Review: The outrageous swordplay excess of action director Ching Siu-tung meets legendary old school actors David Chiang and Yasuaki Kurata in Return of the Deadly Blade. It's a wonderfully-entertaining wuxia pien with nearly non-stop action cranked into overdrive and the zany humor of a Yuen Po-ping kung fu classic.

The film literally kicks into high gear immediately as Hwang Jang-lee makes a cameo appearance as 'Gam the Invincible Rings' who battles Master Li (Norman Chu) until defeated. Afterwards, sword master Li disappears for eighteen years. Following rumors of his reappearance, Gam's son Siu Wan (David Chiang) abandons his lover to seek revenge. Meanwhile, a "playboy" swordsman known only as 'The Lonely Winner,' who uses a wooden sword and has never lost a fight, sets out to find Li in hopes of meeting his match in a duel. As Siu Wan travels he is repeated ambushed by agents of a mysterious woman while a fighter with a grudge plots against The Lonely Winner who is also pursued by a feisty young woman warrior determined to get the better of him. The two swordsmen's paths gradually converge as they continue to battle all sorts of fighters and draw closer to Li for a final showdown.

Despite the mystery built up around multiple villains with murky motives, Return of the Deadly Blade is much simpler than your typical wuxia tale. It's basically a road flick with two swordsmen getting into one fight after another on the way to their destination. Chiang plays the straight man while the story gets a healthy dose of irreverence from Yasuaki Kurata's roguish hijinks. It's the usually reserved Kurata who makes this film as he continually clowns around with a woman he meets who seemingly hates his guts and lays traps for him everywhere. But it's nothing more than flirting among martial heroes. Drunken Master-like antics pop up in the form of potty humor and slapstick fighting in a bathhouse.

The action choreography and editing is the unmistakable work of Ching Siu-tung (House of Flying Daggers) who takes traditional screen swordplay and infuses it with new energy through high-impact cuts and exaggerated stunt work. Compared to his later work with directors such as Tsui Hark, Wong Jing, and Zhang Yimou, the wirework isn't quite as sophisticated and the production scale is small. But all the drive and exuberance is there. This can be witnessed in off the hook scenes such as when Chiang and Kurata are ambushed while crossing a river by submerged ninjas who break into waterski attacks! Lo Lieh has an extended cameo as a vagabond swordsman whom Kurata stumbles upon and promptly gets into a fight with following an exchange of insults. This riverside scene is made even better when Chiang dives in from nowhere for a three-way tussle among genre favorites that will surely delight fans. Another ninja shows up for some great action on a rope bridge. The weapons used by all are interesting, particularly the darts. Towards the end, Kurata's character eventually goes mad following a personal tragedy, leaving Chiang to take on a wheelchair-bound Norman Chu in a highly improbable, but enjoyable duel.

R is not the best wuxia film ever made, especially when it comes to budget and art direction that appears modeled after the typically cheap Taiwanese wuxia films of the day. But for Kurata's role, the unusual mix of Seasonal and Shaw Brothers actors, and the quantity and quality of fantasy martial arts as of 1981, it's loads of fun.

PLOT AND CHARACTERS:
The story centers on a reclusive swordmaster named Lee Wai, who was legendary in the martial world, killing many, creating a lot of enemies, and then disappearing. One of Master Wai’s victims was David Chiang’s father, and David Chiang (aka. Disciple of the Sword) trained and now seeks to draw the reclusive Master Wai out by impersonating him. Far away in the Lunar World, the Moon Goddess mourns the loss of her lover, Invincible Golden Rings, whom Master Wai also killed. Moon Goddess (Flora Cheung) watches the impersonation from afar, hoping, likewise, that Master Wai will be drawn out. On the other end of the spectrum, there is the carefree, playboy, undefeated swordsman, The Lonely Winner (Yasuaki Kurata), who has problems of his own with a local lord, who wants him dead for ‘raping’ his wife.... At this point, it should be as obvious as a heart attack that the film is heavy in fantasy, like Zu Warriors or Swordsman 2, with everyone having some interesting moniker and skill....The curious fact is, that despite always hearing this was a David Chiang film and his seeming to be the title character, actually, Yasuaki Kurata’s Lonely Winner gets equal to more screen time, plot, and fights. The Lonely Winner struggles with boredom at being undefeated and has "love them and leave them" dalliances with the ladies. Disciple of the Blade struggles with his revenge being more important than settling down with his true love. And, the plot eventually steers the two toward each other as they make their way to the Tomb of the Heroes, fighting multiple villains along the way, the secretive Moon Goddess and Master Wai both watching it unravel from afar.

Convoluted? Yes. Dizzyingly Paced? Yes. Outlandish? Yes. Basically this is a great film, belonging in the short attention span theater swordplay/fantasy films like East is Red, Dragon Inn, The Sword, and the like. There are many, many fights, but they are very brief and don’t really stand out very much- but as a whole, combined with the frantic speed at which the film is paced, it actually is to their benefit that they are so short. Whereas something like Duel to the Death (which Ching Siu Tung would make his debut as a solo director a year later) has great fight scenes interspersed with some slow moments, every scene in Return of the Deadly Blade, whether it be plot, comedy, or fight, is so fast you hardly get a chance to blink. It is an interesting precursor to the new wave of fantasy films Ching Siu Tung would help create in the late 80’s, early 90’s- it’s fast paced, inventive, and rife with characters like, Disciple of the Blade, Lonely Winner, Moon Goddess, the brothers Invincible Hat and Shield of Ultimate Glory, Genius from the North, God of Fire, Invincible Golden Rings, and The Ninja Iga from Edo, and razor hats, fireballs, bending blades, spinning wheelchairs, poison darts, ninjas skimming across water, steel umbrellas, chains, whips, darts, and more.

THE DVD:
The picture is fullscreen, obviously mastered from vhs because there are some scattered millisecond second gray flashes of vhs tracking lines present, but not often or of any real hindrance. The picture is a little soft; good black levels because the night scenes are clear, and a handful of shots are washed out, while the rest are in good shape for an older film. Especially of interest, the color has been tweaked so it is gorgeously vibrant, so much so I had to turn the color down a little on my tv. The sound is okay, no real pops, hisses, or echo, with a decent balance between the dialogue, fx, and music. Dub only, no subs. Being a Hidden Chambers DVD, it has plentiful extras. Its got the obligatory Wu Tang back patting stuff like videos and such, but then there are the real extras...Under brief bios for the film stars, David Chiang, (king of the big kickers)Wong Jang Lee, Bruce Liang, Tsui Siu Kueng, Yatsuaki Kurata, and Lo Leih there are 4-5 fight scenes for each man, lasting between 3-5 mins. Varying in quality, some grainy, some clear, some dubbed, some in Cantonese or Mandarin with subs cut off at the bottom of the screen, but nonetheless Awesome! (My only complaint is that the don’t list the films the fights are from) Then there are the 18 Fatal Previews for SHAOLIN DRUNK MONKEY, SNAKE STRIKES BACK, TIGER OVER A WALL, STRIKE OF THE MANTIS FIST, ONE FOOT CRANE, EAGLE FIST, SHAOLIN VS LAMA, SHAOLIN VS NINJA, 18 BRONZE GIRLS, BEST OF SHAOLIN KUNG FU, 5 VENOMS VS WU TANG, 9 DEMONS, FIGHT AMOUNG THE SUPERS, GOOSE BOXER, MYSTERIOUS FOOTWORK, CHESS BOXING VS BUDDHIST FIST, SHAOLIN CHASTITY KUNG FU, and ENTER THE INVINCIBLE HERO. Now, they aren’t exactly proper previews, but kung fu video fans should recognize them. They are basically one minute worth of fighting from the films preceded by a title card, which is cheap and like sex without foreplay, but I appreciate the sheer number and having them on a less than $10 DVD is a godsend to the kung fu fan.