Shadowless Sword VCD

He didn't simply take that concept hook, line and sinker. He adapted it to a more Korean setting: if you look at So Ha and the other 'female warrior protecting a man', Mae Young Ok (Lee Gi Yong), then an interesting contrast emerges. So Ha is clearly the soft on the outside, strong on the inside type. Despite her impressive martial arts skills, she doesn't look intimidating on the outside, something that instead jumps at the viewer instantly, the moment they see Mae Young Ok, with her 180cm frame. She's the opposite, a strong outside, soft inside kind of girl, putting up a very intimidating front, but then suffering inside because of her situation. Shadowless Sword takes these characters - Balhae's last Prince and his female 'protector', the general now working for the Khitan Gun Hwa Pyeong (Shin Hyun Joon) and Mae Young Ok protecting him - and catapults us into 927 Balhae, just one year after the big defeat against the Khitan.

The first piece of the puzzle added to the film was Action Director Ma Yuk Sing, who despite all the difficulties worked well with Kim in Bichunmoo, and what's even more important, the two developed a sincere friendship over the years. Also, to avoid any of the problems which plagued the production of the 2000 film, the actors (Lee Seo Jin, Shin Hyun Joon, Yoon Soy and Lee Gi Yong) trained for four months in Korea before joining the shoot in China. The interesting thing is that director Kim trained with them, not only because he's always been interested in this kind of activity, but to better understand what the actors were going through, help them sharing the same pain and difficulties, and also get that 'rhythm' you only understand after training with professionals in this field. The partnership with Ma is not a case, as Kim had always been more of a Ching Siu Tung than a Yuen Wo Ping fan, and Ching was actually his first choice for Bichunmoo, but his protege Ma joined instead, as Ching was too busy back then. Of course there's plenty of good action directors in Korea, and Jung Doo Hong is certainly world class.

But such intensive use of wires, not only in terms of action made by actors but also 'cinematic action' (think using wires for arrows or similar thing) required people used to the job, not just talented action directors adapting to new experiments through their style. Another interesting factor influencing the making of Shadowless Sword was New Line Cinema of the Lord of the Rings series. After a quick look at the script and a basic promo tape, they liked the idea so much they funded a good 30% of the film, which led to new records in foreign distribution sales, and might actually pave the way for a successful run in the US market. This is when Kim decided to break from the currently accepted norm, and offer something a little different, a sort of throwback to the classic wuxia he grew up with, by focusing on power and speed instead of grace and elegance. This was also reflected in the film's art direction, costumes and the choice of weapons.

It would be silly bringing up historical distortion talking about a wuxia, but the shadowless sword we see featured so prominently in the film is mostly well produced fiction. Closer to Northern European models (Viking maybe?), that kind of sword was never used in Balhae, as before late Goryeo/early Joseon the focus was on smaller, more flexible blades than the imposing longer swords. But then again, the concept wasn't that of recreating historically accurate weapons, but to make something that would fit with the character's personality. And it's not just weapons, even the style of action used by the four major characters (plus Mabul) follows their character traits. Art direction and costumes followed the same concept, as they got closer to road movie sensibilities than anything resembling a wuxia. Since So Ha only wears one costume for the entire film that has to underline her personality and inner strength to protect Jung Hyun at all costs, we focus on lighter colors giving a sense of familiarity. Jung Hyun, who goes from a runaway scoundrel to a King in the making, slowly but gradually changes his image becoming more and more refined. The costumes for Lee Gi Yong's character are particularly impressive, moving away from the usual graceful robes found in leading ladies of the genre.

But of course the calling card of films like these is the action. Although there are a few problems, which tighter editing could have dealt with, the wirework is satisfactory, and the frenetic and powerful pace given to the action scenes fits well with Kim's initial theme. If you don't see too many penetrations or blood flowing it is because Kim is using concepts from the early Wuxias before the kung fu revolution. We are dealing with chi (or Gi, since it's a Korean film) and its tremendous power, not necessarily the action/reaction and technique found in the mano y mano fights of Kung Fu and their subsequent Wirefu offspring. Although editing is only average during the 'rest' of the film, when the action choreographers take over the action scenes, the film turns very powerful, fast and frenetic, effectively supported by Kim Joon Seon's percussion-heavy score. As I said before, I'm not interested in technique for action scenes, and all I care about is maintaining that flow, that rhythm of cinematic action. And on those terms, Shadowless Sword fares quite well.

There are a few problems, things which could have been dealt with given time. The cameos are completely throwaway, especially a wasted Kim Soo Ro and the usual embarrassment from Choi Ji Woo, who in director Kim's mind was going to act out a Brigitte Lin-like figure, but in the end just feels like Choi Ji Woo getting ready for an Andre Kim show, and feeling awkward on some wires. Again, some of the supporting cast stands out for all the wrong reasons. Park Sung Woong's Mabul is quite an interesting character and looks a million dollars, but once he opens his mouth, he looks like an annoying little prick waiting to amuse us with his diabolical laughing ways. Gun Hwa Pyeong's character could be developed a little better, despite Shin Hyun Joon's usual charisma. But those are just minor gripes in a rather accomplished film. First the leading couple, Lee Seo Jin and Yoon Soy, show remarkable chemistry. Lee looks born to act in a Sageuk or Wuxia setting, and I hope he'll continue. And Yoon confirms she's one of the most exciting young talents in the country, if Goodbye Solo wasn't enough. Lee Gi Yong's character could stand on two pages of dialogue, but she handles it impressively, with metric tons of screen presence which will probably land her many more roles in the future (I hope). But my favorite performance is that of Jo Won Hee, a very underrated actor who also recently appeared in Holiday. He's the key to making the final fifteen minutes of the film work.

Kim Young Joon promised an 'upgrade' with this film, and that is exactly what Shadowless Sword is. It's not a great film, but it's a lot of fun, it's reasonably well acted, the action is well choreographed and executed, and production values are predictably very good. Those are all things which Bichunmoo couldn't achieve, so Kim clearly learned something in the last four years. Considering the country's total indifference towards Wuxia, he's one of Chungmuro's last hopes in the genre. I hope it won't take four more years to see another of his films (that's why Shin Hyun Joon jokes he's a 'World Cup director'), and his next film might not even be a Wuxia, but this film has won me over. It's nothing more or less than a very nice throwback to the days when wuxia was a genre and not an excuse to make vapid exotica. The action works, the drama (mostly) works, and it never tries to be more than that. I don't know if he finally fulfilled his but now I can definitely call Kim that: Korean Cinema's 'action kid'.

By X - Twitchfilm.net