Available now from Well Go USA
An orphan finds the mysterious blind swordsman from the first film and coaxes him out of retirement to train for revenge his family.
Written and directed by Bingjia Yang, this sequel (sometimes listed as a prequel) is a worthy follow up to Eye for an Eye (2022) that gives a logical reason for the blind swordsman to come out of retirement and risk his life once again. In a story clearly inspired by more classic swordsman film, the child who brings the hero out of retirement is soon taken under his protective wing and gives him an interest in life again. The story here is somewhat simple, child sees family destroyed, child seeks out help from a hero, hero reluctantly accepts to assist, people get hurts, revenge gets had. The writing and direction here work quite well for the story and for a sequel to a fun and entertaining sword film. Here, the lore is expended a bit, and the film does add new characters, good and evil, to expand the universe created previously and connect it to the child at the center of everything. The twists and turns to the story are not all surprising with some being quite predictable, especially for fans of the genre.
The cast is composed of returning Miao Xie in the lead giving a solid performance of stoic, yet not completely cold, man who has seen (or been through) a lot. He is central here, but loses the spotlight to scene-stealer Enyou Yang as orphan Zhang Xiaoyu who does great with the part, being a child with the bg emotions that entails, the annoyance that sometimes comes from being a child without life experience, and that adorableness that would send any grown adult into war mode to protect them. The rest of the cast also works quite well, giving decent performances, but Miao Xie and Enyou Yang are the center of it all and they make this their film and one that they share rather well.
One fo the main elements that appeal to this viewer (and likely many more) here is the fight choreography and the fight direction, the latter from Xiaohui Du and Pengfei Qin. Their work here is effective and has plenty to offer fans of swordfights and wuxia. The fights here shine and are up a bunch of space, as they should, to create a lot of action throughout the film. The work done here is just right for the film. Working with all of the above is cinematography which looks great here, much like for the first film, and the editing is dynamic while not going too far down the overediting rabbit hole. The fights are well shot and decently edited, and the other scenes look great.
Eye for and Eye 2: Blind Vengeance is an entertaining worthy follow-up to the first film, and it works as its own thing for those who may not have seen the first film. The story is decent, the direction works, the acting from the leads is on point with a few scenes being stolen here and there, the fights are fun, and the cinematography looks good. It’s a good second in a potential series that does make you want to maybe see more.