RETURN OF THE SENTIMENTAL SWORDSMAN (1981) ** ½

Return of the Sentimental Swordsman has a cool gimmick that makes it fresher and livelier than its predecessor.  Every fighter in the film is judged by a harsh ranking system and they are all well aware of their standing.  This gives them a drive to challenge and defeat any fighter they come across who happens to have a higher rank.

Ti Lung once again stars as The Sentimental Swordsman.  He is ranked third in the world for his abilities.  Although he is happily retired, that doesn’t stop every swordsman with a lower rank (not to mention a chip on their shoulder) from challenging him.  When he learns that the devious Money Clan are terrorizing the countryside, he teams up with an old buddy to stop them. 

The Sentimental Swordsman was overlong and dull and had a hard-to-follow convoluted plot.  This one threatens to follow in its footsteps early on.  Luckily, it settles down soon after and becomes a more straightforward adventure tale.  It’s not great or anything, but it’s a lot more entertaining than the first one.  It also helps that there’s a lot more fights this time around.  While the choreography is sound, the endless series of duels inevitably get a bit repetitive after a while.  

The film is seriously lacking in the cool character names department.  A name like “Silver Spear” is just too generic-sounding next to someone like “Mr. Iron Flute” from the first movie.  Fu Sheng shows up playing a guy named “Right Arm”.  Although he has a lame name, he does have a decent gimmick:  He tattoos the names of all the men he’s killed on his right arm.  Sheng also gets the best line of the movie when he tells a drunk:  “You can’t drown your sorrows; they stay afloat!”