Roving Swordsman

[GwaiLoMoFo]

Have had this dvd for a few years now and finally sat down and watched it. Honestly, I woulda been happier with it still on the shelf. This one was a CHORE to sit through. The characters were boring, with no standout performances. This is probably the weakest Ti Lung performance Ive seen so far. And for a film made in 1980, with action directed by Tang Chia, it had some of the slowest and most boring choreography Ive seen. The "Enter The Dragon"/"Conan" mirror maze rip-off at the end was mildly interesting, but it seemed to never end. At one point Ti Lung says that he's been lost in the maze for 4 hours, and it really felt like it. The end fight/finale itself is 30 min long! Yawn..

On a positive note, the set design and overall production values were very well done. The film looked great.

[gravedigger666]

"Have had this dvd for a few years now"

I bought this from thailand at 2005 and not yet watched it.friend said it`s quite crap so may take 5 years or so before I watch it;).Have now about 130 unseen movies waiting to go through.

[SamuraiDana]

I watched this one when the Celestial DVD first came out and I remember not liking it, but couldn't recall exactly why. So I looked up and found my notes on the film and they echo your sentiments, GwaiLoMoFo.

Here's my original thoughts on the film:

ROVING SWORDSMAN is something of a misnomer since, although there are lots of swordsmen in the film, none of them actually “rove.” They go, generally in groups, from one site to a second site and back again and then back to the second site and so forth. The plot has to do with a once-powerful clan coming out of hiding to get hold of the Tang’s Arsenal Manual so they can build firearms and explosives. They kidnap the daughter of a rival clan leader who has the manual in order to get him to turn the manual over to them. And that’s basically it. The final set of battles, which usually take up the last 15 or so minutes of a film like this, take up the whole final half-hour of an already short running time (83 minutes). There’s a long fight in a maze of mirrors that seems thrown in just to pad the film out past an hour. It will remind you of other fights in mazes of mirrors (e.g., ENTER THE DRAGON), but goes on for so much longer.

Aside from Ti Lung, Ching Li and Ku Feng, it’s pretty much a no-name cast. And these three don’t have terribly interesting parts. Ti Lung and Ching Li had great chemistry in their other star team-ups, most notably SWORDSMAN AND ENCHANTRESS, from the same director, Chor Yuen. But it’s not allowed to flourish here. There are two other lead actresses, neither of whom is familiar to me, and neither of whom makes much of an impression (Ouyang Pei Shan and Cheng Ke-Wei).

The action, choreographed by Tang Chia, is plentiful, but it’s not terribly interesting. Lots of swords slashing back and forth. Beautiful Shaw Bros. sets and costumes, not so beautiful music. Seems like a throwaway effort by the director and not one given anywhere near the care given his best work (KILLER CLANS, THE MAGIC BLADE, CLANS OF INTRIGUE, WEB OF DEATH, etc.).

[BaronK]

RS was a great looking movie. I have always been in awe of CY's use of the studio and how good all of his movies looked. It looked great.

That said, CY burned out by 80-81. He has very few movies that seem to separate themselves from the others. It was same old, same old but even less interesting. Story, situations and the action were all mega tired.

It did look great tough.

[Yu_Xihong]

It took me 4 times to get through this movie. Rather than a movie, it felt more like a TV show adventure. The action and choreography were underwhelming. The Murder Plot with David Chang is just as boring.