The Sword with No Name Blu-ray Review
A fanciful take on Korean History 101.
Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, September 18, 2011
Considering what a gigantic impact Asian cinema has had on Western audiences over the past couple of decades (at least), isn't odd, maybe even a little embarrassing, that Westerners still know so little about the history of Korea? Filmgoers who get a least a little of their history lessons from epic films can recount all sorts of facts or quasi-facts about this or that Japanese Shogunate or this or that Chinese Dynasty, but most would be left stuttering at the ticket office if pressed to provide any information about historical Korea. For modern day westerners, Korea is largely (and rightly or wrongly) the land of General MacArthur, the 30th parallel, the demilitarized zone and that most peculiar of despotic tyrants, Kim Jong-Il. Few Westerners have probably ever heard of Empress Myeongseong, but she is something of a legend in her native country, a late nineteenth century leader who managed to offset built in societal prejudices against her gender to become a unifying figure and one who helped chart Korea's course as it made some halting steps toward the modern world.
The Sword With No Name makes no bones about fictionalizing, even romanticizing, the Empress' story, and it does so at some cost to its historical accuracy as well as the film's inherent tone. This would have been the perfect Jackie Chan commodity a couple of decades ago, as the Empress is helped by and falls in love with a semi-comedic bodyguard type who does everything he can to ingratiate himself into her formal life, while hoping against hope he can have some sort of private life with her as well. The film wants to be everything from a lavish romantic quasi-historical drama to a martial arts fest to a goofy slapstick comedy, and those disparate elements are sometimes distinctly at odds with each other. But at its foundation,
The Sword With No Name is a fascinating, sumptuous looking vehicle that allows the viewer at least a glimpse at a world with which very few in the West have much experience, giving the viewer just enough history to pique interest and perhaps provoke further study.
A brief prelude shows us a kind of Korean fascist group executing other Koreans who have converted to Christianity. Among those martyred is the mother of a young boy who screams in horror at what is happening to his parent. It's no surprise when the film moves to its main storyline that the boy has grown up to be lackadaisical bounty hunter Moo-myeong (Cho Seung-Woo). Moo-myeong comes to the aid of a young noblewoman (Su-Ae, sometimes also transliterated as Soo-Ae), who is on her way to meet her betrothed and become Empress. Romantic sparks at least flare up a little, if not combust into uncontrolled passion. But this is of course an impossible love, and that colors the conflict which informs much of the rest of
The Sword With No Name. The actual historical Empress is a figure of considerable debate and controversy, and perhaps scenarists Lee Sook-Yeon and Kim Young-In and director Kim Yong-Kyun didn't want to be drawn into a conflict where they would inevitably disappoint one side of the argument, for there is really no good dramatic reason to incorporate a wholly fictional character (the bounty hunter
cum bodyguard Moo-myeong) into a story that is compelling enough in and of itself.
Forsaking the actual historical record for something at least partially fictionalized is certainly nothing new in the annals of film, but in the case of
The Sword With No Name, the problem is exacerbated by the fact that few if any Westerners are going to know the
real story to begin with. That lack of context thrusts the Western viewer headlong into an experience which is admittedly visually gorgeous but which is often fairly melodramatic and which has a lot of "insider" political subterfuge that those uninitiated in the long and often torturous history of Korea are going to find at least a little confusing at times. Playing into this confusion is the film's weird dichotomous tone, which tries to blend a number of fairly disparate elements together to weave a cohesive whole, never quite managing to make them gel completely.
If you can get past these not inconsiderable qualms,
The Sword With No Name is a handsomely produced royal soap opera with some fantastic action elements thrown into the mix. If the acting might be charitably described as not quite ready for prime time, at least with regard to some of the performers, the film is well directed from a technical standpoint and boasts a couple of great set pieces that, while derivative (as virtually everything in the post
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon world seems to be), are nonetheless expertly staged and very well choreographed. This is a film that lurches about in fits and starts, however, and individual enjoyment will probably be based on how much quasi-history any given audience member can tolerate before they'll want some out and out action sequences to break up the melodramatic monotony.
While
The Sword With No Name is undeniably entertaining, and often gorgeous to behold, one has to wonder what a more faithful representation of the Empress' reign might have been like. A woman who on the one hand sought to stave off a Japanese invasion but who nonetheless is accused of aiding and abetting that very occupation, and a woman who also sought to modernize her country but who is at the same time seen as somewhat of a reactionary would seem to be the perfect subject for a lavish historical epic. The problem with some filmmakers is that they want to "improve" on reality, when everyone knows that truth is stranger (and often more entertaining) than fiction.
The Sword with No Name Blu-ray, Video Quality
Say what you will about
The Sword With No Name's fanciful blend of fact and fiction, there can be little doubt that the film itself is often achingly gorgeous, and this AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1 presentation in high definition supports that sumptuous look every step of the way. Colors are both appropriately robust and jaw-droppingly saturated, but also allowed to have a painterly aspect in many, many beautiful scenes, both interior and exterior. The production design of
The Sword With No Name is one of this film's strongest elements, and to say that everything pops magnificently on this Blu-ray may actually be a bit of an understatement. Both sets and costumes are almost three dimensional at times in their presentation here, and the visceral impact of the imagery is apt to take your breath away. Fine detail is also exceptional, especially in some extreme close-ups, where everything from facial hair to actual goosebumps on the actors' faces are easily spotted. Several interior palace scenes are cloaked in darkness, but shadow detail remain strong and crush is negligible.
The Sword with No Name Blu-ray, Audio Quality
Two lossless audio options are offered on
The Sword With No Name on Blu-ray, the original Korean language track presented in a Dolby TrueHD 2.0 mix and an English dub presented in Dolby TrueHD 5.1. Though the English dub offers some impressive immersion and fairly consistent surround activity, I recommend sticking with the original Korean track for a couple of reasons. First of all, the dubbing itself is not very artful, with typical mismatches between lip movements and the interpolated English. Perhaps more disturbing (and kind of comical) is the fact that several Western actors in the film evidently spoke English on the set, but
very slowly and haltingly, so the dubbers have to give sometimes absurd line readings to match those lip movements. The Korean track, while obviously much narrower, presents more or less the same amount of dynamic range and offers the same excellent fidelity. Dialogue, a nice underscore, and some excellent sound effects are well prioritized, sound crisp and are all discretely handled and easy to hear.
The Sword with No Name Blu-ray, Overall Score and Recommendation
I'm a sucker for films that look spectacular but which may be somewhat lacking in dramatic fiber, as my love of
Speed Racer no doubt eminently proves.
The Sword With No Name squanders its potential of telling the real story of the Empress, instead giving viewers a typical star-crossed class conscious love affair that isn't necessary in either historical or actually in dramatic terms. But putting both that and the sometimes amateurish performances aside, this film is simply
so incredibly gorgeous at times that its faults become less and less relevant. It's eye candy to be sure, but it at least is eye candy built up around a fascinating and little known bit of Eastern history (albeit radically fictionalized for this film treatment), and that at least gives it the aura of the exotic.
The Sword With No Name may be about as "historical" as
The Sword in the Stone, but with imagery like this presented so awesomely on Blu-ray, it's hard not to rate this film
Recommended.
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