Another swordplay epic from Asia that’s aimed straight at the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon market, with sumptuous visuals and Matrix-esque special effects. This one’s about the Empress Myeongseong (played by Su-Ae), whose brave, open-minded and creative leadership makes her a prime target for assassination. Standing by her side is bounty hunter Moo-Myeong (Seung-woo Cho), who is in love with her and feels honour-bound to protect her.
After an initially confusing and ultimately pointless opening sequence is over and done with, the main story kicks in and it proves to be good, solid entertainment. The most immediately striking thing about the film is that it’s visually ravishing – much credit has to go to the cinematography department for providing such a vividly colourful aesthetic. It ensures that we’re always engaged, even if it’s just on a superficial level.
That’s just as well, because the film isn’t without its weak patches. Weakest of all are its romantic sequences, which are embarrassingly sentimental to the point of bordering on kitsch. Thankfully, they’re balanced out elsewhere by slapstick comedy moments, all of which involve the disparity between Moo-myeong’s clumsiness and his determination to win the Empress’s heart.
Ironically, what’s probably the film’s main selling point its highly stylised fight scenes are more or less unnecessary, thanks to the compelling storyline and decent performances. In fact, during such scenes, when the laughably over-the-top special effects do kick in, it’s a little jarring. In an early scene on a boat, computer-animated fish leaping across the frame as the duellists cross swords prove somewhat distracting.
Later, there’s an even more gratuitous usage of CGI when a fight scene that takes place in a busy indoor environment is suddenly transformed through flashy visuals, so that the two characters are battling alone in a Tekken-style barren landscape, for no good reason. The video-game feel detracts substantially from the impressively cinematic mood conjured in other parts of the film. Never mind though, The Sword With No Name is still a highly competent and watchable addition to its genre.
The disc’s special features are rather slim pickings, comprising insubstantial interviews with the cast and a 10-minute “making-of” featurette, which consists almost entirely of scenes from the film shot from a slightly different angle using a lower-quality camera.
Overall Verdict: A solid addition to Asia’s ever-growing canon of elegant historical action films. It’s good fun even if, like many of these titles that get distribution on DVD over here, it feels more American than distinctively Korean.
Special Features:
‘Making of’ featurette
Cast interviews
Trailers
Reviewer: Tom René