The Golden Sword (1969)

The Golden Sword (1969). 1h 40m

“I confess, I have a soft spot for these old-fashioned Chinese Wu Xia swordplay films, especially when theyu0026#39;re happening in the fairy tale -like u0026quot;martial worldu0026quot;. At worse, theyu0026#39;re harmless and forgettable, silly little camp packages. At best, they make you wish you were a child again and seeing this for the first time, eyes wide with amazement. GOLDEN SWORD surely fell into the latter category more than the first, taking me back to the time when I was about 10 years old and literally gluttoning all kinds of adventure stories, were they films, books or comics. A damn shame these films werenu0026#39;t around in Finland back then.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI wonu0026#39;t go into the details of the story this time, suffice it to say itu0026#39;s quite typical of the genre and includes old themes of loyalty and courage, heroes defying gravity and other natures of law, a bit of intrigue and some subtle comedy, and quite well executed love story. The twists keep you interested enough, and it all has some sweet fairytale mood in it, both visually and story-wise. For some reason this reminded me very much of the Hollywood historical romance spectacles of the Hollywood in the 40u0026#39;s – 50u0026#39;s era, donu0026#39;t know exactly why. Perhaps the feeling came from the heavy use of studio sets and staging of u0026#39;outdooru0026#39; scenes, which gave the film lots of old-fashioned sweet charm. As a westerner, however, I found one very campy moment in it; there was one scene including dancing and singing that made me wish the time would fly a little faster, and / but luckily the scene was over quite quickly. In the long run, it didnu0026#39;t take the magic away from the film, and somehow also strengthened, in a good way, the 50u0026#39;s mood I just mentioned, since many of those films included these corny musical scenes. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIf youu0026#39;re looking for loads of action and detailed fighting choreography, you can forget it: fight scenes are older than old school, more of a swashbuckling lookalikes than monumental opuses of Kung Fu style introductions. For me this wasnu0026#39;t a letdown, I enjoyed the u0026#39;lighteru0026#39; approach, as it fits very well in the general style of the film.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eGOLDEN SWORD is definitely a dated Wu Xia movie, but not at all worthless in itu0026#39;s efforts. You can watch this one with quite an empty head, as it does not offer you any mind blowing philosophy, but thatu0026#39;s not a bad thing, since it doesnu0026#39;t even try. It has some eerie charm from the world and time already passed that kept me entertained and amused for the filmu0026#39;s running length. Recommended for the people who like old adventure films and want to take a quick peek at their childhood.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThis is my truth. What is yours?”