Bastard Swordsman is such an amazing movie. It has great characters, an interesting story, excellent fight scenes, and beautiful art direction. Just hearing the theme song gets me excited to watching it again. Bastard Swordsman is easily one of my favorite Hong Kong movies from the 80’s and one my favorite fantasy swordplay movies. I was excited to finally get to see the sequel, Return of the Bastard Swordsman, which was released a year after the original. It features most of the same actors from the first and many more guest stars. Return is even more outrageous and more star-studded than the original, but is it better?
Return of the Bastard Swordsman starts where the last film left off. Yun Fei Yang (Norman Chu), after defeating Fu Yu Shu, becomes a wanderer and travels with his new wife, Lun Wan Er (Leanne Lau). Dugu Wudi (Alex Man) returns to Wu Tang to have his arranged duel with Yun Fei Yang. But since Yun Fei Yang isn’t there, he threatens to kill everyone at Wu Tang unless he has his duel. A student from Wu Tang tries to find Yun Fei Yang to bring him back to Wu Tang with the help of a fortune teller (Lau Wing). Meanwhile, an evil Japanese overlord (Chen Kuan Tai) plans to kill off all of the Chinese clans that stand in his way.
Return of the Bastard Swordsman starts where the last film left off. Yun Fei Yang (Norman Chu), after defeating Fu Yu Shu, becomes a wanderer and travels with his new wife, Lun Wan Er (Leanne Lau). Dugu Wudi (Alex Man) returns to Wu Tang to have his arranged duel with Yun Fei Yang. But since Yun Fei Yang isn’t there, he threatens to kill everyone at Wu Tang unless he has his duel. A student from Wu Tang tries to find Yun Fei Yang to bring him back to Wu Tang with the help of a fortune teller (Lau Wing). Meanwhile, an evil Japanese overlord (Chen Kuan Tai) plans to kill off all of the Chinese clans that stand in his way.
Despite its title, Return of the Bastard Swordsman, I thought it was pretty disappointing that Norman Chu’s barely in this movie. He’s incredibly underused, especially since his character first appears about 20 minutes in. And when he finally has his first fight scene, he goes into a coma and only has another fight at the end. The characters that we do get are fun to watch. It’s very interesting that Lau Wing, who played the main villain in the first film, is now playing the protagonist. But still, the film’s story is a bit too simple and sometimes seems out of focus. So much was going on and I felt that some scenes weren’t that important.
Much like the original, this film does have a lot of its trademark WTF moments. The scenes with Chen Kuan Tai, in particular, are just crazy. The scenes in which he uses he evil Japanese powers are both cheesy and unrealistic, but there are also unfittingly disturbing. Also, the fight scenes in this movie simply aren’t as good as they were in the first. But I sometimes think the fight scenes are a bit too infrequent at times. Even the finale is a bit anticlimactic.
Much like the original, this film does have a lot of its trademark WTF moments. The scenes with Chen Kuan Tai, in particular, are just crazy. The scenes in which he uses he evil Japanese powers are both cheesy and unrealistic, but there are also unfittingly disturbing. Also, the fight scenes in this movie simply aren’t as good as they were in the first. But I sometimes think the fight scenes are a bit too infrequent at times. Even the finale is a bit anticlimactic.
Despite a few flaws, this movie still has a lot to admire. Like I said earlier, the main characters are a lot of fun, despite Norman Chu being sorely underused. The art direction in this film is also amazing. It has atmospheric sets and a great music score, much like the original. There’s even enough exciting moments to take your mind off of this movie’s shortcomings. Even though the action scenes might not be as good as the first, there are still a ton of fun to watch.
Norman Chu’s fight towards the middle with Alex Man is probably my favorite part of the entire film. The set looks amazing, the choreography is great, it has that awesome theme song. When I heard that theme song come up, I lost my mind. I was so excited. There are also plenty of wonderfully cheesy moments in this movie, which is partially why some people watched the original in the first place, and thankfully, Norman Chu gets to use his Silkworm Skill in this movie again.
Norman Chu’s fight towards the middle with Alex Man is probably my favorite part of the entire film. The set looks amazing, the choreography is great, it has that awesome theme song. When I heard that theme song come up, I lost my mind. I was so excited. There are also plenty of wonderfully cheesy moments in this movie, which is partially why some people watched the original in the first place, and thankfully, Norman Chu gets to use his Silkworm Skill in this movie again.
I do think that Return of the Bastard Swordsman is an inferior film compared to the original, but that’s only because I love the original so much. Return is still a terrific movie. It has fun action and characters, but don’t expect a lot of action or a lot of Norman Chu. If you’ve seen the first, it’d make sense to watch this one too. I do think this movie is a little disappointing, but it's still a lot of fun.
Images from HKMDb and HK Cinemagic
Images from HKMDb and HK Cinemagic