Shadowless Sword (2005)

Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Blistering performances.

From the comments, I'm beginning to think I saw a different movie. We start out with what looks like a historical drama. In the time period of 976 A.D. a group has overthrown the royal family and taken over the land and people. There is but one remaining royal member, someone who disappeared 14 years earlier, so the counsel decides to send their best warrior to locate this man and bring him home. This is the main plot and is a very plausible and good storyline. And within this plot we have the evil group who wants all the royals killed, and we learn the real reason behind this action along the way as well. Plausible plot still going. As it turns out, the warrior sent to bring the prince home safely is a young woman, and through flashbacks we discover the relationship between the warrior and the prince she has been sent to get. Everyhing ties in nicely. There are other flashbacks that flush out the story and fill in the blanks. What we have here is not just an action movie with a lot of great choreographed fighting scenes (with everyone but the comic relief darn good looking), or what could have been a real event, but a love story. The relationship the develops between the warrior and the prince. The inevitable outcome. Kind of like a lot of operas (which could be the case). The only thing that bothered me about this movie was that there was too much music, and at times the music did not match what was going on in a scene. But when the music fit, it was beautiful. A huge thanks to whoever decided to write in an English horn for a lot of the background music as this instrument helps to set the tone (no pun intended). And this is a beautiful movie to watch as well, though sometimes the running in the air gets to be a tad silly when overdone, which happened now and then in this movie. Ladies, do not pass this one by. The real story here is the love story, and thankfully it's not mushy or overdone. Give this one a try.

How can the director of this film be proud of his work? Included in the extra feature of the DVD are some interviews of the director and actors. They reiterate ad nauseum how proud they are of this film. In spite of these positive comments, this film is just a carbon copy of some cheap Hong Kong martial art movie with some shameless rip-off of Johnny Depp's Jack Sparrow. Fight scenes are merely Koreanized version of Chinese martial art fight scenes with those exaggerated sword plays and physically impossible midair ballets. Just like many Hong Kong movies, the plot is close to nonexistent. Just like many Hong Kong movies, the characters are one-dimensional. The good girl swordfighter is saintly good while the villains are just plain evil. Unlike the real world, there is absolutely no gray area. Also, why do so many of the Balhae bandits look so much like Captain Jack Sparrow? In fact, with the effeminate gestures and weird make-up, one of them looks as if Johnny Depp was speaking Korean. Did Jack Sparrow immigrate from 18th century Caribbean to 10th century Korea to father some offsprings? Although it was a fun movie, "Shadowless Sword" is very unoriginal. It is just a rip-off of martial art movies from Hong Kong.

After all of the princes in a kingdom are killed by agents for a rival country, one last prince is located and a female bodyguard is sent to bring him back in one piece. Once The prince is located the journey back becomes a never ending battle for survival. Okay action film is just a little too unreal and fake for its own good. The fighting is stylized with a great deal of wire work and over done effects (lots of smashing rocks, columns and walls) but it is serviceable. The costuming and make up involves a great deal of eye makeup on the men and everyone looks like they are from the roadshow of Pirates of the Caribbean with Jack Sparrow being the model of choice. Give the film points for looking spectacular but at the same time it plays like several direct to video films I'm seen on Voom's Kung Fu channel. Its not bad but it its not great. Its solidly good even though its clearly reaching to be so much more. A rental. between 6.5 and 7 out of 10

I was a little hesitant before watching this movie since I hadn't seen a Korean movie before... and Man was I surprised!! If it was not for a few glitches here n there this could have been a timeless classic! It's been acted out so well by the lead actors. Especially So-Yi yoon. She is just about perfect!!. In fact for me she is way better than Zhang Ziyi..Frankly, I wasn't expecting the level of maturity shown in direction, storyline n acting. And yes, it is one of the New Line Cinema's. Although this is a period movie I could make out the little differences of Korean culture from Japanese, Chinese or Thai.Aah man what a movie n what a beauty... I had never praised an actress so much before.. But here I go.. I am nuts about Yoon.Well.... there isn't a dearth of beauties in good Ol India.... but hey! she knows martial arts too....I strongly suggest this one for those who liked Crouching... Hidden. While u get the movie I am gonna dream about So-Yi Yoon. Yoooooooooooooooonnnnnn!