- English name：Swordsman 2
- Broadcast time：June 26, 1992
- Starring：李连杰（Jet Li）、林青霞（Brigitte Lin）、李嘉欣（Michele Monique Reis）、关之琳（Rosamund Kwan）
- director：程小东（Siu-Tung Ching）
Introduction
Today,I’d like to introduce a 1992 Hong Kong wuxia film, Swordsman II (笑傲江湖之东方不败xiào’àojiānghú zhī Dōngfāng Bùbài). It is also known as The Legend of the Swordsman. It was directed by Ching Siu-tung and Stanley Tong and written by Hanson Chan, Tang Pik-yin and Tsui Hark. The film was the second part of a trilogy. It starred Jet Li (李连杰Li Liánjié), Brigitte Lin, Rosamund Kwan and Michelle Reis. The film was adapted from Louis Cha’s novel The Smiling, Proud Wanderer. The theme song of the film, Xiao Hongchen (笑红尘xiào hóngchén), was performed by Sarah Chen. The theme song from The Swordsman, Chong Hoi Yat Sing Siu (沧海一声笑cānghǎi yì shēng xiào), was played in a few scenes in the film.
Plot
Linghu Chong, Yue Lingshan and members of the Mount Hua Sect are planning to retire from the jianghu (martial artists’ community). They learn that Dongfang Bubai has seized control of the Sun Moon Holy Cult and is secretly plotting with some wokou (Japanese pirates) to rebel against the imperial court and dominate China. Dongfang Bubai had castrated himself in order to master the skills in the Sunflower Manual, and his appearance has become more feminine, even though he is now a formidable pugilist. Linghu Chong meets Dongfang Bubai by chance (without knowing Dongfang’s true identity), mistakes him for a beautiful young woman, and falls in love with “her”. Linghu Chong is distracted by Dongfang Bubai’s lover, Shishi, and Dongfang uses the opportunity to kill Linghu’s fellows. Linghu Chong is knocked out and imprisoned in an underground dungeon later, where he meets Ren Woxing by coincidence and both of them escape from the prison together. Linghu Chong brings Yue Lingshan, Ren Yingying, Ren Woxing and Xiang Wentian with him to confront Dongfang Bubai later and Dongfang dies after falling off a cliff. Ren Woxing regains control of his sect and starts killing the traitors who defected to Dongfang Bubai. Before the film ends, Linghu Chong and Yue Lingshan leave secretly with Ren Yingying’s help as they know Ren Woxing cannot tolerate them.
Professional evaluation
The story of “Eastern Unbeaten” is not outstanding, but due to the wonderful action scenes, distinctive characters and tight rhythm, as well as Lin Qingxia’s performance beyond her true nature in the film, the audience has no time to care whether the story is reasonable or not. The action scenes in the film also set a new high for Hong Kong martial arts films. Cheng Xiaodong fully demonstrated his strengths in combining atmosphere and action in several action scenes: Ronin’s night attack on the Miao area, Eastern Unbeaten’s bloodbath in the wild store, the Black Wood Cliff Battle, etc., among which there are many amazing strokes. For example, the Star Absorbing Technique sucked out a blood column that sprayed the sky, etc. Eastern Unbeaten is a character that Tsui Hark has worked very hard to develop. It is a character that originated from Jin Yong’s original work but has been enriched and enriched. His self-confidence and arrogance, self-pity and self-pity constitute the unique psychological activity trajectory of this character, and also make this character full of strange colors. He was born out of the symbol of a failed politician in the original work, and was given a deeper and more complex heart and emotion by Tsui Hark. This is also the greatest success of “Eastern Unbeaten”. However, due to Tsui Hark’s consistent shortcoming of emphasizing form over thought and superficial description of characters, this character was not explored in depth. This is a great pity.
