The Legend of the Shadowless Sword DVD Review

DVD REVIEW:
THE LEGEND OF THE SHADOWLESS SWORD

08/11/08

SYNOPSIS: 927 A.D. The Killer-Blade Army has toppled the ruling dynasty, plunging the kingdom into chaos. The only remaining heir, Prince Jung-Hyun (Lee Seo Jin) is living in exile, unaware of his family's dark fate. Still loyal to the dynasty, the beautiful and deadly warrior Soha (Yoon Soy) sets out to find Jung-Hyun and guide him to become the great leader he was born to be. But with the Army's greatest assassins and the criminal underworld hunting them, Soha and Jung-Hyun are swept into an explosive, nonstop battle of swords, wits and bloodshed as they fight to reclaim the fallen throne.

REVIEW: “Legend of the Shadowless Sword” is a movie that could be compared in quality and excitement to Ang Lee’s “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.” The movie is just full of magic, mysticism, creativity, originality, and marvelous action sequences. Aside of some minor acting flaws, the movie presents a dramatic and compiling storyline about passion, honor , freedom, and justice, with incredible visual effects that would lure your eyes to an amazing realm of fantasy, imagination, and joy. It is a shame that after almost 3 years since this spectacular movie made his appearance in the big screen in Korea, it is just making its appearance in the American market. It really shows how America is missing great and imaginative cinema. The DVD Version will be available August 12 2008.

The story is a simple one, after the assassination of Balhe’s Royal family, the only person who can opposed the foreign assassins to reach power is the family’s last heir, prince Jung Hyun who has been in exile for many years. A lonely, beautiful, and skillful warrior, Soha, is send to search, protect and bring back the prince at all cost., since the future of the realm depends on him. In this journey, friendships would be tested, romance would rise, and fighting would be inevitable. The movie is shown by the director in a skillful way, the flow and development is simple and clear which helps the story to build up easily and let the audience enjoy it better. The only unclear subject is the relationship between Jung Hyun , and Soha, which is clarify at the very end of the movie adding a more sentimental feeling to it. The main character delivered solid performance all way around, from the heroes to the villains all the main actor were in character. During the movie the audience can feel the chemistry between Lee Seo Jin and Yoon Soy, or the hatred of Gun hwa Pyung interpreted by Shin Hyeon- Jun. Nonetheless, some of the supporting cast did not perform at level, some of them seem like they were forcing their characters in an attempt to add or more drama or comedy, like for example Kim Su-ro’s character: gang boss, who looked like a cheap imitation of Jack Sparrow, or the annoying prince’s friend, Jeong June-ha. However, since this characters do not have as much time on the screen the movie is not disturbed by their appearances. Character wise this movie surpasses many of its genre in originality and design, all characters are unique in looks and ability, from the deadly and terrible villains to the beautiful hero and the lazy prince, it seems that they are taken out of one or many anime series. To me they were as original and charismatic as Ten Shimoyama’s Shinobi characters.

Visually the movie is fantastic, each scene is well worked and the action sequences are exceptionally fascinating and entertaining. This movie explores every single aspect of the environment from sword fights, martial arts, supernatural powers, underwater fighting, and of course as many movies of this genre fighting in the air. The special effects staff did an outstanding job combining the reality with the fantasy, from the wired effects to the beautiful and marvelous choreographies. It is great that for a movie full of action there is not an overused of blood like in many other action flicks, proving that it is not how much there is but how well is used. The sound although is nothing remarkable, it is good enough for the movie.

“Legend of the Shadow less Sword” gave me more of what I was expecting, there is no doubt that in this type of “Epic” movies the action sequences and special effects will always be impressive and attractive to the eye, but this movie did not stop with these marvelous choreographies, it showed me a decent and compelling story, imaginative and ingenious characters, and beautiful locations. Its DVD format looks great, I recommend to watch this movie in the biggest TV you have at home, it does make a difference in the fighting scenes. I do not want to say that it is a most have for a hard core action or fantasy fans, because it is not, but at least it is a most watch for fans of the genre. However, if in your collection you have movies like Shinobi, Hero, House of flying Daggers, you might want to make room for this one. You will not be disappointed.

Review By Milo
milo@smartcine.com

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VIDEO:
Widescreen 2.35:1

AUDIO:
Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1 Korean
Subtitles: English and Spanish

SPECIAL FEATURES: The DVD itself does not have any remarkable features, in my opinion all of them are just fillers, material that it is not worth watching unless you really like the actors.

Character Introduction: The Villain, the Companion and the King each actor talks about their character and describe their experiences while filming the film. (17:43)
Behind The Scenes: it is basically how the staff and crew interacted during the filming of the movie(6:43)

Picture Gallery: a variety of cool pictures of the characters that would have made great posters (1:26)

Music Video: a music video from the movie’s soundtrack, by far the best featurette of the DVD. I just wish they had translated. (3:50)

International Trailer (2:11)

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DVD REVIEW: THE LEGEND OF THE SHADOWLESS SWORD 08/11/08

DVD REVIEW:
THE LEGEND OF THE SHADOWLESS SWORD

08/11/08