Eye for an Eye: The Blind Swordsman

[Drunk Monk]

Eye for an Eye: The Blind Swordsman

We’re launching a sweepstakes promo for this title on KFM this week and I was searching for its retail price only to discover that it’s already on Hoopla. So I gave it a watch.

Blind Cheng is played by Miao Xie, who was the kid martial star alongside Jet Li in a few films. He’s become a martial star as an adult and delivers some nice swordfights. However it’s irresistible to compare Cheng to Zatoichi, especially when it starts with Cheng gambling, being challenged by the house to a winner takes all sort of bet, catches them cheating, walks away only to be confronted by the gambling house boss and his gang on the street, and the throttles them - such a Zatoichi move. Cheng also uses a cane sword which is revealed later in the film, but we all knew it was coming. 

Xie plays Cheng with his eyes closed, which hardly compares to Katsu’s rolled up eyes, and his no where near as charming or goofy. He’s a cold ghostkiller, a bounty hunter in the collapsing Tang dynasty where China has become lawless. 

The film starts in the middle, then goes to a flashback of a wedding spoiled by a powerful clan that kills the groom, brother-in-law and servants and rapes the bride. The police turn a blind eye (see what I did there?) but Cheng steps up for revenge because the family made good wine and he’s a wino (another kid to Zatoichi). When the film gets to the beginning point, it’s a fast blink-and-you’ll-miss-it scene and the story gets stylistically choppy. It’s followable but bothersome to have to put in the work which seems needless. It darts from plot point to plot point quickly leaving the viewer to fill in a lot of gaps. It’s almost as if a new editor comes in at the midpoint who just doesn’t care.

The finale sword fight is ok, a bit over done with the wine-soaked cgi flaming blade but I’ll allow. The coup de grace is delivered without too much talk in a cold snowy merciless way. 

It had its moments, particularly with some of the ultravi, but in the end, it lacks a cohesive flow so I’m going to say nay for D00M (but feel free to enter the KFM sweeps this week - you might win a BRD of it).

[Drunk Monk]

[Drunk Monk]

Eye for an Eye 2 is much better. It’s super sanguineous from the start, and oh so very brutal - innocent killings to validate how horrible the main villain is - a harsh child killing and an off screen dog killing set the tone for some serious ultravi.

I’ve come to accept Miao’s take on a blind swordsman. The selective blindness is aggravating - like what’s the point of him carrying around wanted posters if he can’t see them at all? He’s a bounty hunter but no saddled with a little orphan girl who serves as narrator ala Daigoro in Shotun Assassin, and a bit of a foil to show that the blind swordsman isn’t just a reclusive loner but actually has a heart.

The choreo is wild - mostly simple one move one shot stuff but shot from such extreme angles and dynamically, it’s a refreshing treat. It’s superhero wuxia where heroes and villains can throw people through walls with a sound kick, absorb many sword stabbings, and fly about in the gravity-defying wirework Wah - ultimately satisfying if you like your ultravi wet.

The finale sword fight is fun, total ultravi fun. 

Seen on prime but the bummer is prime only does dubbed versions (this includes many other titles, probably all well to USA). I often turn the volume low and turn on subtitles to triangulate. In this case there were baked-in subs along with hearing-impaired captions that don’t match the regular captions only vaguely concur, so it’s more triangulation to get the whole story.

D00M recommended. There’s some truly panoramic shots and on the whole, the cinematography is sharply observant. From a technical standpoint, I enjoyed this much more than the first one. Part 2 really gets things going. You can skip p1 & just start here.