I've seen over a dozen wuxia films, but the only ones that are worth watching were released after the new millennium: House of Flying Daggers (2004), Hero (2002), and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (2000).

Everything else I've seen has been an utter waste of my time: The Bride With White Hair (1993), A Man Called Hero (1999), Storm Riders (1998), Ashes of Time (1994), A Chinese Odyssey Part 2 (1994), Butterfly Sword (1993), and A Chinese Ghost Story (1987) to name a few. There have been some bad films made post-2000 (e.g., 2005's The Promise), but the pre-2000 wuxia library is thoroughly horrible. Even more disturbing is that these films are hideous for the same exact reasons:

1) Awful screenplay. 2) Atrocious action choreography. 3) Dreadful editing.

The Bride With White Hair is not exempt from these common wuxia pitfalls. The screenplay simply fails to properly develop the romantic relationship between the two leads. They spoon each other in a mini waterfall for 10 minutes, and the viewer is supposed to be convinced that they care for each other. It's not convincing in the least. In fact, the script writers contradict themselves near the end of the film when the two leads do everything in their power to desert one another. Their actions are beyond stupid, as they inexplicably begin to doubt one another on speculative events that are promulgated from the institutions and persons that they initially abandoned for the sole purpose of being together. There is no reason for them to give a rat's arse about these people anymore, yet the male lead sides with them without hesitation. At that point, I wanted both leads to die for counterfeiting the very idea of love.

The action choreography is non-existent in The Bride With White Hair. A character waves their sword or whip at the camera, which immediately cuts to show an enemy instantly die. Repeat ad infinitum. The final fight is laughable when two siamese twins (connected at the back) grab hold of one of the protagonists and bounce around the room like a superball. Interestingly, the sub-par editing is directly related to the fight scenes themselves. It's much easier to cut up the movie on an ad hoc basis to gloss over the unimaginative character interactions in combat, instead of mapping out fight scenes and brainstorming over fresh combinations of moves and maneuvers. There's really nothing else to say other than the obvious fact that no effort was put into the action set pieces, and it shows.

It would seem that filmmakers within the wuxia genre showed almost no development or improvement before the year 2000. It is thus important that this review exists to inform readers of the futility inherent in watching wuxia films released during that period of time. Nearly twenty reviews of The Bride With White Hair exist, almost all of them overwhelmingly positive, but the reasoning behind these high ratings is dubious at best. The pre-2000 wuxia camp seems to consist solely of fanboys who will eat up anything and everything released under that particular genre's banner.

As a fan of East Asian cinema, I think that this is a disservice to new viewers who are attempting to make the transition to better cinema. They may hit a pre-2000 wuxia film and go running (perhaps screaming) back to Hollywood.