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Swordsman (1990)

Dir: Siu-Tung Ching, Tsui hark, Andrew Kam, King Hu, Ann Hui.

Hong Kong films have had people flying around and bouncing in the air for about 40 years, and "Swordsman" at the time, heralded a new, high tech, rapid cut look to the art of the flying martial artist.
And people were going on about "Crouching Tiger..." like it was an amazing new concept! A Highly complex storyline (too complex for it's own good at times) involving the theft and subsequent search for the 'Sacred Scroll' that gives the details of a martial art so powerful it can beat all others, and gives the user the power to see through things!

The main Hero of the piece is 'Fox' played by Sam Hui. Who tries to keep the Scroll out of the hands of the treacherous factions. Many of the Government and local Martial Arts schools and Sects are all seeking it out. This leads to double crosses, triple crosses, people pretending to be other people, and even women pretending to be boys!

We have about 4 different baddies, from the Government to the warring Sects, some working for themselves, some working for others waiting for the chance to betray them! One stand out bad guy is the legendary Yuen Wah, who blasts down trees with the use of his 'psychic' fists!
We also have a scheming bad guy played by Jackie Cheung (who is also a popular singer in HK and starred in, among many others, the classic John Woo film "Bullet In The Head") who's character's actions play a hand in the events to come in part 2.

So it's a complex plot indeed. But the way it is told is what makes this film so good.

We have fantastic fights, involving hand to hand martial arts and superb swordplay.
Characters fly, leap and bounce themselves off trees, walls and in an outstanding set piece at sea, they zip and fly and rebound off a ships mast and rigging.
There is a nice bit of splatter in the film as well. With some bloody swordfights and some crazy 'mind power' martial arts that has 'psychic' blows delivered that knock peoples heads off!

In fact a lot of the fights involve this supernatural martial art, where no actual contact is needed. Just point those mighty fists or swirling swords at an enemy and watch them get bashed and slashed!

We also have martial arts involving the use of snakes, and even bees!

Another stand out scene is when our Hero meets an old Martial teacher, who destroys a whole band of troops with some amazing sword stances (which he calls out the names of as he performs them) that include the 'Splitting Sword' that splits one unfortunate flying swordsman in half from head to groin, and the two halves go flying off in different directions!

I must also mention the lovely red hazed photographer and the wonderful blue tint night photographer. Beautiful stuff. The music is also a very important part of the film (especially, as to complicate matters further, the 'Sacred Scroll' is sometimes mixed up with the written down score of a song - the wonderful "Hero Of Heroes", very catchy stuff! - that is entrusted to our Hero by two dying Sect leaders, played by Iconic HK Producer/Director TSUI HARK (in an outrageous beard!) and Wu Ma.
It's a great score.

The movie only partly ends, as the story (Based on a 2000 page Chinese novel) caries on with the even more successful and influential "SWORDSMAN 2", THE breakthrough film for mainland Martial Arts star Jet Li, who replaced the less flamboyant and certainly less charismatic, Sam Hui, as the Hero 'Fox'.

Search for this gem, and see how real HK Directors (in this case 5 of them!) do it!