Today’s quick review: Sword Masters: Two Champions of Shaolin. Tung Chien-Chen (Meng Lo), a bold young graduate of the Shaolin Temple, joins forces with fellow Shaolin warrior Hu Wei-Chen (Sheng Chiang) to fight the Wudang Clan, a rival school that has sided with the ascendant Qing Court against the Ming loyalists. Tung, Hu, and their allies must use all their skills to defeat the champions of the Wudang Clan and their dangerous fighting styles.
Sword Masters: Two Champions of Shaolin is a martial arts action movie about two feuding martial arts schools and the skirmishes between their students. Sword Masters features skilled, theatrical-style martial arts and a tragic plot that takes place during the rise of the Qing Dynasty. It provides a fair amount of spectacle and showcases genuine athletic skill. However, its eclectic plot and mediocre characters leave something to be desired.
Fittingly enough, Sword Masters’ biggest draw is its action. The film’s distinctive fighting style is more flashy than weighty. Each fight is a rhythmic and elegant series of poses, and the athleticism and choreograhpy on display are impressive. The film does have the genre’s usual conceits, the extraordinary abilities that supposedly come with mastery of kung fu, but its bread and butter is dance-like fighting that relies on pure skill.
Sword Masters does not have as much to offer on the story side. The cast is sprawling, with half a dozen significant characters on each side of the fight, not all of whom deserve the attention they receive. The structure of the plot is an escalating series of episodes in the war between Shaolin and Wudang. The movie has less of an overarching plot that comes to fruition than a point at which each side has played all of its cards.
Fans of the martial arts genre may want to give Sword Masters: Two Champions of Shaolin a shot. The movie does not stand out from its peers, but its athletic prowess and artistic style of fighting give it some appeal. Those looking for gritty, hard-hitting action or rich, character-driven drama will want to look elsewhere.
For a more down-to-earth martial arts movie with a more dramatically effective story, try Ip Man. For a tragic martial arts drama that deals with loyalty and rebellion, try House of Flying Daggers. For a martial arts flick of a similar caliber, try The Five Venoms. For a goofy spoof of the genre, try Kung Pow: Enter the Fist.
6.5 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it the same for graceful stunts and middling story.