Member whitesnake Posted February 4, 2018 Member Share Posted February 4, 2018 Swordsman (aka Geomgaek) is an upcoming 2018 South Korean movie - "action historical drama... focused around a Ming Dynasty swordsman and his daughter. It will take place during the Ming Dynasty's decline, when power was being taken from the Han people by the Qing Empire. Meanwhile, the swordsmen who stood against confusing state of affairs, confronted with the chaos brought about by the Ming-Qing transition." It is directed by first-time movie director Choi Jae-hoon. Cast includes Jang Hyuk (Ordinary Person), Jung Man-sik (Asura: The City of Madness), Joe Taslim (Fast & Furious 6), Choi Jin-ho (I Saw the Devil), Kim Hyeon-soo (Murderer), Jang Hyun-sung (The Advocate: A Missing Body), and Lee Min-hyuk. The news is from Wikipedia, IMDB, and https://www.saruaso.com/movie/2018_korean-films/193 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Drunken Monk Posted August 26, 2020 Member Share Posted August 26, 2020 New Korean swordplay movie starring Hyuk Jang and Joe Taslim... 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member DrNgor Posted August 26, 2020 Member Share Posted August 26, 2020 That looks really cool. It's almost as if the Koreans are doing better Chinese action than the Chinese are these days. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member BlueRain83 Posted September 1, 2020 Member Share Posted September 1, 2020 It rly looks awesome maybe it can compete with the film swordmaster from 2016 ?! lets press thumps and im looking forward to it. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member laagi Posted November 25, 2020 Member Share Posted November 25, 2020 (edited) Didn't really feel the trailer to be honest. But now after watching it I gotta admit it's a great swords flick! Everything is kept to a bare minimum in terms of story. However that's not a bad thing. What makes this movie stand out are its actors and the action. Lead by an extremely charismatic and bad ass Jang Hyuk*. I got goosebumps one time when he unleashed his sword. The simple soundtrack also beautifully compliments those scenes of bad assery (that a word!?). Joe Taslim as the main villain is pretty bland. As he spends most of the movie just giving a evil smirk before getting his comeuppance. As a supporting actor we get Jeong Man Shik who while not in too many scenes does an excellent job as well. Overall I've thoroughly enjoyed the movie. One last thing without giving away too much there's one female character who at least to me seems so out of place and has like one line; actually one word for the entirety of the movie. I don't know what the hell she was doing in there *I'm curious if anyone can confirm whether or not he did all of the stunts by himself. Think this wikipedia page entry answers that Quote Jang has practiced Jeet Kune Do for more than 10 years and is a former professional Taekwondo athlete Edited November 25, 2020 by laagi 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member wuxiaman Posted January 5, 2021 Member Share Posted January 5, 2021 I have the Blu-Ray release date by Well Go USA marked on my calendar and will let you all know what I think of this! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member KCN9NE Posted January 5, 2021 Member Share Posted January 5, 2021 Can’t wait for this one! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator One Armed Boxer Posted January 11, 2021 Moderator Share Posted January 11, 2021 On 11/25/2020 at 11:49 PM, laagi said: But now after watching it I gotta admit it's a great swords flick! Agreed! This was thoroughly entertaining, just the right balance of story vs action. I gave it the full review treatment over at COF. Check it out below - https://cityonfire.com/the-swordsman-2020-review-korean-jang-hyuk-joe-taslim/ 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member laagi Posted January 11, 2021 Member Share Posted January 11, 2021 (edited) @One Armed Boxer glad you're catching up Also seen you've recently watched Derailed. Great movie as well. Edited January 11, 2021 by laagi 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator One Armed Boxer Posted January 27, 2021 Moderator Share Posted January 27, 2021 Joe Taslim briefly discusses the final fight scene against Jang Hyuk in Scott Adkins' Art of Action series. Just a warning that the discussion does contain clips from the fight, so if you want to go into it spoiler free, hold off on watching until you've checked it out! https://youtu.be/M0-rifNpTkI?t=2852 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member JackieRome Posted February 25, 2021 Member Share Posted February 25, 2021 initially I was not crazy about the format of the shots: it seemed very televised. that feeling remains but is condensed by good fights: some brilliant and others not. conventional story and characters that refer to many films with similar stories. The final fight with Joe Taslim was disappointing. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Ronin Posted April 14, 2021 Member Share Posted April 14, 2021 Really enjoyed this one, now streaming on Hi-YAH! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member drees5761 Posted June 14, 2021 Member Share Posted June 14, 2021 Just watched The Swordsman, an excellent new Korean action drama starring Jang Hyuk and Joe Taslim. Superbly staged fight scenes, but a real study of the characters, make this the best I have seen from Korea for a while. Joe Taslim oozes evil as the main villain of the story, and the choreography is top-notch. Check it out, totally recommended.(out in the UK on DVD and Blu-ray by Cine Asia and USA by Well Go) 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Drunken Monk Posted November 27, 2021 Member Share Posted November 27, 2021 For me, this one missed the mark. The whole thing reeks of being made by a first time director since it’s terribly paced and actually pretty boring for the first hour. Some will call it a “character study.” I call it shoddy film making. The action sequences are an absolute delight and I think that’s what the movie should have focused on. It needed to be an action movie rather than an action drama since the drama didn’t work. The fights, however, are beautifully staged, choreographed and shot. They’re a real treat. I love how the lead character moves. He rolls, punches, stabs and slashes. It’s awesome. Excellent fights don’t necessarily make a good movie though. I wanted to love this one but it just didn’t do it for me. The action is worth a watch on YouTube but it fails in so many other aspects. Maybe it needs repeated viewings? I hope so. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator KUNG FU BOB Posted August 13, 2022 Administrator Share Posted August 13, 2022 I was surprised this film had received so much praise as I watched it. IMO it's decent, but far from great. The excellent sets and costuming transport you to another era, but then the lead, Jang Hyuk as a swordsman with faltering eyesight, felt completely modern to me. He also just didn't seem right for the character, and his "cool musician" hairstyle was constantly distracting. The action had its moments, but I couldn't help frequently thinking of Zatoichi, and how much better every one of the films in that series is than this. As soon as it ended I grabbed my Criterion Zatoichi collection off the shelf to remedy my much-needed action fix. My son saw THE KILLER with Jang Hyuk and said it's good and that I'll like it. I'm glad he's playing a modern-day role in it. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Super Ninja Posted August 18, 2022 Member Share Posted August 18, 2022 On 8/14/2022 at 1:26 AM, KUNG FU BOB said: I was surprised this film had received so much praise as I watched it. IMO it's decent, but far from great. The excellent sets and costuming transport you to another era, but then the lead, Jang Hyuk as a swordsman with faltering eyesight, felt completely modern to me. He also just didn't seem right for the character, and his "cool musician" hairstyle was constantly distracting. The action had its moments, but I couldn't help frequently thinking of Zatoichi, and how much better every one of the films in that series is than this. As soon as it ended I grabbed my Criterion Zatoichi collection off the shelf to remedy my much-needed action fix. My son saw THE KILLER with Jang Hyuk and said it's good and that I'll like it. I'm glad he's playing a modern-day role in it. For me the main takeaway here was that with The Swordsman we finally got a Korean movie with Korean action. Sure, Korea has its own brand of cinematic martial arts action, but not when it comes to swordplay films. So hopefully, this is the first of many. As for the movie itself, I throughly enjoyed it and never regretted getting the Blu-ray. Actually, I've been feeling a need to rewatch The Swordsman for a while, might do it these days. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member TibetanWhiteCrane Posted August 18, 2022 Member Share Posted August 18, 2022 11 hours ago, Super Ninja said: Sure, Korea has its own brand of cinematic martial arts action, but not when it comes to swordplay films. So hopefully, this is the first of many. Whaaaa??? I mean I'm far from an expert on Korean cinema, but what about all those swordplay flicks from the naughts? I seem to remember a lot of them getting western releases. Bichunmoo, Shadowless Sword, Sword in the Moon, The Duelist. I don't remember them in great detail, but I seem to recall them having decent swordplay action. Or am I missing your meaning here? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member DrNgor Posted August 18, 2022 Member Share Posted August 18, 2022 9 minutes ago, TibetanWhiteCrane said: Bichunmoo, Shadowless Sword, Sword in the Moon Those were good swordplay films, but were choreographed by HK veterans. Those first two, choreographed by Ma Yuk-Sing, really felt like Butterfly and Sword. Sword in the Moon was choreographed by Yuen Bun. I think he meant that the Koreans did their own thing with The Swordsman. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member TibetanWhiteCrane Posted August 18, 2022 Member Share Posted August 18, 2022 1 hour ago, DrNgor said: Those were good swordplay films, but were choreographed by HK veterans. Those first two, choreographed by Ma Yuk-Sing, really felt like Butterfly and Sword. Sword in the Moon was choreographed by Yuen Bun. I think he meant that the Koreans did their own thing with The Swordsman. Ah, ok. Yeah, barely remember them. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Super Ninja Posted August 19, 2022 Member Share Posted August 19, 2022 15 hours ago, TibetanWhiteCrane said: Whaaaa??? I mean I'm far from an expert on Korean cinema, but what about all those swordplay flicks from the naughts? I seem to remember a lot of them getting western releases. Bichunmoo, Shadowless Sword, Sword in the Moon, The Duelist. I don't remember them in great detail, but I seem to recall them having decent swordplay action. Or am I missing your meaning here? 14 hours ago, DrNgor said: I think he meant that the Koreans did their own thing with The Swordsman. Exactly. I wouldn't dare call myself an expert on Korean cinema either, but Korean swordplay movies of the naughts were largely pretty light on the action and in most cases it was the kind of action I'd barely call decent. More importantly, Koreans didn't have a distinctive, recognizable style they could call their own, their focus was never on the action really. Even years later, with movies such as Memories of the Sword (2015), Koreans were making interesting, stylish movies that I'd never recommend based on the strength or abundance of their action. Then, you have the ones where the action was handled by the HK action directors who brought their own recognizable flavour. I'm aware of the importance of Bichunmoo, but I wasn't impressed. Ma Yuk-Sing certainly did a better job with Shadowless Sword which is the best of the bunch when it comes to action. But that's Hong Kong action in Korean films. While the action in The Swordsman was obviously influenced by Tanigaki's work on the Kenshin movies, Koreans created the sort of action they can call their own. In that regard, I see The Swordsman as the first of hopefully many to come. Perhaps @One Armed Boxer can share his expertise on the subject and prove me right or wrong? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator One Armed Boxer Posted August 30, 2022 Moderator Share Posted August 30, 2022 On 8/19/2022 at 6:19 PM, Super Ninja said: Perhaps @One Armed Boxer can share his expertise on the subject and prove me right or wrong? Not every Korean swordplay flick after the millennium relied on Hong Kong stylings, although certainly the best of them did. 2010's 'Blades of Blood' is a good example of a movie free of the HK influence, offering up a Zatoichi styled character with a Korean flavour. However Korea has dabbled in swordplay long before, off the top of my head I can think of 1969's 'Armless Swordsman', and just like it's southerly neighbours Hong Kong and Taiwan, it's a genre that's fallen in and out of popularity over the years. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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