Invincible Swordsman

Story: A nameless female fighter (Zhang Yuqi) defeats Ren Woxing (Terence Yin), who is known as Invincible East, and from that day on, she calls herself Dongfang Bubai. She becomes the new leader of the Sun Moon Holy Cult, a demonic school whose top members have become almost immortal by taking magic pills. In the meantime, Yingying (Xuan Lu), the daughter of the defeated and imprisoned Ren Woxing, meets up with Linghu Chong (Tim Huang), a student of the Huashan School. The two have become friends through music, but their schools are enemies with each other, and so Linghu is ultimately rejected by his master. However, the secluded master Feng Qingyang (Sammo Hung) takes him in and teaches him his martial arts. From then on, Linghu lives on a mountain and no longer cares about the world's issues. But one day Yingying turns up and tells him that under the leadership of Dongfang Bubai the school now wants to take over the martial arts world and that the Huashan school has gone into battle against them. Linghu can no longer remain inactive and rushes to help his former brothers and sisters. In the ensuing fight, he believes to be saving a woman who he calls Xiaoyu from then on and who is a wine lover just like him. The two soon have to part ways, but not without promising each other to meet again. Linghu has no idea that the woman is actually Dongfang Bubai ...

Review: If you want to shoot a captivating wuxia flick, the screenplay shouldn't take up that much work, as there is so much material in Jin Yong's novels that you actually have supply for decades, especially if you put your own spin on the whole thing. "Invincible Swordsman" does exactly that and uses the novel "The Smiling, Proud Wanderer". However, you might also start to panic when you read that Wong Jing wrote the screenplay. Admittedly, though, next to his countless embarrassing works for the screen, Wong Jing has also landed one or two hits. Newcomer Luo Yiwei is responsible for directing. And the story might also sound familiar because the novel was already made into a movie with "The Swordsman II" starring Jet Li and Brigitte Lin. The loose adaptation of the story for "Invincible Swordsman" may probably bother fans of the novel, but I'm relatively relaxed about it, after all, Jin Yong's novels have such an epic scale that you can hardly squeeze them into 120 minutes anyway. I assume that some of the rather unfavorable reviews are due to the changes made to the story. Nevertheless, I feel like the movie is a very entertaining representative of its genre. Despite, or perhaps even because of, some of its weaknesses.

What does that mean exactly? A little kitsch that presents itself in the form of supernatural abilities, but above all, in the depiction of the villain's "diabolical" laughter. Some of the exterior shots also look as if they were done in a studio. All this has a pleasant charm to it that reminds us of the 90s, when the genre had its last peak. In addition, there are also a few computer-generated effects, but thankfully the movie doesn't overdo it, which makes it look much better than other expensively produced "blockbusters" from the country. The different sets and landscapes are definitely a highlight of the movie, and each location has its own touch, whether it is a snowy mountain range, a forest, a dungeon, etc. In addition, there are also countless characters who, despite the fact that they don't get enough time to feel thoroughly fleshed out, at least have different kinds of relationships to other characters and are therefore also important for the story.

The various connections, relationships, intrigues, secrets, etc. are a fundamental part of Jin Yong's stories and are not missing here either. Good and evil blend into each other, so that the different ambitions influence the moral compass, but despite the fascinating gray nuances, it mostly remains completely obvious who you are supposed to root for. An important anchor for the plot is a love story, which is also a motor for future events and is not just thrown in there. Dongfang Bubai is a fascinating character and Zhang Yuqi ("The Mermaid") manages to give her the necessary secret longing and warmth that slumbers beneath a surface of ice and cruelty. Tim Huang is just as convincing as the wine-drinking wanderer who wants to withdraw from Jianghu, the world of heroes and villains, but repeatedly has to take up the sword again out of loyalty to his former masters and friends. It's also nice to see Sammo Hung (who most recently appeared in "Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In") in a larger supporting role here.

You actually have to pay extra attention to the developments in order to keep up with everything. But since the different characters all look very individual, just as is typical for the fantasy/wuxia genre, you are always able to keep track of things. And a certain kind of lightheartedness and a little bit of humor ensure that the story doesn't get too dark despite all the betrayal and revenge motives. Some things also seem a bit comic-like and colorful, but by no means in a bad way. Which brings us back to the enjoyable kitsch factor, and the fights. The various movements have wonderful bloomy names, and the fights take place flying, whirling and sometimes with the help of special weapons. For example, Dongfang Bubai uses needle and thread, and one of the villains uses the sound waves of his lute to cut through his opponents. Every now and then, however, there are also a few down-to-earth altercations. Sure, it would have been nice to have a few more of those, but the high fantasy confrontations fit into the story, and so there is not much to complain about here.

But the movie works particularly well because it manages to engage you emotionally too. It never gets so tragic that you want to shed a tear, and you can hold that against the movie as a point of criticism, but at least it doesn't get too melodramatic either. The action is also nicely distributed over the 120 minutes. Thus, you can see that, in my opinion, "Invincible Swordsman" definitely deserves a recommendation. Still, I wonder why there aren't more people that see it that way (admittedly, there aren't that many reviews about the flick yet). Am I maybe just too wuxia-deprived because there haven't been any proper genre entries for such a long time, and so I just see "Invincible Swordsman" through rose-colored glasses? Or are there really so many fans of the original work out there who are not at all satisfied with the adaptation? Which is understandable in a way, but it shouldn't stop others from giving this wuxia entry a chance. The movie simply stands on its own. And it's colorful, entertaining, full of twists and good characters - more than enough for a nice movie night.

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