The Swordsman (2021)

[Drunk Monk]

The Swordsman (2021) [Korean]

Have I sung the praises of Hoopla lately? No?

Hoopla rocks. It's free through our public library. My municipal tax dollars at work. 

I get like 8 films a month. I've had it for a year plus now and I've never hit the max in a month what with my other streaming services. 

Hoopla gets most all of the Well Go USA titles. They currently have over 200 of them. The Swordsman just came out. We did a sweeps promo for it on KFM for the BRDs that just ended today. And here it is, already available on Hoopla.

This is a Korean film, set in the Joseon period when Korea was being oppressed by the Ming dynasty. Jang Hyuk is Tae-yul, a swordsman who is going blind, begging that age old question 'can I play with my sword until I need glasses?' He lives as a recluse in the mountains with his daughter. Jang is a TKD & JKD practitioner, so he can move. He mostly plays a stoic badass, with his bangs covering his eyes, but he's going blind so that's fine.

Man-sik Jeong is Min Seung-ho, a senior rival swordsman. He's a good counterpoint to young Tae-yul, an older, more reserved swordmaster trying to do right in a decaying world. 

And the smarmy Chinese villain Gurutai is played by none other than the mighty Joe Taslim. Joe is great, as always. He mostly plays one note - a cocky grinning villain which he seems to relish playing - and displays a bit more range when the finale fight starts to turn. It's a far cry from the last time I saw him play Li Yong in Warrior. 

This film delivers. It's a rich tale of intertwining intrigues, oppression, villainy, revenge and honor, a battle to be the best sword in a selfish world that doesn't give a rat's ass about the way of the warrior. The Joseon world is well depicted, the crossroads between China and Japan. 

But y'all know what this is really about. It's called The Swordsman. It's about those sword fights. 

The fight choreo explodes whenever blades are drawn. It's swirling camerawork, and complicated exchanges, including one decent one-er when Tae-yul cuts down a line of riflemen. I'm always pleased when I see feints used as opposed to just swashbuckling play. The fighting style feels somewhere between Samurai chanbara and Kung Fu wuxia. It's mostly sword, but there's also a crutch-tonfa and weird ass deer horn knife. And there are ninjas. Everybody loves ninjas. 

DOOM recommended.