5 Star

Revenge and Regret.

Director/writer and master of the wuxia film genre, Joseph Kuo (CINEMATIC VENGEANCE! 8 Kung Fu Classics, Ninja Death) brings one of the best in this Eureka limited edition Two disc release. Thanks to the work of the “Taiwan film classics digital restoration and value adding project”, commissioned by the Ministry of Culture. Also included in the Limited Edition is another of Kuo‘s masterpieces, The Mystery of Chess Boxing, that shows off the considerable skills of Yi-Min Li.

A man gallops across the countryside, until he pulls up in front of the house of martial arts master Chou Hu (Miao Tien, A Touch of Zen, What Time Is It There?), one of the men he blames for the massacre of his parents twenty years ago. There are others he has to find, but first he must deal with the vicious and nasty bully that is Chou Hu. Tsai Ying-Chieh (Tien Ping, The Silver Spear, The Emperor’s Shadow). He finds Hu bullying a street performer, trying to make a little money with his daughter, but Hu has other ideas about the daughter. Tsai sees the bullying and recognizes the man that was at his fathers murder, all for ‘The Spirit Chasing Sword’.

Do you remember saying

“A beheaded weed will return if you don’t rip out its roots”.

An epic fight breaks out, and we get to see the skills of the vengeful man, and they are impressive, as he soon dispatches Hu. Thankful that his daughter has been spared a fate worse than death, he betroths his daughter to Tsai, who doesn’t really have time for marriage and family life. He is too busy being vengeful.

I want a sword fight with you.

But I haven’t got revenge yet!

As he finds more of the five that are guilty, he comes across a mysterious man the “Black Dragon” (Nan Chiang, 36 Shaolin Beads, Tie shan shen jian) and his sister “Flying Swallow” (Polly Ling-Feng Shang-Kuan, Back Alley Princess, Dragon Inn). One wants to fight Tsai to find out who is the best with the sword, the other wants to stop the feud.

A true man repays kindness when helped, and get revenge when wronged. Don’t blame me for being cruel.

 

Bonus Disk

The Mystery of Chess Boxing

This is another revenge film, but this one comes with a big dollop of humour, as Ah Pao (Yi-Min Li, The Seven Commandments of Kung Fu, Golden Dragon, Silver Snake) seeks training in Kung-Fu to avenge his murdered father, whilst evil martial arts Ghost Face Killer Wan Chun-Shan (Kuan-Wu Lung, Who Knows About Me, 100% Senorita (TV Series)) is seeking the people that banded together to stop his reign of terror.

These two films are packed with action, with amazing skills and awesome choreography, making this package a must own for the wuxia fan in the house.

THE SWORDSMAN OF ALL SWORDSMEN (Yi dai jian wang) (Eureka Classics) Limited Edition Two-Disc is available on Blu-ray

 

LIMITED EDITION TWO-DISC BLU-RAY SET FEATURES*:

DISC ONE – THE SWORDSMAN OF SWORDSMEN – FEATURES

1080p HD presentation on Blu-ray from a 2K digital restoration completed by the Taiwan Film Institute | Original Mandarin audio | Optional English Subtitles | Brand new feature-length audio commentary by Asian film expert Frank Djeng and film writer John Charles (The Hong Kong Filmography, 1977–1997) | Archival interview with director Joseph Kuo

DISC TWO (BONUS DISC) – THE MYSTERY OF CHESS BOXING** – FEATURES

Strictly limited to 2000 copies ONLY | 1080p HD presentation on Blu-ray, scanned from the only known surviving print of the film supplied by collector Dan Halsted (Head Programmer at the Hollywood Theatre, Oregon) | Original Mandarin, Cantonese and “Classic” English dubbed audio options | Brand new feature-length audio commentary by Asian film expert Frank Djeng and martial artist / filmmaker Michael Worth | Brand new feature-length audio commentary by action cinema experts Mike Leeder and Arne Venema | Sleeve artwork by Darren Wheeling