One of Donnie’s efforts from recent years, The Lost Bladesman is loosely based on Guan Yu, a general who served under Liu Bei in the last Eastern Han Dynasty in China (in the early 200’s).
We start at the end, with the Emperor’s main man Cao Cao receiving the head of Guan Yu (Donnie Yen). After some quick chatter, we are told of Guan Yu’s story back some 20 years ago. It begins when he is separated from his sword brother Liu Bei, and his currently a prisoner of Cao Cao.
He isn’t treated like a prisoner, as he serves under him even killing a warlord to stop the fighting. Cao Cao sees tremendous value in Guan Yu and tries his best to keep him under his command, but Liu Bei’s allegiance is so strong that he refuses.
Inevitably Cao Cao learns of Guan Yu’s love for Liu Bei’s fiancee Qilan and tries to drug them both, and set Guan Yu up (to unintentionally rape the temporarily paralyzed Qilan) so that his loyalty to Liu Bei is strained.
However, Guan Yu’s honor is so strong that he manages to avoid taking any action, due to his will to be loyal. He then decides to leave and is told by Cao Cao he will be able travel freely. But an order is issued by someone else to kill Guan Yu.
So he and Qilan must travel and avoid being killed, leading to some cool Donnie Yen fight scenes and kung fu action.
Loyalty above all!
Guan Yu is seen as a powerful person to have on side in a time of war, yet he is fiercely loyal and morally driven. He shows strong love to Qilan which is repressed by his loyalty and morality, even as (spoiler) she throws herself at him. It makes for an interesting character and a good performance by Donnie Yen.
Just as entertaining is Guan Yu’s ability to be so seemingly soft in nature, but step up and kick some ass when called upon!
It makes for a relatively interesting character and a cool film to watch with the visual touch a lot of big modern Hong Kong movies are able to produce so well. The use of colors in some of the locations in the film really make this movie stand out.
It doesn’t have the same ability to suck you in like Ip Man or some of Donnie’s other films, but it’s not too bad. The story isn’t exactly ‘deep’ bu it’s not so shallow that you watch it only for the action.
It does a decent job at portraying a historical figure in true action movie style.
The Action & Martial Arts
This isn’t Donnie Yen’s best work, but being from Donnie it’s still packs a serious punch.
Most of the fights are weapon based with Guan Wu slicing people up with his blade and the blades of his enemies. The movement has a lot of contrast and managed to extend the visual style of such a fight to something a bit more impressive.
Donnie does a good job of keeping the movements sweeping and fast, with great impact as characters are thrown through walls and generally dispensed of in impressive fashion.
I was a little disappoint that there seemed to be no built up finale that I’ve come to expect from these action packed films, but there’s plenty throughout the guts of the film to keep you glued to the screen.
Overall plenty of fights with quality work make a solid movie with the Donnie Yen style infused into it. Not one of his best but still pretty nice. Check it out if you’re a Yen fan!
On Blu Ray –
Region A (US & Canada)
The Lost Bladesman Blu-Ray
Region B (UK, Australia, New Zealand, Europe etc)
The Lost Bladesman [Blu-ray]
On DVD –
Region 2 (UK, Europe, etc)
The Lost Bladesman [DVD]
Region 4 (Australia, New Zealand, etc)
The Lost Bladesman
