Director: Keith Li
Notable Cast: Derek
Yee, Jason Pai Piao, Ku Feng, Yuen Wah, Wong Yung, Margaret Lee, Lee Hoi-Sang,
Ling Yun, Kwan Fung, Jamie Luk Kim-Ming, Austin Wai Tin-Chi, Huang Pei-Chih,
Lung Tien-Hsiang, Cheng Miu, Wong Lik, Eva Lai Yin-Shan, Shum Lo, Wong
Chi-Ming, Kong Chuen, Yuen Bun
I’m always down for some Shaw Brothers wuxia films. Even as
the 80s rolled on and their wuxia films became crazier and stranger, most of
them retained entertainment value with their fantasy aspects and polarizing
tonal shifts. With the Derek Yee starring flick The Supreme Swordsman though, there is both classic wuxia set ups
and the crazy off kilter wuxia that the studio became increasingly infatuated
with as the years rolled on. While the film tends to receive a decent amount of
praise from fans, it’s ultimately a mixed effort that sets up and ends on some phenomenal
ideas and characters, but uses some questionable tactics to get there.
Qin Wu-Xin (Jason Pai Piao) will not be stopped. He has used
his Black Magic Clan kung fu and unstoppable swordsmanship to cut down some of
the greatest swordsmen to take their swords for his collection. He’s almost reached
100 swords, but to defeat his last rival – The Supreme Swordsman – he must find
a sword that is worthy of the battle. This leads him to Xie Yan Bei (Derek Yee)
and his father (Ku Feng) who will have to figure out just what Qin Wu-Xin is up
to and stop him if he doesn’t stop his quest for power.
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| "Look how bright my sword gleams!" |
The set up for The
Supreme Swordsman is awesome. It harkens back to the earlier 70s style
wuxia films from the Shaw Brothers as it spends a generous portion of time
establishing the film’s villain, played with screen stealing gusto by Jason Pai
Piao, and getting into its foundational plot of the martial world and all the
challenges that come with being one of the best. This establishing of
characters and plot bleeds out into the true protagonist of the film Xie Yan
Bei who connects with the audience fairly quickly and even extends to a ton of
the great secondary characters that beef up the dramatic tension and thematic
pieces of the story. As the film plays on, the building momentum between the power-hungry
villain and Derek Yee’s wide eyed youthful hero stands to be one of the better
set ups in a Shaw Brothers wuxia film. It’s well executed, outside of the
strangely sped up sword fight sequences – which is more of an gripe than a true
issue, and The Supreme Swordsman was on
a path to be one of the best.
About half way through the movie though, something strange
happens. Instead of running with what was working for the film, it decides to
take this wild tangent that changes the tone and style of the film. At this point,
the film hits the required “hero must retrain to defeat the superior villain”
part of its story, but for this section it adds in a slew of new characters and
abandons its more grounded and serious tone for a group of teachers that are
slapstick comedy and adds in a ton more fantasy elements (and a weird section
that’s even comparable to a horror movie tone). Fortunately, it only lasts
about 20 minutes before moving back to the original tone of the film for the
finale – a fantastic finale and a wonderful fight sequence at the end. So just
grit your teeth and take it as it is, try to have fun, and things still turn
out all right.
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| "...but mine is brighter!" |
The problem remains though that this 20 minute shift in tone
does undermine what could have been one of Shaw Brother’s best wuxia films. The Supreme Swordsman is still
impressive outside of that though, powered up by its phenomenal cast and intent
to build a brilliant villain and hero dynamic, so it still comes highly
recommended as a martial arts film. For those fans out that that don’t mind the
comedic shift in the beginning of the third act, then it comes highly, highly
recommended.
Written By Matt Reifschneider
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