The Swordsman (2020
Pamala
Tae-yul, the best swordsman in Joseon who serves King Gwanghaegun as his bodyguard, refuses to join a rebellion of the King's top officials, who believe him too weak to lead the nation against foreign invaders. One of the rebellion's leaders, Min Seung-ho, challenges him to a duel, during which Tae-yul's sword shatters and shards of metal pierce his eyes. The King personally stops the duel, declaring he will abdicate the throne, and releases Tae-yul from his service.
Years later, an older Tae-yul now lives with his teenage daughter, Tae-ok. The two live and work as trappers, but Tae-ok is increasingly frustrated with her father's refusal to let her experience life outside of their home in the mountains; Tae-yul retorts the world is far more dangerous than she understands and he only wants to protect her. Tae-yul's injuries have grown worse, and a local monk warns Tae-ok that unless his eyes are treated with special herbs, he will go completely blind in a few days. The monk sends them to the trader Hwa Seon, but Seon reveals the herbs are both too expensive and only available to those with political connections.
The Joseon royal court receives a visit from Gurutai, a relative of the Qing emperor who has enriched himself by enslaving and selling captives taken during the recent Qing invasion of Joseon. With their nation already suffering under the corrupt rule of the Qing, the King and his advisors fear Gurutai will soon force them to hand over their own children as "tributes" to Qing nobles. Lee Mok-yo, a respected member of the court, decides to write a petition to the King to start openly resisting the Qing and their demands. He also makes a request to Seon for help finding a young girl to care for his aging mother; Seon recommends Tae-ok, who is excited both at the prospect of being adopted by a wealthy family and earning the herbs her father needs.
Gurutai's men harass Seon and her workers, and Tae-yul, using only his cane, fights them off when they threaten Tae-ok. That evening, Tae-ok leaves for Lee's estate, where Gurutai and his personal retinue of assassins soon carry out an ambush, killing all of Lee's servants and taking his daughter and Tae-ok as hostages. Tae-yul learns about his daughter's kidnapping when he survives an attempt on his life, then saves Seon from a retaliatory attack by a Qing slaver. He locates the main slave camp used by Gurutai and burns it to the ground after butchering the guards and freeing those held captive inside. A lone survivor agrees to lead him to Gurutai's private compound.
Lee, leading a force of royal guardsmen, tries to rescue his daughter but instead watches helplessly as his men are gunned down by Qing riflemen. Tae-yul shows up and kills not only the entire company of riflemen but Gurutai's assassins as well. He finally collapses from exhaustion, and is rescued by Lee and Seon, who administer the herbs. Seon admits to Tae-yul he will still go blind anyway, at which point he won't be able to fight. With little time remaining, Tae-yul confronts Min, now employed by Gurutai after betraying Lee out of disgust for his self-serving ways.
After a brief duel, Tae-yul forces Min to yield, at which point Gurutai slits his throat for losing. The two men face each other in a final battle, with Gurutai ordering his mistress to hold Tae-ok at knifepoint and a Qing envoy observing the duel. Gurutai initially has the upper hand, but Tae-yul manages to stab his mistress through the neck, saving Tae-ok, before disarming and impaling Gurutai with his sword. The envoy stops his guards from interfering, allowing Tae-ok and the other slaves to go free. Tae-yul embraces his daughter as he slowly goes completely blind.
A flashback reveals Tae-ok is not Tae-yul's biological daughter, but rather the only child of King Gwanghaegun; the King tasked Tae-yul with raising her as his own child so he would have a reason to live. The movie ends with Tae-yul and Tae-ok slowly making their way down the mountain, with Tae-yul declaring he's ready to see the rest of the world.
The film was originally scheduled to be released on 17 September 2020 in South Korea.[2] However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in South Korea, its release was postponed by a week to 23 September 2020.[3]
The film has been pre-sold to 55 countries, invited to the 40th Hawaii International Film Festival, as well as selected as the opening film for the 2020 Korean Indonesian Film Festival.[4] It was released in Singapore on 15 October, Taiwan on 16 October, Indonesia on 29 October, Vietnam on 13 November 2020 and Japan on 2 April 2021.
The film also took part in the Glasgow Film Festival 2021 and Sydney Film Festival 2021. In July 2022, it was invited at the 21st New York Asian Film Festival, where it was screened at Lincoln center on July 19.[5][6]
The past week was super busy and that will continue. To be frank, I haven\u2019t felt any inclination to start any new K dramas. Nothing of late looks like a must-watch. I tried with Our Blooming Youth but that characters and the premise failed to grab me. Unlike other more recent sageuks, it lacks authenticity and worse still\u2026 dare I say it, it looks like it was done on a shoestring budget. In comparison to C dramas of this kind of which there are many, it feels rather bland \u2014 leaves me with a \u201Cbeen there done it\u201D first impression.
While having a lazy moment, it occurred to me that I\u2019ve never seen Jang Hyuk\u2019s 2020 movie The Swordsman although I\u2019ve been a fan of his for almost as long as I\u2019ve been avidly watching K dramas. So I took a peek and even though the subs are woeful, there\u2019s not really that much dialogue or sufficient dialogue to make a huge difference in my overall appreciation of the film. It\u2019s an action story first and foremost set during the aftermath of King Gwanghae\u2019s reign. Even though it claims to be a historical film, it owes far more to Hollywood and wuxia more than anything else. In fact it doesn\u2019t take long for the realisation to hit home that this is a Joseon version of the 2008 film Taken starring the great Liam Neeson.
For the handful of people left on the planet who haven\u2019t seen Taken, it\u2019s about an ex-CIA agent who on a call to his daughter Kim holidaying in Paris, becomes a phone witness to her kidnapping by Albanian human traffickers. Before long he\u2019s in the City of Love and collecting scalps in the most spectacular fashion leaving a trail of destruction. Anybody who has seen it will no doubt remember Liam Neeson\u2019s phone monologue to his daughter\u2019s captor in a calm almost menacing manner.
\u201CI don\u2019t know who you are. I don\u2019t know what you want. If you are looking for ransom I can tell you I don\u2019t have money, but what I do have are a very particular set of skills. Skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now that\u2019ll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you, but if you don\u2019t, I will look for you, I will find you and I will kill you.\u201D
Something similar happens in The Swordsman. Jang Hyuk\u2019s character, a former king\u2019s guard now living in the mountain minding his own business. But due to an old injury his eyesight is deteriorating so his good-hearted daughter Tae Ok drags him down to the hub of civilisation and after a series of hoop jumps finds herself making a deal with a broker about some all important cure for her father. As is the case with the original, she falls prey to sex slavers. All this transpires in a backdrop of Joseon, Chinese and Manchurian geopolitics with Joseon on the losing end largely because of corrupt leadership. Militarily Joseon is weak and the default position is to capitulate to a stronger neighbour and ally with one against the other. Daughter gets inadvertently caught up in all of this and so Swordsman Dad jumps into the fray without a second thought. The moment the swordsman unsheathes his blade all hell breaks loose and diplomacy be damned. Frankly the audience couldn\u2019t care less either because the villains are evil incarnate.
Certainly the story isn\u2019t very original but it does have some rather exciting action sequences featuring Tae Yul and his opponents. I can\u2019t say I\u2019m a fan of the swordplay here being more accustomed to more traditional Hong Kong and mainland choreography but if it\u2019s slash and turn with plenty of blood spatter you\u2019re looking for, there\u2019s definitely a goodly amount on offer. The plot is basic, more or less taking its cues from the Taken mould. The cinematography on the other hand is worth writing home about.
While I was in the mood I became curious about MDL\u2019s recommendation of The Man From Nowhere (2010) which stars Won Bin, an actor I\u2019ve heard about but never seen in anything. And no wonder. He hasn\u2019t acted in anything since 2010. But he\u2019s very nice to look at especially when his hair\u2019s properly trimmed and he had all the makings of a major action star except that he\u2019s obviously been busy raising a family to care. In the looks department he reminds me of Lee Jin-uk, another actor that I like.
Won Bin takes on the role of a pawnshop owner who is somewhat friendly with the little girl who lives in his block of flats. Her mother, an exotic dancer and heroin addict takes off with a packet of the white stuff and brings all kinds of nasty \u2014 and I mean nasty \u2014 types to her door step. Not only are these scumbags trafficking in drugs, they are also dabbling with organ harvesting. Predictably mayhem ensues because these creatures don\u2019t take kindly to others stealing their commodities. What the mother does, the daughter pays for. They are both \u201Ctaken\u201D and it is up to Won Bin\u2019s Tae-shik to get his act together to rescue mother and daughter from the clutches of a psychopathic cartel who don\u2019t hold back where violence is concerned.
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