| Little known Ann Hui adaptation of Louis Cha's famous first novel The Book & The Sword. To date, this marks Hui's only foray into martial arts action (outside of a later co-directing stint on Swordsman) but watching The Romance Of Book & Sword, Hui's trademarks are spread over it as it at its core is a small scale character drama. This first part (the sequel being Princess Fragrance, shot the same year) clearly have taken a chunk only out of the important template of Cha's work and the 90 minute running time isn't devoted to fleshing out many characters to an epic extent, not even the main ones of rebel leader Chen Jalo and emperor Qian Long. Hui treats her characters simple but still emerges with suitable weight to that relationship and the imminent threat of the Red Flower Society exposing Qian's true heritage as part of the Han people.
Interest is maintained throughout via Hui's almost sedate atmosphere and consciously limited scope. No doubt, this mainland China production boasts fine production values but Hui approaches the scope with a laid back and naturalistic eye, allowing the characters to matter and not the eye candy. Even though there's a decent amount of martial arts action corresponding to the Wuxia traditions, there's more grounded work on display that shows acrobatic brilliance sporadically, especially during the large scale finale.
The entire extent of Hui's work can be judged after taking in Princess Fragrance as well but as a standalone effort, The Romance Of Book & Sword portrays the main piece of the cake of Louis Cha's work well. |
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