Director Yuen breaks with tradition, here, and opens with some nifty nighttime shots that lend THE MAGIC BLADE that "little something extra" when it comes to mood. Yen Nan-fei (Lo Lieh) is fulfilling that "eat, drink and be merry" edict at 3a.m. when Fu Hung-hsueh (Ti Lung) shows up. Fu stands immobile, a backlit silhouette, when we first see him- yet another of the aforementioned "little something extra" in the mood department shots. Fu, wearing a poncho, a la Clint Eastwood's Man With No Name, is armed with a tonfa-handled sword. Yen and Fu take up where they left off a year earlier with their "duel to the death," but are interrupted by a pair of assassins, Wood Evil (who attacks using a tree as camouflage, much like one of the ninjas in FIVE ELEMENT NINJAS) and Earth Evil (whose hands pop up out of the ground groping for ankles). Yen and Fu promptly dispatch them both, decide to join forces for a bit, and are subsequently attacked by pretty much EVERYONE in the first village they enter. The most interesting of the would-be assassins is the snaggle-toothed Devil Grandma and her two murderous grandchildren (it later turns out that Devil Grandma has a taste for Long Pig). Yen and Fu battle their way out and move on to a tavern where the motionless patrons seated about the tables are all dead. The killers are coaxed from hiding and the manslaughter begins anew. There are plenty of interesting twists and turns throughout THE MAGIC BLADE and the hunt for the mysterious Peacock Dart (kept at the Peacock Mansion, of course) is fraught with danger at every step. Ti Lung is as poised as ever throughout and Lo Lieh... Well, let's just say that he pretty much stays true to form as well.
Review of The Magic Blade
