Thursday 4 August 2022

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny (4 Stars)



When I watched this film six years ago I gave it five stars. Watching it again today, it's difficult to understand why. It's true that it has a lot in its favour. Donnie Yen and Michelle Yeoh are two outstanding actors. The film contains many spectacular fight scenes, more than "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" itself. And yet something is missing, something that's only apparent when watching the two films back to back. "Sword of Destiny" (I prefer to shorten the title) lacks the spiritual depth of the original.

"Sword of Destiny" takes place 18 years after the events of the first film. Shu Lien has lived as a recluse since the death of Li Mu Bai. Now she returns to Peking to see the legendary jade sword that used to belong to Li Mu Bai. It was in the house of Sir Te, who has recently died. Now a bandit called Hades Dai wants the sword for himself. He sends Wei Fang, his adopted son, to steal the sword. Wei Fang is captured in a fight with Shu Lien, so he sends a larger force to free him and take the sword.

Five warriors unite to defend Te's house. The leader is Silent Wolf, Shu Lien's former fiancé, who she thought was dead. He reveals that he faked his death because he knew Shu Lien loved Li Mu Bai, and he wanted them to be together. That didn't work out, as we know from "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon".

Shu Lien has a student, a young woman called Snow Vase. She's the daughter of Hades Dai, but her mother switched her with Wei Fang after her birth, because she wanted to give Hades a son. All her life Snow Vase has been searching for her half-brother (or whatever the relationship is called), not knowing his name, but she can recognise him by a birth mark.


I wouldn't say this is a bad film, but it's not a masterpiece like "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon". Curiously, it's a fake Chinese film. It looks Chinese, but it was filmed in English. With the exception of Michelle Yeoh and Donnie Yen all of the main actors are Americans or Australians of Chinese descent.

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