In the late 1990s I worked at a video store that had some cult and foreign titles that led me down the path of the cinephile. Somehow, I never got around to watching the (likely) bootleg VHS copy of The Blade that we owned. I think I always thought I’d get around to it. Instead, decades passed and I never tracked down the infamous misunderstood masterwork from writer/director/producer extraordinaire Tsui Hark until Criterion Collection brought this film into their curated collection.
Within minutes of pressing play on this pristine 4K restoration, I knew I was in for something special. First of all, the image is astounding and wildly different than your average kung fu film. While I love a good Shaw Brothers classic shot on a sound stage that has been used for dozens of other films, Hark will provide you with no such comfort here. This is a highly stylized visual feast, defying norms and expectations with much glorious location shooting, along with frenetic cutting, verite-style camera work, and even some non-linear editing and almost psychedelic energy.
It’s also narrated by a woman!
Siu Ling (Song Lei) is the dreamy and immature young daughter of a master swordsmith (Austin Wai). She almost reminds me of The Princess Bride’s Buttercup, who loved her farm boy Westley and proved it by bossing him around and torturing him all the time. Here Siu Ling pits her two loves, Ding On (Vincent Zhao) and Iron Head (Moses Chan) against one another to pine for her affections with no real sense of who she would pick or when. Siu Ling knows little of the world, however, and The Blade, with all of its filmmaking dazzle, nevertheless portrays a cruel and relentless world full of bandits such as Flying Dragon (Xiong Xin-Xin), who mercilessly murdered Ding On’s father, forcing the swordmaster to adopt Ding On and hide the truth from him lest he live a life of revenge.
But when another gang of horse thieves roll into town and capture Siu Ling, Ding On loses an arm in defending her and disappears into the country. Ding On will try to settle into a life of subservience as an outcast living with the orphan Black Head (Chung Bik-Ha), but the cruel transactional martial world our characters find themselves in will not allow a life of peace. Ding On is threatened and attacked by the horse thieves even as he discovers the whereabouts of his father’s killer: Flying Dragon. And as Iron Head and Siu Ling search the world looking for Ding On, they themselves get sucked into the cruel transactional world as well.
Ding On, with half a blade, half a body, and half of a sabre manual, learns a broken and improbable fighting style that throws off his opponents and empowers him to believe that revenge can be his (if nothing else in this world can be). Siu Ling learns the harsh truths of “jianghu”, which I interpret to mean, more or less, “the real world” of capitalism, transaction, and spiraling cycles of violence and degradation, as she searches for Ding On and witnesses the horrors that Flying Dragon brings right to the gates of her father’s sword-forging compound.
In other words, this isn’t the most fun kung fu film ever made. But damn does Hark seem to have something to say here, and he says it loud with every frame. While certainly a remake of the wildly popular film The One-Armed Swordsman, almost everything about classic martial arts cinema was thrown out in the envisioning of The Blade. It suffered mightily at the box office as a result upon its initial release in 1995. Hark had already been a prolific hitmaker with three Once Upon A Time In China titles under his belt before he attempted The Blade, and he popped over to America to collaborate with Jean-Claude Van Damme immediately after this film. But with time and wisdom prevailing, audiences are catching on to the brilliance and singularity of The Blade.
As a life-long action film aficionado, I have to admit to being in a bit of a rut these days with the state of the world often getting me down and impacting my ability to enjoy some of the simple pleasures of the action genre. The Blade hit just right for that state of mind, delivering stellar and creative action, but doing it in a fresh and inventive way (while still incorporating some of Hark’s trademark maximalism). Portraying a Game Of Thrones-like martial world full of intrigue and tragedy, as well as desperate heroism and redemptive friendship, also hit me in the heart in a way most martial arts films simply don’t. The Blade, while a remake amidst literally thousands of titles in which a hero exacts his bloody revenge after being brought down low, does its thing in an iconic and almost unmatched way, making it one of the most memorable martial arts films I’ve seen in ages.
The Package
I can’t sing the praises of Hong Kong cinema expert Frank Djeng enough. Here he provides a stunningly knowledgeable commentary track, giving insight and context around virtually every cast member and off-camera crew member, while still finding time to explore the philosophical connotations of the film. On top of that, Djeng provided a new translation track for this release as well, which gives me great confidence that the translation I experienced as a westerner wasn’t simply literal, but also got at the heart of the film as well.
On top of that highly educational and informative experience that Djeng brings to this release, you’ve also got an absolutely visually stunning feature film that justifies its 4K release prioritization. All the abstract and experimental camera work and editing that Hark brought to The Blade is gloriously presented here in colorful and crystal clear resolution.
From Criterion Collection
- 4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
- New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
- New audio commentary featuring Hong Kong cinema expert and producer Frank Djeng
- Action et vérité (2006), a documentary featuring director Tsui Hark, coscreenwriter Koan Hui, and actor Xiong Xin-xin
- New video essay by filmmakers Taylor Ramos and Tony Zhou (Every Frame a Painting)
- New York Asian Film Festival Q&A with Tsui from 2011
- Alternate English-dubbed track
- International-version opening and end credits
- Trailer
- New English subtitle translation
- PLUS: An essay by author Lisa Morton
- New cover by Oliver Barrett
And I’m Out
The Blade hits 4K UHD + Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection March 31st, 2026
