Ben Gulley Talks about Asian Movies He Watched On Netflix
Part One: The Legend of the Shadowless Sword
There’s one big question that I have to answer first: Why The Legend of the Shadowless Sword?
I mean, 2011 will eventually be one of those years like 1066, 1215, 1492, 1588, or 1776. Sure lots of goings-on probably happened during those years, but we really only remember one decisive historical event from each. Future scholars will look back upon this year as the one that birthed an era, the start of “Ben Gulley Talks About Asian Movies He Watched On Netflix”. The reviews will be a cultural juggernaut at that point, having inspired at least two dystopian police states, four major religions including at least one new Abrahamic faith, and dozens of holy wars and uprisings. The one common thread in all of their writings, though, will be how they all address the humble beginnings of the source of their beliefs. And they’ll all wonder, “Why did he start with such an average movie?”
Well, future followers and zealots (who apparently read enough of my writings to form a religion, but somehow skipped this first one) it was what was on my Netflix queue at the time.
So, onto the actual movie. It’s a fairly standard sort of plot, swordswoman (Yoon So-yi) has to find exiled Korean prince (Lee Seo-jin) so as to restore him to the throne so he can fight an invading army. Oh, and there’s also assassins after him, at least one of whom has some bitching cornrows (Shin Hyeon-jun). If you want, you can just go to the wikipedia page, which will recount pretty much every detail (and brother do I mean every detail) of the plot to you.
But then again, you aren’t going to watch The Legend of the Shadowless Sword for its plot anymore than you’d watch Logjammin’ so you can see Karl Hungus fix the cable. Really, you just want badass characters fighting each other. In this regard it is okay, but not great. The fight choreography is very wuxia inspired, though often the camera work interrupts the flow. The pacing of the fights is also off, especially a fairly lengthy, poorly cgi-ed underwater scene in the middle. If you’ve wasted a good portion of your life watching martial arts movies, then this is nothing you haven’t seen before, but it’s still reasonably well-executed.
That being said, there a few good and bad things that I don’t want to write into a coherent paragraph. The movie makes use of one of my favorite action tropes, (Spoiler warning) where the villain betrays and sacrifices his sexy female lieutenant/lover so as to try and kill the hero. I always like that commitment to villainy. Also, there’s apparently a sword technique where if you cut someone, they will literally explode a few seconds later. I can’t say anything about that other than it is rad.
As far as the less good things, this plays into my feminist side. Typically speaking, martial arts movies starring women will be relatively cool, but will generally falter at the end, and this one is no exception. Hey, we have a hyper-competent swordswoman, and she’s saving the prince in distress! Only by the end he’s also hyper-competent and basically takes over!
Ultimately, give this a watch if you can get it on Netflix, but I wouldn’t put it super-high on your queue. It was a nice change of pace for me, since usually my martial arts movies are Chinese and my Korean movies are dramas and/or goddamned insane. Overall though, it just doesn’t stand out enough.
I hope the coming baptism of fire is worth it.
There’s one big question that I have to answer first: Why The Legend of the Shadowless Sword?
I mean, 2011 will eventually be one of those years like 1066, 1215, 1492, 1588, or 1776. Sure lots of goings-on probably happened during those years, but we really only remember one decisive historical event from each. Future scholars will look back upon this year as the one that birthed an era, the start of “Ben Gulley Talks About Asian Movies He Watched On Netflix”. The reviews will be a cultural juggernaut at that point, having inspired at least two dystopian police states, four major religions including at least one new Abrahamic faith, and dozens of holy wars and uprisings. The one common thread in all of their writings, though, will be how they all address the humble beginnings of the source of their beliefs. And they’ll all wonder, “Why did he start with such an average movie?”
Well, future followers and zealots (who apparently read enough of my writings to form a religion, but somehow skipped this first one) it was what was on my Netflix queue at the time.
So, onto the actual movie. It’s a fairly standard sort of plot, swordswoman (Yoon So-yi) has to find exiled Korean prince (Lee Seo-jin) so as to restore him to the throne so he can fight an invading army. Oh, and there’s also assassins after him, at least one of whom has some bitching cornrows (Shin Hyeon-jun). If you want, you can just go to the wikipedia page, which will recount pretty much every detail (and brother do I mean every detail) of the plot to you.
But then again, you aren’t going to watch The Legend of the Shadowless Sword for its plot anymore than you’d watch Logjammin’ so you can see Karl Hungus fix the cable. Really, you just want badass characters fighting each other. In this regard it is okay, but not great. The fight choreography is very wuxia inspired, though often the camera work interrupts the flow. The pacing of the fights is also off, especially a fairly lengthy, poorly cgi-ed underwater scene in the middle. If you’ve wasted a good portion of your life watching martial arts movies, then this is nothing you haven’t seen before, but it’s still reasonably well-executed.
That being said, there a few good and bad things that I don’t want to write into a coherent paragraph. The movie makes use of one of my favorite action tropes, (Spoiler warning) where the villain betrays and sacrifices his sexy female lieutenant/lover so as to try and kill the hero. I always like that commitment to villainy. Also, there’s apparently a sword technique where if you cut someone, they will literally explode a few seconds later. I can’t say anything about that other than it is rad.
As far as the less good things, this plays into my feminist side. Typically speaking, martial arts movies starring women will be relatively cool, but will generally falter at the end, and this one is no exception. Hey, we have a hyper-competent swordswoman, and she’s saving the prince in distress! Only by the end he’s also hyper-competent and basically takes over!
Ultimately, give this a watch if you can get it on Netflix, but I wouldn’t put it super-high on your queue. It was a nice change of pace for me, since usually my martial arts movies are Chinese and my Korean movies are dramas and/or goddamned insane. Overall though, it just doesn’t stand out enough.
I hope the coming baptism of fire is worth it.
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