Since 2000, way back then when we were only a wee whipper snapper of a geek we sat down in the family room after much protest and watched Ang Lee’s ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’ (the protest was not due to watching a foreign film but watching a foreign film in… SUBTITLES) and ever since then we’ve been in a bit of love affair with martial arts movies. We own everything from ‘Fearless’ to ‘House of Flying Daggers’, ‘Kung Fu Hustle’ to ‘King of Beggars’ so we were a little shocked to see ‘The Lost Bladesman’ had managed to be released below our radar, we rectified our mistake and grabbed ourselves a copy almost straight away.
Directed and written by Alan Mak and Felix Chong, the Mandarin film got off to a bumpy production start when the first actor sought to play the role of the main character Guan Yu turned it down and then Donnie Yen, the man who would eventually take the role also refused it the first time he was offered it by Chong and Mak.
On a side note and a lesson for western (do we still day Western?) filmmakers, The Lost Bladesman took only three months to film and didn’t suffer from the short filming schedule.
The Lost Bladesman is based on the historical novel ‘Romance of the Three Kingdoms’ where Guan Yu crosses five passes and defeats six generals on his journey. The film begins with the funeral of Guan Yu and a man known as Cao Cao mourns the loss of his friend and begins to recall the life of his deceased companion. Guan Yu had been separated from his sworn brother Liu Bei and was serving under Cao Cao until he received word his brother and while under Cao, Yu killed Yan Liang an enemy general and in doing so lifted a siege.
After the battle Cao offers Guan Yu everything possible for him to renounce his sworn brother and side with him but Yu refuses and leaves with Qilan, the woman he loves but who is set to marry his Liu Bei. Together they travel but their journey is impeded when an order from the Emperor decrees that Guan Yu must be killed and the warrior must now fight for his life against many who would have once called him friend.
We are no stranger to foreign cinema, we’re pretty sophisticated like that so when we tell you that we actually found this movie nearly impossible to follow we want you to know that it’s not because it was in a different language. While beautifully shot and with breathtaking choreography, the film is too choppy and it’s only hindered further by the use of flashbacks AND flashbacks within flashbacks! The story is a retelling of one man’s life told by a friend but in the middle of this story, there is another flashback all of which we realise is important for us to understand but surely two seconds of dialogue could have hinted at the love interest between Guan Yu and Qilan.
Speaking of dialogue, Mandarin is an amazing language but the whole way through this film we couldn’t help but wonder why it sounded/looked like the audio had been redubbed as it appears to be out of synch with the lip movements of the performers.
The movie doesn’t flow particularly well and while we were enticed at the start towards the middle and especially towards the end there seems to be a sense of rush, probably to cram the last few scenes into the remaining time but the film really suffers from the erratic pace.
On a posititve note the fights are skilfully performed with a top martial arts performance from Donnie Yen and the many men who are pitted against him throughout the 107 minutes of screentime. After watching these movies we always have the urge to go out and master some form of martial arts or weapon! Thankfully we’re then overcome with tiredness and collapse in a heap and dream sweet geek dreams where we can kick just as much ass as Guan Yu.
The film is far from perfect and any fan of this genre would do best to steer clear of it, weak performances, an even weaker scripted coupled with choppy editing and bad timing can’t be saved by the top notch martial arts so for anyone out there considering buying or renting this might we suggest that you steer clear of this one!
The Lost Bladesman can stay lost!
