Reviews

A young woman comes to the home town of his husband after he passed away in an accident. She barely settles down in this small town, but shortly after, loses her little son in a kidnapping and all her hopes... This could lead to all kinds following plots in a normal movie: find a new partner and being happy finally; or depressed enough to struggle and finally kill herself... She does try to kill herself, but not after a series of severe fights, with God. She trusts in God, only to find that God seems to forgive everyone, even the killer. Well, I should be careful here about God, the movie doesn't mean a thing against God. The way the movie deals the issue is quite interesting: not in the woman's point of view or from God's perspective (in this way, there would be lots of grass growing, clouds flying views, I suppose). Rather, it's from a third party's eye, the movie let us to perceive and doesn't explain a thing.

The movie wouldn't be so interesting were there only the woman. There's this man who's everywhere around the woman and obviously in love with her, but in his own way. He's a funny guy, like a clown I should say, who shamelessly hangs around our heroine. The combination of these two, the woman full of tension, crying and throwing up always, and the man, smiling and talking stupidly, ends up in a good balance of emotions: nothing absurdly wrong or too tedious.

Highly recommend.

This is a quite traditional Chinese Martial film, by legendary Hong Kong director Chang Cheh. The leading man David Chiang is a superstar during 70s', you'll see his face a lot in Chang's other movies.

This movie "You Xia Er"(Wandering Swordsman, in English), is about a young man who is cheated into a trap, and fight back when he finds out later. The plot is nothing special, but the way Chang put the so called "Jiang Hu"("River and Lake", means the society for swordsmen) is marvelous. The Motel, the gamble house, the guards, everything is so real and attracting. Also the way Mr. Chiang acted as "You Xia Er", with the smile always around his mouth, like he doesn't care about anything (he does in deed), is just what I thought Chinese swordsman should look like.

Excellent movie, far more better than most of nowadays cliché martial ones.