During the introduction to Taiwanese The Rice Bomber (2014-also reviewed) I was absolutely thrilled to learn, that the HOME cinema in Manchester were soon going to present a season of obscure Taiwan Wuxia Action films, which included a screening of a 2021 remastered print of a Joseph Kuo title.

Discovering that this film was not in the recent box set dedicated to the auteur film maker,and I could not even find a trailer for the movie online, leading to me rushing to meet this rare fighter.

View on the film:

Spending 20 years preparing his sword to strike down those who murdered his parents, co-writer (with Tien-Yung Hsu and Shui-Han Chiang) / directing auteur Joseph Kuo & The Wheel of Life (1983-also reviewed) cinematographer Tsan-Ting Lin lay out the path of revenge for Ying-Chieh (played with a glittering flair by Peng Tien) with crystallized wide-shots displaying the superb fight choreography, grinding to close-ups of blood splattering against the backdrop of the high waves.

Pausing from moments of action, Kuo displays a striking skill for a lingering build-up to sudden bursts of violence, where close-ups on tea are shattered with ultra-stylized spinning arc shots circling spinning bladed hats, smash-cutting hand-cutting, and zoom-ins being placed on chopsticks getting used as a deadly weapon.

Dicing through the revenge tale in 85 minutes, the screenplay by Kuo, Hsu and Chiang superbly unveil Ying-Chieh's childhood with compact flashbacks bursting with ruthless violence which wipes out Ying-Chieh's family, which drips decades later into his uncompromising mind-set to take down all who destroyed his family home,as Ying-Chieh becomes the swordsman of all swordsmen.

THE SWORDSMAN OF ALL SWORDSMEN is another Taiwanese wuxia story influenced by the likes of DRAGON INN. This is one of the earlier films directed by Joseph Kuo who would come to dominate the kung fu genre in later years with films such as 18 BRONZEMEN and the like. As ever, the story is strong although let down by a so-so execution clearly struggling with budgetary constraints.

Popular star Tien Peng plays the titular character, an expert swordsman who wanders the countryside on a mission of revenge. As is so often the way in these movies, his parents were slaughtered while he was still a child, which means he now has a vendetta against the killer or killers responsible. At one point, Peng forms a close relationship with female fighter Polly Shang Kwan who plays a character called Swallow, but it transpires that the two may be set on a collision course by further twists of the plot.

As is usual with Taiwanese productions, THE SWORDSMAN OF ALL SWORDSMEN utilises real-life locations as Shaw-style sets would have been too expensive to produce on their limited budgets. However, the outdoor locations are frequently beautiful to behold and give the film a fresh feel. The action is plentiful and relatively bloody for its time, although the choreography is lacking a bit. Things culminate in a fantastically-shot final duel on a beach which is the highlight of the production and indeed of Kuo's entire career - it's a masterful scene.

Directed by Joseph Kuo, who wrote it with Shui-Han Chiang and Tien-Yung Hsu, Yi dai jian wang tells the tale of Tsai Lai-Chieh (Peng Tien, Return of the 18 Bronzemen), who as a child had his entire family - nearly sixty members in all, killed by five martial arts masters. He has trained his entire life to destroy them, which is a plot that could be any other martial arts or wuxia movie, but this transcends the form with the last target of his vengeance - symbolized by the wooden names he keeps on his belt and breaks with each step toward killing them all - being a blind and broken old man that realizes that he deserves death.

La-Chieh is joined by two equally incredible fighters, Flying Swallow (Polly Kuan, Shi er sheng xiao) and Black Dragon (Chiang Nan, The Magic Blade), a swordsman dedicated to being the best of the best, even if that means that he must wait and help Lai-Chieh pay his blood debt to his family before they inevitably fight to the death. I loved how La-Chieh is willing to admit that Black Dragon is a better fighter than him, but his tenuous friend can only know through a duel which will destroy one of them. They save him for an attack with arrows and poison darts, giving him time to heal and get back on the bloody road of retribution.

This movie gets a lot of jaw-dropping scenery, bloody swordplay and even laughs in the midst of all the pathos and blood being spilled, adding up to a movie that inspires one to seek out more from everyone involved in its creation.