What a delight. Tsui Hark had the guts to do an "arty" martial-arts flick in a time when Hong Kong's cinemas were filled with boring street dramas and uninspired movies made by temporary Wong Kar-wai wannabes. THE BLADE is simply the best Hong Kong film of 1995. The directing is mind blowing and the mood is very dark, very "violent". Obviously inspired by the critical success of "CHUNGKING EXPRESS", Tsui Hark (like many other directors of that time) tried to do a film for a thinking audience. Unfortunately for him (and for us), "THE BLADE" was a big flop in Hong Kong. the critics kind of liked it but HK audience were not in the mood for such a film. Too bad...

[Reviewed by Martin Sauvageau]