Black and White Swordsman (1971) User Reviews

Want to see a flying boat? Oops, I may have written a spoiler!

[ckormos1 · 6/10 · 13 March 2019]

It starts with a scene "borrowed" from the American television series "Kung Fu". Chen Hung-Lieh is the student earning his branded forearms by carrying the cauldron. He states he has followed the rules and now can leave. The master tells him he cannot leave because even though he trained for nine years he is evil. (It seems the master saw this problem coming for a long time, could have fixed it, but did nothing. Oh well, if this made sense there wouldn't be a movie to watch. The other option is something is missing in the English dubbing. I'll go with that excuse/explanation.) Cut to the small tea house. The jerks harass the happy couple. The heroes wait until somebody dies then step forward. The jerk is killed and his brother, the leader of the bad guys, swears revenge. Chen Hung-Lieh returns to the movie at about 20 minutes in and slaughters an entire family just to make sure the audience did not forget who the bad guy really is. Chiang Pin also appears as a disappointment to his father. The drama escalates with a love triangle between him and two sisters. My copy is English dubbed and not by the "A list" of dubbers. This makes a big difference. Dr. Craig D. Reid in his book "The Ultimate Guide to Martial Arts Movies of the 1970s" describes the experience of working to dub these movies into English. I always consider that before I do any complaining about the dubbing, count to ten, and move on politely. The video quality is comparable to VHS resolution. The screen dimensions simulate but are not really widescreen. The worst part of this video process is that the picture seems acceptable but when the action starts the pixellation also starts. I don't know anything more about this other than to complain about it. So many of these movies all look alike yet there is always the hope of watching some kind of special moment. This movie has that at about the one hour ten minute mark. The hero pushes a boat (the kind you see for a typical river crossing) and with the wire work he becomes a propeller and the boat becomes airborne. It is totally off the hook but I bet you will rewind it and watch it more than once! I loved it! I give this movie a small recommendation exclusively for fans of martial arts movies of the golden age from 1967 to 1984 and rate it just a tad above average for the year and genre.

Simple Taiwanese wuxia fable

[Leofwine_draca · 4/10 · 25 October 2017]

THE BLACK AND WHITE SWORDSMAN is another nondescript wuxia story from Taiwan, mainly shot inside enclosed interiors with cheap-looking cameras that render the whole thing something of a chore to watch. If you're looking for Shaw-style production values and sumptuous sets and costumes then you're going to be sorely disappointed by this one. The narrative concocts a familiar story of betrayal and revenge, with various white-clad swordsman wandering the countryside, teaming up, and battling evil. There's not a lot of action here although plenty of plotting to make up for it. If you're a fan of the genre you may get a kick out of it, but most will find it a bit boring as I did. The film looks too modern to have been made in 1971.