Wednesday, July 26, 2017

PERILS OF THE SENTIMENTAL SWORDSMAN (1982) **


Ti Lung returns for the third and final Sentimental Swordsman movie.  It’s not really a sequel because Lung seems to be playing an entirely different character this time around.  While it has some cool cinematography and goofy moments, it’s definitely a step down from Return of the Sentimental Swordsman.

Ghost Mansion is a mysterious fog-shrouded den of villains and thieves.  It’s Lung’s mission to infiltrate the mansion and take down the bad guys.  Along the way, he gets caught up in an assassination attempt and must do battle with several colorful and bizarre characters.

Perils of the Sentimental Swordsman contains much more violence than the first two entries in the series.  The deaths are gorier too (a guy stabs someone with a handful of chopsticks) and some parts look like they came out of a horror movie.  That doesn’t necessarily make it better though.  

The fights are a lot more stylized this time around, but many of the fighters’ gimmicks are just plain silly (like the killer bell).  There’s also a gay fighter called “Kissing Cousin” that’s supposed to be funny.  There are other moments of comic relief (like a “ghost” moving a piece of chicken around), but they aren’t very funny either. 

The good news is that Perils features characters with cool names.  This was an area in which Return was sorely lacking.  There were a lot of good names to choose from in this one, but I think my favorite was “White-Haired Devil”.

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