Rusty Blade (2022)

Rusty Blade (2022)
Chinese Title: 千里不留行
Translation: A Thousand Miles Without Leaving

Starring: Su Zhenhua, Xiao Cong, Liu Chuxuan, Wang Cheng, Yang Yunxi, Wang Zhao, Muhtar, Liang Tingwei
Director: Sun Huyi, Song Xiaobai
Action Director: n/a

I spend an inordinate amount of time watching recent Mainland kung fu movies and then writing multi-paragraph reviews talking about how much they suck. But there's always the hope that I might find a small gem, much like how I spend a lot of time watching lesser-known basher films for the same reason. So color me happy when I find one that doesn't make me want to stab someone, or turn their school signboard upside down. Rusty Blade is not the greatest wuxia film ever made, but it does its job well enough to put it head and shoulders, and maybe half a torso, above most of its contemporaries.

"Monster Sword" Lin Da-Wei (Su Zhenhua) is a bounty hunter in the employ of the Ming Dynasty, more specifically the magistrate of the northwestern town of Taiping. He eventually becomes a subordinate of the magistrate and settles down to start a family, marrying a pretty woman named Wan Yu (Liu Chuxuan) and having a daughter named Ping'er (who'll be played as a teen by Yang Yunxi). His life is not idyllic, however. Being the Ming Dynasty [1], the corrupt (or not?) magistrate prefers to pay his employees in fabric instead of actual silver. And the local merchants have stopped accepting fabric as a means of payment.

When Wan Yu gets sick, Da-Wei takes a dance with the devil to pay for treatment. He joins his former bounty hunter colleagues, led by Lu Qian (Wang Cheng?), to attack the crime boss who runs the local salt and iron smuggling operations: Jin Mantang. During their assault on Jin's household, Da-wei accidentally kills Jin's wife. Lu Qian stabs Mantang, but doesn't finish the job. After the job, Lu Qian bargains with the local eunuch to assume the post of Constable, not to mention the de facto head of the iron and salt smuggling operations. Meanwhile, Lin Da-Wei becomes the fall guy and is sent into exile for ten years. When Da-Wei finally returns, he'll have to deal with the fallout of his crimes on his family, the deception of his buddy, and finally Jin Mantang, who is not dead and has teamed up with one of Da-Wei's dueling rivals.

Rusty Blade is an interesting story about the things man does in desperation, and what happens to those around us when we sacrifice our ideals and principles, even for an arguably "good" cause. Da-Wei really just wants to live in peace with his wife and daughter, but the infamous Ming Dynasty penny pinching puts him in a rather unenviable situation. Despite his wife's pleas do things honestly, he has a momentary hiccup of principles, which have grave consequences on him and his family, not to mention others. The final fight is not one of redemption, but of owning up to your mistakes and facing the consequences. It is not cowardice to want to put down your sword and step away from the violence, but causing the violence and wanting to shy away from it is indeed hypocritical.

The acting is solid, although it's as stoic as most post-CTHD wuxia movies tend to be. Su Zhenhua puts in a good performance as Lin Da-Wei, a wise and seasoned fighter who has to pay for a momentary lapse of judgment. While usually underplaying his character, he does have some moments of explosive emotion near the end, when he has to confront Lu Qian and the latter's motives for choosing Da-Wei as the scapegoat. Liu Chuxuan also puts in a compelling performance as Lin's long-suffering, but ultimately faithful, wife. She loves her husband, even if his actions went against all of her loving counsels and put the family in a tough spot for an entire decade.

The action is refeshing in that there are no wires or CGI used. At. All. There are several fight scenes in the first half, but the film then settles down into character interactions until the last fifteen minutes, when Lin Da-Wei finally faces his destiny. Lin Da-Wei's nickname stems from the fact that his weapon looks more like a German longsword, or a claymore, than your typical red-tasseled jian. Several of the characters wield similar blades throughout the movie, too. The choreography feels like the fight directors were studying Western films about knights and German fencing manuals than your standard balletic wuxia films...you know, the stuff you'd get from Tony Ching Siu-Tung or Ma Yuk-Sing. The fights are well mounted, and may remind some of Tsui Hark's The Blade, sans the quick cuts and intrusive edits. While not on that film's level in terms of storytelling or theme deconstruction, Rusty Blade does make for a stark contrast with the big-budget CGI wuxia and xianxia movies that the PRC has been churning out as of late.

 

[1] - I once read an article of a Ming emperor who stockpiled silver and never used it, even when there were natural disasters all over the empire that required government investment in emergency supplies. Apparently, the entire stockpile rotted away (or corroded or whatever happened to silver taels when left alone too long).