GamerTab That was an excellent one.

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Ezmae Chang This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Darin One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Leofwine_draca THE BLADE is a well-regarded Tsui Hark martial arts flick that was envisaged as a remake of the Wang Yu Shaw Brothers classic, THE ONE-ARMED SWORDSMAN. It's very familiar to fans of 1990s Hong Kong cinema, full of dark and moodily-lit scenes, hysterical characters and a predominance of action over storyline.That's not to say that the plotting isn't interesting: this film resembles a western in that much of the action is limited to arid desert villages where gangs of bandits roam and kill at will. Chiu Man Cheuk (THE BLACK SHEEP AFFAIR) is the eponymous hero, a man driven into exile by the machinations of a frustrated girl who finds himself compelled to avenge the death of his father.I'm no great fan of Hark as a director, because sometimes his films feel bitty and all over the place, and his editing is a little too sloppy for my liking. Still, this is one of his better movies, and the fast, hard-hitting action sequences that dominate the production certainly make it an entertaining ride. It's just a shame that the DVD version I saw had such poor picture quality...

Boba_Fett1138 Like so many genre movies, this is a typical revenge flick that features all of the usual ingredients and aspect you would expect from a movie like this.It has a well layered story, involving multiple characters and motivations. It's not just a one way revenge flick. I mean, cutting off the arm of the main character isn't enough, there happens and has happened a lot more to him that forms him and leads up to his decision of seeking revenge, which is also aimed at multiple different people. It's a well build up story that doesn't just only rely on its action. It has also got some great characters in it, of course especially the villains.The violence within the movie is quite graphic. Expect seeing blood and limbs flying around. During the action sequences some great and innovative cinematography and editing is being used, which truly uplifts some of the action and the movie as whole. The action and fight sequences themselves are of course also greatly choreographed, as you would expect from a genre movie such as this one. It makes this a movie that will mostly please the genre fans for sure. Especially the end fight does not disappoint!The many flashback sequences in the movie feel and look sort of surreal, which works magical in the movie.It's a good and professional looking movie with good looking sets, makeup and costumes. The movie looks like it spend its money well and also had obviously more than average to spend on its total budget.A great and typical genre example!8/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

dibach70 This is one of the worst movies I've ever seen. It's supposed to be a remake or update of "The One-armed Swordsman", by Chang Cheh. The ham-fisted direction and crappy fight choreography mean that the fight scenes aren't even worth watching. The script tries desperately hard to seem serious, but is full of cliches like, "And I knew then that nothing would ever be the same again..." or "If only I'd known what a heavy price I would have to pay." Ugh! And who is that girl who plays Sing? Someone find her and have her eliminated!! She's awful. If you like Chinese martial arts movies, you'd be better off with Lau Gar Leung. This stinks.

Bogey Man Tsui Hark's Dao aka The Blade (Hong Kong, 1995) is an updating of the old one armed swordsman legend that also has been depicted earlier in the history of Hong Kong cinema. Tsui's new vision is something that dropped my jaws now that I watched it for the third time after many years and without remembering almost anything about it. The film turned out to be among the best Hong Kong cinema miracles from the nineties I've seen so far.Vincent Zhao Wen Zhuo aka Chiu Man Cheuk is Ting On and Moses Chan Ho is Iron Head and they're both very loyal to their master, an old monk who has teched them during their young lives. The film's narrator and lead female is Ling (Song Lei) who is secretly in love with both of the men but is not quite sure which one will be her loved one. Soon a violent murder takes place, a hand gets chopped off and revenge comes to mind, but none of the characters seem to care or think about their emotions but only to go after their insticts which in this case are mostly about violence and getting even. What follows is more or less (usually more) amazing imagery and bits of sword fighting from this unique film maker of East.The film depicts people without the willing or ability to express their emotions and that's why many of the reviews seem to dislike the film telling the characters are very cold and inhuman. Of course the film would have needed an example among its characters of how a brighter life could be achieved but still the coldness and lack of expressing emotions is not there without its purpose because this is exactly the film's theme. The ending, the imagined happiness, is fortunately there but still I think there should have been more contrast to the characters' inability to be like a feeling human being. This film is pretty pessimistic as it hasn't any happy or "natural" characters at all, but since we know (those who dare to accept these sides in themselves) what kind of a creature human being is, films like this start to make much more sense and force us to look at the mirror. Would you have gone to take revenge if you were in the one armed swordsman's shoes? The visuals here are quite amazing and this belongs alongside Ringo Lam's Burning Paradise (1994) and Billy Chung's The Assassin (1993) to the Hong Kong's hyper dark martial art films that never are as near as "light" and also humorous as some Once Upon a Time in China (1991) for instance or other box office hits. Hardly any mainstream audience will like films like Dao because they lack almost every possible entertaining or pleasant element that can be found in Hong Kong martial arts films. The film is very dark and haunting especially when the guy has lost his arm and is training in agony in the misty and menacing house with hysterical female (this character is also very bad and should not have been so noisy and really brainless all the time) taking care of him. Again the smoke and darkness is something that I simply cannot mention having found in too many Western films. The action is so incredible it again makes me wonder how they edit their films like this. The editor in Dao is Kam Ma who has also edited John Woo's A Better Tomorrow films (1986 and 1987) among many others. The action scenes consist of many close ups and unconventional camera movements that create the kind of hysterical impact I can remember from Jackie Chan's Drunken Master 2 (1994) for example. The action goes even further in the final 15 minutes during the big fight when all the main characters finally get to take their mission to the end. This end fight is like the mind blowingly incredible finale in John Woo's A Better Tomorrow 2, choreographed by the great Ching Siu Tung: both of these finales get so over the top and (thus) separated from the rest of the film that it gets even surreal and thus makes the film's own world look even more impressive and striking and hammers the message and images to the viewer's head. The blood sprayed in these both cases is much more than just results of blade cutting flesh as it all depicts things from our main characters and their values much more effectively and graphically (to say the least) than words likely could. The finale in Dao is among the most jaw dropping scenes from any Hong Kong film of all time and once again these makers have shown their talent and capacity. Dao is not only very dark film, it is also very violent and has sudden bursts of very angry gore during the film and of course mostly in the mentioned last fight. Since there are no any real heros, no good characters and not too much sunshine in Dao, it is easy to expect that sadly this kind of film won't appeal to masses but considering that it starts to look even more valuable that films like these get still made despite that fact.Dao also lacks all the possible stupid bits of dialogue that often can be found in Hong Kong films. The mentioned female in On's new apartment of course excluded. The film has some very effective silent scenes which is pretty rare in Hong Kong films I think. Especially the montage during On's painful training sequence is very effective as well as some of the scenes depicting Iron Head's unwillingness to use violence in the bar filled with drunken men. He just watches and tries to hold his temper and not hurt anyone. Details like these tell much more about the characters than any fastly and badly written unnatural words ever could.Dao is a stunning experience even with its flaws and if they were corrected and fixed, this film would really be a masterpiece and maybe perfect of its kind. Now it definitely is a masterpiece of its maker, Tsui Hark, and it has the kind of potential and power that keeps on reminding the admirers of Eastern cinema of what makes these films so unique, precious and overwhelming. 8/10