A blind bounty hunter stops by a woman’s house to rest and wine. Soon, he finds himself involved in her revenge against those who have wronged her.
Written and directed by Bingjia Yang, Eye for an Eye: The Blind Swordsman is a film that has modern touches on an old school style story that brings revenge, martial arts, and swordplay together for a fun period piece that isn’t shy about its violence. The story does start off with a massacre and rape, the latter of which is absolutely not necessary here, a gripe often had with many films, something that could have been alluded to or even removed completely with very little effect on the story and its evolution. The story, besides this unnecessary event, is decent and works well here. The characters have stakes and plenty reasons for the revenge to take place, the lead, our blind swordsman, is a flawed man of honor who sees injustice and must fix it, even if that means killing people. The story here is one that feels like we’ve seen it many times before, but it works, so why fix what isn’t broken? Of course, this does lead to some expected turns in the story, but this film has a well written script that leads to everything working even when some of the turns are expected.
The cast here is good, with Miao Xie in the lead, doing strong work as a blind character with solid sword training. The role has some challenges, and he makes them work well. His performance here is a good one for the film to rely on. Playing the lady at the center of the revenge plot is Weiman Gao who is charming, vulnerable, and strong in her performance, giving her character more than meets the eye. She works well with Miao xie here. The rest of the cast is also quite good, giving performances that work with the wuxia nature of the film, working with the period piece aspect and the fight beautifully well.
The cinematography here is credited to 3 people: Chi Jia, Wanyi Liu, and Xiaofeng Zhao. This team works together seamlessly here, in a way that it’s easy to think that only one person took care of the cinematography. The film here looks beautiful with some solid camera work and decent to excellent effects. There are a few moments where the visual effects aren’t perfect (or perhaps how the scenes were filmed and edited led there), but it is rare and easy to ignore.
Eye for an Eye: The Blind Swordsman is an entertaining film with a few scenes that could have been skipped. In general though, it’s a strong entry in the wuxia world and gives plenty to watch and watch for. The story is basic in a traditional revenge film way and it works. The film overall is one that works with every department doing more than good with their work, leading to a solid film.