Sword Master

Action star turned filmmaker Derek Yee directs this lavish martial arts period piece, a lush but overly complicated throwback to the romantic martial arts dramas of the 1960s and 1970s known as wuxia. Lin Gengxin stars as Ah Chi, an enigmatic beggar who turns out to be the fabled Third Master, a fighter who turned his back on the martial arts world and vowed never to kill again. Peter Ho is the assassin Yen, who is dying of a fatal illness and has only one wish on his bucket list: to battle the Third Master. Their paths cross in a remote village where they both go to escape the world, and they become friends and partners while protecting the peasants from gangsters and warlords. The overstuffed story includes warring clans of martial arts warriors, a vengeful princess, a prostitute with a heart of gold, cruel gangsters, excrement humor, and a flood of confusing flashbacks. A remake of the 1977 Shaw Brothers spectacle Death Duel with more lavish imagery, the film features sets and settings that are slathered in colorful but often artificial-looking CGI enhancements, which lends the historical backdrop a fantasy-like quality. Overall, this is a handsome but routine martial arts melodrama, lacking the operatic emotions that elevate such modern classics as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero. Likely to appeal to fans of old-school Chinese martial arts movies, this is a strong optional purchase. (S. Axmaker)