The Legend Of The Flying Swordsman

This concocted prequel to famed martial arts novelist Ku Lung's perennial favourite "The Sentimental Swordsman" is well-intentioned but finds itself missing the mark. Angst-ridden singer (on the comeback trail) $$ID=Dave Wang$$ Jie plays the youthful Fun Li - the literal meaning to the Chinese translation being pursuit of pleasure. The wastrel scion of a famed martial arts clan known for the titular flying dagger technique, his idle life is spent on wine, women and song. Forced into wedlock with a prostitute Snow ($$ID=Gigi Lai$$ Chi) impregnated with his child, he neglects her soon enough and returns to his old ways. In a mishap, Snow is rescued by a Korean martial artist, to whom she eventually turns for consolation. This occurs whilst Fun is on a mission, in which he is ambushed and recovers only to suffer from amnesia.

Fun is rescued by a simple peasant girl with whom he falls in love but eventually leaves, out of obligation to his family. However, his world falls further apart as he returns to find his parents slain and his ancestral home abandoned. As his memory is stirred, he finds links to his plight leading back to Snow who has left him - child in tow - for the Korean fighter, who he now suspects is responsible for the deaths. He seeks revenge, culminating in a special-effects filled duel to the death amidst a stark white snowscape, eventually killing his rival, only to find that all is not as it seems. The twists eventually unravel to reveal that it is actually Fun who is responsible for the death of his own child - in a drunken stupor, causing Snow to kill his parents in a fit of ensuing madness. The child he thinks he is rescuing (and who he unintentionally kills in the battle) is that of Snow and his rival.

This slightly warped morality tale plays on perspectives between reality and memory in the manner of Kurosawa's "Rashomon", recently adopted in Brian De Palma's "Snake Eyes". However, its execution fails to live up to the potential inherent in the complex plot layers.