The Swordsman of All Swordsmen

1968 [CHINESE]

Action

6
IMDb Rating 6.6/10 10 183 183

martial arts kung fu swordplay sword revenge swordsman

Plot summary

A master swordsman is on a twenty year quest to revenge the death of his parents.

Director

Joseph Kuo Photo
Joseph Kuo

Top cast

Su Wei Photo
Su Wei as Chang Shan-Kung / Chang Shan-gong
You-Min Ko Photo
You-Min Ko as Fang Piao / Fang Bao
Yeh Tien Photo
Yeh Tien as (uncredited)
Nan Chiang Photo
Nan Chiang as Black Dragon
720p.BLU 1080p.BLU
787.47 MB
1280*536
Chinese 2.0
NR
us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 25 min
Seeds 1
1.43 GB
1920*804
Chinese 2.0
NR
us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 25 min
Seeds 2

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by mushroomginseng

Awesome Swordplay movie

The Swordsman Of All Swordsmen is an early Joseph Kuo's production and made shortly after debut of the Shaw Brothers ONE ARMED SWORDMAN put Swordplay movies into the international spotlight. After the artistic and commercial success of that film, both independent and big studios churned out hundreds and hundreds of swordplay movies throughout Asia. The Swordsman Of All Swordsmen was actually filmed in Taiwan and features that countries top swordplay stars like Tien Ping and Nan Chiang. Chinese actress Polly Kwan is the female martial arts star in the film. The Swordsman Of All Swordsmen was released in 1968 and was eventually released in the west after the success of Bruce Lee's entrance onto the movie scene in the 1970s. The Swordsman Of All Swordsmen was released in the west with an English dubbed form on drive in movies theaters, but like most Taiwan produced films, quickly was faded into obscurity and was rarely talked about even in collector circles. The movie's plot is basically the story of one man's quest for revenge. Tsai Ying-Chieh (Tien Ping) is on a 20 year long mission of revenge name of against the man who killed his parents. And any one who gets in his way must be punished by his swordplay skills. Another important character in the movie is the mysterious Black Dragon (Nan Chang) the only other character around who swordplay is one a par with Tien Ping's character. Polly Kuan's character Swallow befriends both characters, and it is later revealed that Tsai is after Swallow's father. She begs Tsai to give up his mission, but after 20 years of hunting gone to waste? I was really amazed by the beauty of this movie, the gorgeous visuals of the swordplay action, the period set designs, and especially the exterior landscapes. Most Shaw Brothers production are shot on soundstages. Joe Kuo filmed this completely on location in beautiful, colorful Taiwan, a county whose landscapes resemble a mix the junglish Thailand and mountainous Japan. The breathtaking final confrontation between the last two swordmen is shot on the beautiful beaches of Taiwan. This is an extremely violent film for the time, but really beautiful photography approach to the production.
Reviewed by

Reviewed by morrison-dylan-fan 9 / 10

Everything Swordsman Everywhere Swordsmen All at Once The Swordsmen.

During the introduction to Taiwanese The Rice Bomber (2014-also reviewed) I was absolutely thrilled to learn, that the HOME cinema in Manchester were soon going to present a season of obscure Taiwan Wuxia Action films, which included a screening of a 2021 remastered print of a Joseph Kuo title.

Discovering that this film was not in the recent box set dedicated to the auteur film maker,and I could not even find a trailer for the movie online, leading to me rushing to meet this rare fighter.

View on the film:

Spending 20 years preparing his sword to strike down those who murdered his parents, co-writer (with Tien-Yung Hsu and Shui-Han Chiang) / directing auteur Joseph Kuo & The Wheel of Life (1983-also reviewed) cinematographer Tsan-Ting Lin lay out the path of revenge for Ying-Chieh (played with a glittering flair by Peng Tien) with crystallized wide-shots displaying the superb fight choreography, grinding to close-ups of blood splattering against the backdrop of the high waves.

Pausing from moments of action, Kuo displays a striking skill for a lingering build-up to sudden bursts of violence, where close-ups on tea are shattered with ultra-stylized spinning arc shots circling spinning bladed hats, smash-cutting hand-cutting, and zoom-ins being placed on chopsticks getting used as a deadly weapon.

Dicing through the revenge tale in 85 minutes, the screenplay by Kuo, Hsu and Chiang superbly unveil Ying-Chieh's childhood with compact flashbacks bursting with ruthless violence which wipes out Ying-Chieh's family, which drips decades later into his uncompromising mind-set to take down all who destroyed his family home,as Ying-Chieh becomes the swordsman of all swordsmen.

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