Sentimental Swordsman, The (1977)

An alcoholic swordsman (Ti Lung) returns after ten years to protect the woman he reluctantly left (Candy Yu) from a killer named the Plum Blossom Bandit, but finds himself accused of being this mysterious assassin.

A wuxia novel by the celebrated author Gu Long gets the classic Shaw Brothers treatment in The Sentimental Swordsman, a martial arts mystery. Noble swordplay, devious trickery, and thickening intrigue abound in this picture-perfect example of the wuxia genre featuring the studio’s top talent including director Chor Yuen, choreographer Tong Gaai, and a superb cast headlined by the dashing Ti Lung.

Li Xun-huan (Ti Lung) is the title character, a swordsman who has wallowed in self-imposed misery and an unhealthy drinking habit for the past ten years, ever since he gave up his love, Shi-yin (Candy Yu) to Long Xiao-yun (Yueh Hua), the man who had saved his life. With his deadly dart-throwing skills and his faithful manservant Chuan-jia (Fan Mei-sheng) by his side, Li returns to Shi-yin in order to protect her from the Plum Blossom Bandit, a notorious masked assassin who has resurfaced. But Li quickly finds himself accused of being the bandit by two swordsmen and a beautiful female (Cheng Lee), all looking to avenge murders perpetrated by the real bandit. With the help of a talented young swordsman (Derek Yee), Li begins a quest to clear his name and to reveal the true identity of the Plum Blossom Bandit. His answers may lie at Shaolin Temple, but first he and his escort must must contend with the deadly Five Venoms Kid, an assassin whom no one has yet escaped from.

One of the problems with watching Shaw Brothers movies based on wuxia novels is that they seem to only scratch the surface on what many intended viewers already know after having read the books. Unfortunately, few of these books have ever been published in English so their stories remain difficult to fully grasp when condensed into roughly 90 minutes. Within this limitation, Chor Yuen consistently delivers entertaining adaptations, even for the neophyte so long as one can sort out the good elements from the bad.

The Sentimental Swordsman is a solid swordplay film overall, but has its share of problems. To keep what is obviously a bigger story in check, Chor skims over details like Li’s relationship with Shi-yin and reduces many of the characters to cardboard cutouts. Guk Fung often excels in his supporting roles, but here he foolishly and single-mindedly runs about ready to accuse anyone of being the bandit. Ti Lung plays a potentially great character, one who is a swordsman fallen into ruin. He has a severe cough from excessive drinking and really isn’t a great swordsman. The only thing that keeps his enemies in check is his fan which is laced with 12 darts that he is able to throw with lethal precision. His dart throwing plays a crucial part in the film and is definitely a highlight, but Ti plays a poor alcoholic. He is remarkably dashing for someone supposedly brought so low by lost love.

Some of SB’s more outrageous wuxia films like The Web of Death are entertaining simply due to the cult flavor created by ridiculous costumes and elaborate fantasy action. The Sentimental Swordsman takes the high road by playing it more serious, but a few, silly dips into campiness still take place. The bandit’s pink ‘ninja’ suit and blossom-shaped darts are a good example. The only point where this becomes a problem is during the journey to Shaolin Temple. It starts out interesting with Ti and his escort discovering that all the food along their path is being poisoned by an assassin named the Five Venoms Kid. The starved men attempt to outwit the assassin, but only Ti knows his game. But then the assassin’s goons confront Ti. And do they throw poison darts or powder at him? No. They throw venomous toads and snakes instead in what is one of the dumbest moments in martial arts filmmaking. Ti’s final confrontation with the Plum Blossom Bandit is similarly campy, but in a good way as the bandit counters Ti’s darts with a secret weapon of his own, leaving Ti to come up with an ingenious solution.

As with most wuxia films, the action is fantasy based. The swordplay is very good, but the emphasis is on creative combat rather than kung fu or athletic ability. But Yuen Wah has a rare character role as a swordsman hired to kill Ti and gets to show off some of his own acrobatic prowess. There is a wonderful example of pre-fight boasting where Norman Chu as ‘Iron Flute’ challenges Derek Yee. Screen fighters sizing each other up are an art form itself and in this case it’s well played. Ti stands out as usual in his actions, but his character’s weakness when it comes to sword fighting may be a disappointment.

The Sentimental Swordsman sums up the typical wuxia pien from Shaw Brothers. All of the major genre conventions and visual representations such as the elaborate, artificial sets are accounted for. The strengths of this effort are in the mystery aspect of the plot, a poignant finale to an otherwise routine martial soap opera, and Ti Lung’s dart tossing. This should be enough for fans of wuxia, while others may be more apt to point out faults.