On DVD: The Legend of the Shadowless Sword Is a Fun Marvel

You ever see a film on DVD that you just regret the hell out of never getting to see in a theater? That's The Legend of the Shadowless Sword, a lavish, big-budget South Korean martial arts epic from 2005. This is a film that strives to combine some of the best elements of the wuxia genre while also drawing inspiration from anime, old samurai films and classic Hong Kong cinema. As much as my recent review of Doomsday tells of that film wearing its influences on its sleeve, The Legend of the Shadowless Sword tries to conceal its influences, but only just enough. It's a riotous kung-fu fantasy epic that delivers on all fronts.

When an aggressive neighboring kingdom assassinates the king and every member of the royal family, a trained assassin is dispatched to find and escort home a long deposed prince in exile for 14 years. Unfortunately for the young assassin, the young prince has his own plans which have nothing to do with returning. As if that weren't bad enough, a legendary group of warriors called the Killer Blade Army have been dispatched to kill him so he cannot return. Add in plenty of plot twists, intertwining character histories, the ability to fly, and buckets and buckets of blood and you have a visual marvel that is a kung-fu genre treat.

If you consider wuxia a passing fad and quickly tired of the magical abilities and wirework, this movie will drive you up the wall. It isn't long before people are soaring through the air, kicking holes in concrete and surviving impossible situations. And that's even before you get to the parts in which single sword cuts can cause six different gushers of blood from a body. But once it gets going, the movie is pretty much nonstop action as the two on-the-run heroes must constantly face off against villainous thugs with a slew of magical powers.

A combination of wirework, practical FX and gorgeous CGI sequences, Shadowless Sword is incredible to look at and a joy to take in. But ultimately it feels more like a live-action anime film than it does most Wuxia. While Wuxia tends to be over the top (as it is pretty much kung-fu fantasy), it usually isn't this bloody or strange about its use of blood. This has almost zero grounding in any type of reality, which is part of what I love about it. But those who are not fans of this type of movie will get bored or annoyed by it.

Now available on DVD in North America from New Line Home Entertainment, this disc has a couple of neat extras. Each of the three main actors introduces his or her character and talks about their approach to playing them and the influences that inspired them. There's also the compulsory making-of and a music video. Although my favorite part is that is one of the many titles coming to disc with a free, downloadable digital copy. I am absolutely loving the fact that many films, particularly the genre favorites you want to watch over and over again, are trying out this new anti-piracy measure.

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