The Flying Swordsman - DVD Review

[Michael Scott]

The Flying Swordsman



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
It’s a rare time that I see Well Go USA shuffle off an Asian Wu Xia film on DVD instead of Blu-ray, and the trailer caught my eye enough to ask for this review, so color me STILL a little puzzled that this got a DVD only release after watching it. Much like Crocodile Island, I was expecting something horrible and cheesy to the point that even Well Go USA was embarrassed to be putting it out, thus the reason for the shift to a “dead” (at least in my home theater enthusiasts eyes) format. Well, not really. The Flying Swordsman isn’t going to be the biggest thing out of China since Covid, but it is a perfectly serviceable modern day Wu Xia film that is as good, or better, than many of the other films the indie studio releases on Blu-ray.

Let me start out that this is a film that deserves multiple watches. Not because it’s the best thing since sliced bread, but because it’s fairly dense and confusing on the first view. Scenes are shown out of order and the main plot seems to go back and forth through time, which is amplified by an annoying tendency of showing a flashback after each important scene in order to show the motivations and backstories of each particular hero or villain. Needless to say, me explaining the plot and trying to give an in depth analysis of it is probably a bad idea. The film itself is much more rewarding watching it a second time, and anything I say will just away too many plot points in the film.

The long and the short of it is that a legendary swordsman is murdered by 8 mercenaries (the 8 villains as they call themselves in the film) at the bequest of their master. The 8 villains manipulated and murdered two swordsman so that they could find a legendary treasure known as “the iron box”. Ten years later and the treasure still hasn’t been found, but the evil lord has gotten a clue to where the iron box may be, and naturally he sends out his 8 mercenary killers in order to track it down, and find the key that opens the box.

On the surface The Flying Swordsman may seem like another overly convoluted Chinese action film that can be annoying to watch. But if you look closely you can see just how intimately and lovingly they crafted the film after the old 1960s Wu Xia films. The film is just so visceral and impactful with it’s visuals, and the choreography is superb. They didn’t go so far as to try and replicate the old stiff choreography of the 1960s Shaw Brothers films, but rather took the basics and polished it up a good bit for modern audiences, while still using most of the tropes and visual aids of that era.

I have to come to grips that Wu Xia films aren’t coming back to the glory days of the late 90s and early 2000s when it was at its peak, but The Flying Swordsman is one of the better modern day takes on the sub genre. The budget is naturally pretty low, but the film hides it well by using a bleak and dreary winter aesthetic that hides a lot of the cracks and seems in the CGI/Stunt budget, and the color grading really makes it pop when there IS an elaborate scene. All in all, this is pretty fun. Plenty of good fights, some decent story telling, but the plot is a bit convoluted and benefits greatly from a second watch to really catch what’s going on.




Rating:
Not Rated by the MPAA




Video:

Sadly no Blu-ray release, but the DVD release looks OK on an 85 inch 4K screen. The bleak winter aesthetic employed throughout the film creates a fairly monochromatic experience once they get into the mountains, but the brief flashbacks and the moments in the evil lord’s court has some nice splashes of color. There’s some banding here and there and some black crush that the 480p limitations have problems with, but otherwise it’s a solid looking disc.









Audio:

The Audio is your typical Mandarin in Dolby Digital (but with 384 kbps instead of the full bandwidth 448 kbps) and it fares a teensy bit worse than the video. It’s a solid all around track, with great use of the surrounds and some cool panning effects inside of the inn, or when our villains are slaughtering people. However, I thought it felt a bit thin at times, and the low bitrate of 384 kbps made me second guess whether there could have been a bit more punch and dynamic range to the mix. Dialog is quite nice and clear with some sharp interchanges here and there that made me stand up and notice. All around, a good mix.









Extras:

• Theatrical Trailer
• Well Go USA Previews

Final Score: ​

As I said above, The Flying Swordsman is a fun jaunt, even if it’s slightly confusing at the same time. Modern day Wu Xia films are few and far between, let alone actually entertaining ones, so I take them where I can get them. My only real gripe with this release is that this could have really benefited from an HD release. I don’t know whether DVDS are getting worse, or I’m just so accustomed to 1080p and 4K discs that DVDs are just LOOKING worse, but I really missed the resolution boost. There’s the typical previews as extras on the disc, otherwise this is a fairly bare bones release. Fun watch though.

Technical Specifications:

Starring: Huawei Zhao and Ray Lui, Shanshan Chunyu, Zihan Chen
Directed by: Lei Qiao -K
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 MPEG2
Audio: Mandarin: Dolby Digital 5.1, Mandarin DD 2.0
Subtitles: English
Studio: Well Go USA
Rated: NR
Runtime: 103 Minutes
DVD Release Date: January 9th 2024

Recommendation: Fun Watch

 

[Todd Anderson]

I'm completely baffled... only 480p???

Huh?