion are remedying this by releasing The Blade not only on Blu-ray, but on UHD too (both together in one package).
I can remember watching the film way back when and enjoying it a great deal, so I eagerly snapped up a screener.
The Blade opens in a foundry, where Ding On (Vincent Zhao) and Iron Head (Moses Chan) work under a master (Austin Wai) who was a friend of Ding On’s dead father. The master’s daughter, Ling (Song Lei), is attracted to both of the young men and attempts to pit them against each other. Tensions indeed start to form between them, after Ding On confesses to the master that they had been in a fight in town, and later Ding On is named the master’s successor.
Soon after, however, Ding On learns that his father was killed by an assassin named Feilong (Hung Yan-yan) and leaves the foundry on a quest for vengeance. This doesn’t go well, though, as he gets into a fight with a gang of thugs who were assaulting Ling. He saves the young woman, but gets his right arm chopped off in the process and is left for dead.
Ding On is saved, however, by Heitou (Chung Bik-ha), a farmer. Ding On decides to stay with Heitou rather than return to town, ashamed of the fact that his new disability will prevent him from getting the revenge he seeks.
After discovering a kung-fu manual, though, Ding On trains hard to find a way for him to fight as well as before, or even better.
Meanwhile, Ling and Tietou try their best to find their friend, and Ling grows disillusioned with the world outside the foundry.
Tsui Hark describes how he wanted to make a film that took an almost documentary approach to a wuxia. The Blade isn’t quite as ‘rough’ as you might expect from this description, though. It has a much grittier style than most of the martial arts films up to that time. However, this down-and-dirty approach is blended with stylised, impressionistic visuals, particularly in a couple of sequences.
One technique used was to avoid blocking out the movements of the actors alongside the camera department. So, the operator had to follow the actor without knowing where they would go. This helps give the film a verité look.
The action scenes are fast-cutting and often feature quite chaotic camerawork. This can make things hard to follow, in places, but it does make for some viscerally intense fights, which is clearly what Tsui was going for.
It deconstructs the wuxia traditions in some ways, too, despite being based on a classic of the genre. Chiefly, it does away with any idea of chivalry. Our heroes are flawed and their violence, not just that of the villains, is shown for what it really is.
The film has an unreliable narrator in Ling (whose voiceover was a late addition to the film). She gives more of an emotional picture of what happens, rather than telling the facts. In particular, she romanticises the Jianghu (the martial world depicted in wuxia), which the film exposes to be anything but romantic.
There’s more of an air of realism in how the world works, too, and in how our hero develops his skills. On top of watching him figure out a fitting stance and moves for his disability, he constructs his own method of fighting the main villain with a sword on a chain. His techniques actually make logical sense here, for a change.
The film isn’t perfect. On top of the action getting a little too chaotic for its own good, I found the story got a little muddled, too. It’s not especially complicated, but scenes aren’t always clearly motivated, so it can take time to acclimatise in places.
Generally, however, The Blade is a stylish and exciting spin on a classic wuxia tale.
Film: 
The Blade is out on 13th April on 4K UHD & Blu-Ray in the UK, released by The Criterion Collection. I watched the UHD, and it looks stunning. It’s an incredibly detailed image and the colours look gorgeous too. It’s quite a dark film (literally), so it benefits from HDR. As for the audio, one scene early on sounded a little weak, but then it sorted itself out after that. It may be an issue with the film, originally.
4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
– New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
– One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
– New audio commentary featuring Hong Kong cinema expert and producer Frank Djeng
РAction et v̩rit̩ (2006), a documentary featuring director Tsui Hark, coscreenwriter Koan Hui, and actor Xiong Xin-xin
– New video essay by filmmakers Taylor Ramos and Tony Zhou (Every Frame a Painting)
– New York Asian Film Festival Q&A with Tsui from 2011
– Alternate English-dubbed track
– International-version opening and end credits
– Trailer
– New English subtitle translation
– PLUS: An essay by author Lisa Morton
– New cover by Oliver Barrett
Frank Djeng provides a commentary over the film. This is a little more analytical than usual for Djeng, digging into the film’s themes and the filmmaking techniques employed by Tsui Hark. It’s a compelling listen.
The Edges of Wuxia looks at how Tsui Hark pays tribute to and deconstructs the genre. It’s a concise but thought-provoking piece.
There’s also an 11-minute Q&A with Tsui Hark included on the disc too. This is worth a watch.
Finally, there’s a near hour-long archival French documentary about the film, featuring an interview with Tsui Hark alongside other members of the production team. This is excellent, providing a detailed look at the filmmaker’s approach and intentions behind the film.
I didn’t receive a copy of the booklet, unfortunately.
So, Criterion have done justice to Tsui Hark’s excellent wuxia reimagining. As such, the set is well worth picking up.
Disc/Package: