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Good movie but grossly overrated

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

I watched this trilogy out of order. I saw #2 then #3 then this one. Whomever describe Chin Huan as having an Oedipus complex clearly doesn't understand the definition. What he does possess is the knack for trusting the wrong people an doing some incredibly stupid things to repay a false debt.Chin Huan returns to town to reveal the identity of the Plum Blossom Bandit. He soon finds himself facing one assassination attempt after another with no clear logic behind the attacks on his life.There's a mystery to solve and Chin Huan is just the man for it. He has to face the woman he gave up 10 years ago as part of repayment of a debt to a man be believed saved his life. It turns out that was a complete lie and Chin Huan screwed up his own life for no reason.There are fights galore in this movie. They are well choreographed. All lead up to Chin Huan losing the woman he loves and having to face the truth of the Plum Blossom Bandits identity.Several Shaw Brothers familiars make this movie even more enjoyable. The final duel between Chin Huan and the Plum Blossom Bandit involves the use of nature as a weapon.Seeing the final scene of Ah Fei and Chin Huan going their separate ways makes me sad, because I've already seen Return of the Sentimental Swordsman, so I know things aren't going to be all sunshine and Plum Blossoms for Ah Fei when Chin Huan returns.

during shaw brothers in hong kong dominated the Chinese wuxia (martial arts/swordsmanship) genre, most of the films were shot inside of its gigantic studio with all the phony or fake props and scenes. it did not like what the Japanese samurai films that mainly used open-air natural surroundings to make their films more realistic, the studio arrangements were just when they were necessary. shaw brothers' studio just rigidly used the studio to shoot almost all of their films in this genre with fake silk flowers, dead trees, fake houses facades and etc. to do the shooting in order to avoid any unpredictable weather conditions in the south east asia. but this never changed shooting format also inevitably reduced those films' value so low that most of such films simply looked so unreal and so pretentious. during that era, most of the screenplays were adapted from the popular Chinese wuxia (martial arts) novels written by some of the popular writers from taiwan while china at that time was in the turmoil cultural revolution. but the adapted scripts were just way too pretentious with stupid dialog that never felt natural but strongly staged like Shakespearean dramas. one the famous directors in this genre was chu yuen, who used most of the novels written by gu long, a wuxia writer who was so famous in writing the most pretentious dialog and scenarios just like the staged plays. chu shot all such films in the studio with artificial lighting and fake props. all the fighting scenes either with fists or swords or any kind of weapons were heavily rehearsed and synchronized with man made sound effects. since they were shot in the studio, the lighting arranged from different angles also inevitably cast lot of different shadows on the fake ground or floors, actors usually would have so many shadows in different shades following them around. the synchronized fighting scenes with awkward sound effects, including the moronic ho hung from the never perfected dubbed voice-over to match their fake fightings simply further reduced their real values in movie making.you have to watch the Japanese samurai movies to compare with the Chinese wuxia movies to know what were not correctly done by shaw brothers and their directors. because every scene, every spoken word of the dialog, even the moon in the night sky, just looked so fake. you have to force yourself to watch these movies as watching plays performed on the stage just like watch Chinese bejing operas. this film was a horrible viewing experience, so pretentious and so fake in every way you could imagine.

Yuen Chor is one of the lesser known Shaw kung fu directors, he also is one of the more prolific directors with over 120 films in a 36 year career. With the re-release of the Shaw library on DVD several reasons for his obscurity become clear. One, his films have some of the best art direction you can find in the kung-fu films of this era. Two, the films are always framed for full Shaw Scope wide screen. Three, he fills his films with lots of colorful characters. When these films were put on TV, most of the visuals were ruined and it's really hard for a non-Chinese audience to keep up with the parade of characters especially with bad dubbing. This film contains a large number of main characters, about a dozen, although most of the film revolves around the hero played by Ti Lung. These characters keep returning to say something or advance the plot. That alone makes the film hard to watch. A Yuen Chor film where this isn't problem is the Magic Blade which has a similar number of characters but most show up for a scene and leave. The twists and turns of the plot just add to the mental exhaustion if you are not ready for it.The pace of the film is good with a number of well choreographed fight scenes. There are some crazy super-human kung fu stunts. The film looks great and the actors all do their good usual work.

"Sentimental Swordsman" epitomizes the film era of Later Old School, which were martial arts films that came out later 70s and early 80s. They bridge the gap between the early 70s chop socky fests and the New Wave wire-flyers of Tsui Hark, et al. LOS works tended to have more lavish budgets than Early Old School, firmly established stars and directors entering their prime, and much more complex plots.The story begins with a nobleman in exile, with his trusty sidekick in tow, walking through a melancholy snowy landscape. He is returning home to protect a woman he reluctantly left to protect her from the elusive Plum Blossom Bandit. Through a series of betrayals, he is accused of being the villain in question. He spends a good deal of the film protesting his innocence, with words and fists. It was a fantastic performance by Shaw Brothers legend Ti Lung. Another standout performance is Derek Yee (Er Tung-sheng), who plays Ti Lung's comrade-in-arms. He's another wandering sword-for-hire who doesn't suffer fools gladly, but repays respect with loyalty. The film features beautiful cinematography, including one lovingly shot scene of a fight in a plum blossom garden. Sentimental Swordsman is a solid sword flick, and one of director Chu Yuan's better efforts.There are the inevitable cheeseball elements, such as the Plum Blossom Bandit's pink ninja outfit and the rather dubious martial art of snake hurling, but hey, this is Shaw Brothers. Fans of the genre will find it only adds to its appeal. A worthy addition to your Kung Fu library.