Sword Stained With Royal Blood

Sword Stained with Royal Blood (Bi Xie Jian) (1981)

Runtime: 105 minutes

Directed by: Chang Cheh

Starring: Philip Kwok Chun-Fung, Candy Wen Xue-Er, Ching Li, Lung Tien-Hsiang, Chiang Sheng

From: Shaw Brothers

Last night, I discovered that there could be a Manic Pixie Dream Girl in a wuxia film.

OK, how I'll use that term here does not fit the accepted definition perfectly; it'll be used anyway to note that I HATE that character archetype or any that has a woman (or man) act extremely irrational and constantly change their opinion. In this movie-based on a famous wuxia novel, so it's been adapted several times-the lead girl was one I could not stand. I mean, I have a shorter than usual review on Letterboxd of (500) Days of Summer where I discussed it a few years after suffering through it once just so I could note how much I loathed the film, from it doing something poorly that Annie Hall did much better, to how noxious it was in general, to how much I could NOT stand Summer. A character like this is so repellent to me that it will determine what films I do and don't see, based on word of mouth.

To clarify, the lead here is a noble young man named Yuan who grows up in an isolated location and is good-hearted, although naive. The lead girl is someone who cosplays as a man yet her gender is obvious; that is not a demerit as it's not even the only Shaw Brothers joint I've seen which does this... Come Drink with Me does also. My issue was that her behavior was a turn-off. She did many things I did not care for but the biggest problem was that for at least 20 minutes straight, she was all, “Oh hey, we're brothers now! Oh wait, you despise me! Whoops nevermind, we're brothers again... darn it, now I know I despise you!” That really soured me on the film as it grew incredibly tiresome; the rest of the plot wasn't the best yet it was fine. Yuan finds a treasure map although looking for said treasure was an incredibly minor plot point. Rather, he gets mixed up with villains who are also looking for the treasure.

As this was from Chang Cheh it was just assumed I would enjoy this quite a bit more... the other 8 I had seen were at the worst “pretty good.” This still has the expected nice sets & cinematography along with solid action/fighting (even if it gets too over the top at times) so it is rather likely others will derive more enjoyment out of this than I did. The worst part of it all: this was only seen because someone on a messageboard plugged it real hard after stumbling upon it while going through Cheh's filmography recently. I now feel like a heel for defecating on something he really enjoyed yet I don't want to fib and not tell the truth, re: my true feelings. It is consolation to me that in the upcoming months the more famous Shaw Brothers pictures I haven't viewed yet will be watched; as long as no one in them acts like Zooey Deschanel there should be no problem...