The Lost Swordship (Chia Li, 1977)

A surprisingly good "lost" wuxia film from Taiwan recently (as in 2007) revived by Rarescope, a DVD company that "restores" (that is, put on DVD and nothing else) old Hong Kong/Chinese/Taiwanesee martial arts films otherwise forgotten due to their relative insignificance. Insignificance, of course, doesn't say anything about the film's quality, and this particular movie is an indication of that. This movie, about a dangerous cult led by a masked woman named "The Bishop" who will stop at nothing to attain the secret of the Fragrant Sword from the Li clan (I love how Hitchcock is touted as the master of the cinematic MacGuffin, when the wuxia is built upon MacGuffins such as "the Fragrant Sword." What does the fragrant swords does? Leave a scent after it kills its victim. Somehow it will lead to world domination, but how it will do that is a mystery. But hey look, SWORDFIGHTS!), features great cinematography (albeit horrible costume design - the women sport ugly fringed skirts when they are about to turn somebody on) and an exciting plot that, common to many wuxia films, is too complex for its own good, and all the better for us the viewers. Of course, it's no King Hu (King Hu would have just ditched the plot complexities and just have one long showdown in the middle of Western China), but King Hu wouldn't be royalty if anyone else in China, Hong Kong, or Taiwan did things the way he did things. Like many other wuxia films, this movie's male characters are there simply to kill or be killed; the women on the other hand are complex, playing the men and the other women for their own benefit. One could say that the plot's actors are the men, but the story revolves around its strong women. With a slip of a leg, a sign of helplessness, or an indication ripe sexuality, the women have the men under their thumbs. Here, the women characters are doomed to fail (the film's ultimate revelation is "men have to find their way," which leaves women just perpetually lost), but fail in a prospect higher than any other cinema allowed.

One comment about the DVD: Although I am eternally grateful to Rarescope for releasing this film, the movie's aspect ratio is deceptive. Sure, it is widescreen, but it is so severely cropped that it might as well just be full screen. Judging from the burned subtitles, the horizontal crops probably takes out 25% or more of the image. Sad, because this really functions as a widescreen movie, but beggars aren't choosers...