Swordsman 2 (DVD) (Japan Version) DVD Region 2

Jet Li and Michelle Reis play two swordspeople who are retiring from the martial world because Li likes to drink all day and Michelle likes to scold him, and the two of them have a good thing going with this routine and want to keep at it with no outside interruptions except for their eight brothers who are retiring with them, but they all like to drink and scold as well, so this shouldn't be a problem for anyone. Unfortunately, one of Li's old flames, Ying (Rosamund Kwan), has had her father, Wu, kidnapped by the sketchy Sun Moon sect. Suddenly Li has been pulled into the midst of a power struggle that will play football with his heart and soul as he comes up against crazed minority spokesperson, Asia the Invincible (played with icy authority by Brigette Lin), and Ying's dad, who has gone insane from his years of confinement and torture at the hands of Asia. Wu wants revenge, and although Jet and his brothers don't want to help, you know how crazy people are: they can't take no for an answer. Needless to say, things get messy, and it's not just from the giant hooks Wu likes to whack into people's backs.

Ching Sui-tung and Tsui Hark are the Douglas Sirk and Ross Hunter of the martial arts movie, and Swordsman 2 is their masterpiece: Tsui's slick production style harnessing Ching's straight-from-the-id, free-association film making. Swordsman 2 unfolds like a beautiful nightmare, all the action adhering to a loopy logic, as affairs of the heart and soul are played out on a grand scale. It helps that Jet Li and Brigette Lin are perhaps the greatest pair of star-crossed lovers in all of moviedom. Aside from the obvious complications (he wants to retire, she wants to rule the world) they are further separated by the fact that they're both playing men. It's an interesting movie. To say the least.

by Grady Hendrix