Hot Picks

- There's No Such Thing as Zombies 2020

- Ready for My Close Up 2019

- If I Could Ride Again 2025

- Freak Off 2025

- Lavender Men 2025

- Lost Cos 2023

- Sound of the Surf 2022

- The Stillness 2025

- Frankie Freako 2024

- The Texas Witch 2025

- Cannibal Mukbang 2023

- Bleeding 2024

- No Choice 2025

- Nahual 2025

- Bitter Souls 2025

- A Very Long Carriage Ride 2025

- The Matriarch 2024

- Oxy Morons 2025

- Ed Kemper 2025

- Piglet 2025

- Walter, Grace & the Submarine 2024

- Midnight in Phoenix 2025

- Dorothea 2025

- Mauler 2025

- Consecration 2023

- The Death of Snow White 2025

- Franklin 2025

- ApoKalypse 2025

- Live and Die in East LA 2023

- A Season for Love 2025

- The Arkansas Pigman Massacre 2025

- Visceral: Between the Ropes of Madness 2012

- The Darkside of Society 2023

- Jackknife 2024

- Family Property 2: More Blood 2025

- Feral Female 2025

- Amongst the Wolves 2024

- Autumn 2023

- Bob Trevino Likes It 2024

- A Hard Place 2025

- Finding Nicole 2025

- Juliet & Romeo 2025

- Off the Line 2024

- First Moon 2025

- Healing Towers 2025

- Final Recovery 2025

- Greater Than 2014

- Self Driver 2024

- Primal Games 2025

- Grumpy 2023

- Swing Bout 2024

- Dalia and the Red Book 2024

- Project MKGEXE 2025

- Two to One 2024

- Left One Alive 2025

- Burgermen 2020

- Conspiracy of Fear 2025

- The Haunting of Heather Black 2025

- Talk of the Dead 2016

- A Killer Conversation 2014

- First Impressions Can Kill 2017

- Star Crash 1979

- Strangler of the Swamp 1946

Soul of the Sword

Hong Kong 1978
produced by
Shaw Brothers
directed by Hua Shan
starring Ti Lung, Lin Chen-chi, Ku Feng, Hsu Shiao-chiang, Lily Li

review by
Mike Haberfelner

Quick Links

Abbott & Costello

The Addams Family

Alice in Wonderland

Arsène Lupin

Batman

Bigfoot

Black Emanuelle

Bomba the Jungle Boy

Bowery Boys

Bulldog Drummond

Captain America

Charlie Chan

Cinderella

Deerslayer

Dick Tracy

Dick Turpin

Dr. Mabuse

Dr. Orloff

Doctor Who

Dracula

Edgar Wallace made in Germany

Elizabeth Bathory

Emmanuelle

Fantomas

Flash Gordon

Frankenstein

Frankie & Annette Beach Party movies

Freddy Krueger

Fu Manchu

Fuzzy

Gamera

Godzilla

Hercules

El Hombre Lobo

Incredible Hulk

Jack the Ripper

James Bond

Jekyll and Hyde

Jerry Cotton

Jungle Jim

Justine

Kamen Rider

Kekko Kamen

King Kong

Laurel and Hardy

Lemmy Caution

Lobo

Lone Wolf and Cub

Lupin III

Maciste

Marx Brothers

Miss Marple

Mr. Moto

Mister Wong

Mothra

The Munsters

Nick Carter

OSS 117

Phantom of the Opera

Philip Marlowe

Philo Vance

Quatermass

Robin Hood

The Saint

Santa Claus

El Santo

Schoolgirl Report

The Shadow

Sherlock Holmes

Spider-Man

Star Trek

Sukeban Deka

Superman

Tarzan

Three Mesquiteers

Three Musketeers

Three Stooges

Three Supermen

Winnetou

Wizard of Oz

Wolf Man

Wonder Woman

Yojimbo

Zatoichi

Zorro

Available on DVD!

To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned)

Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!

When a young boy sees a swordsman challenging Lu, the King of Swords, who is dressed all black & always keeps his face covered, but sees that man killed by Lu & his wife committing suicide right on the spot, he is deeply impressed, setting himself only one goal in life: to one day beat Lu in fight, uncover his face  become King of Swords himself. 

He trains for years to become a great swordsman, Nameless (Ti Lung), & kills many another swordsman (or -woman for that matter) - but he is always haunted by the image of the woman who killed herself at Lu's place when he was a kid. So when his only friend, healer Chiu (Ku Feng) takes him to a brothel one day, he is less interested in the prostitutes but more in a storevendor, Ho Lien (Lin Chen-chi), who he spots from the brothel's window & who is a spitting image of the suicidal woman from his childhood. But unfortunately, fellow but inferior swordsman Yien has also designs on her, so Nameless has to beat him in order to get to Ho-lien, who he then takes with him, & beds against her will. 

Soon though she does indeed fall in love with him & tries to persuade him to forget about his duel with Lu - which of course he can't. 

Meanwhile Yien makes an attempt at Nameless' life, but fails & is only saved by Ho-lien's timely intervention. Healer Chiu in the meantime tries to persuade Nameless to forget about the duel since his mind is filled with the love for Ho-lien, which would be a grave disadvantage in battle, so Nameless does the only sensible thing (well, in his mind, anyway) & kills Ho-lien (!!!). 

In the duel between Lu & Nameless, which follows almost immediately, Nameless manages to unmask Lu who turns out to be none other than healer Chiu, & because Chiu has a certain fondness for Nameless, Nameless has all the advantages he needs to beat & kill his adversary & become King of Swords. 

It is only then, with friend & girl killed by his hand, that he realizes how bitter his triumph is, & he leaves the scene disillusioned - but upon arriving back home, he is caught off-guard by Yien, who has secured the services of superior swordswoman Lady of 3 Moves, & they both violently attack him. Nameless does manage to kill them both, but at the cost of his own life.

 

Very bleak vision of the martial arts world - where titles & victories count more than friendship, even love, to a point when the guy initially presented as hero does kill his girl & his only friend just to win a duel -, that draws a very dark picture of this world even within genre conventions. Fleshed out characters, good action & careful (if conventional) direction help considerably to bring that point across.

 

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

Feeling lucky?
Want to
search
any of my partnershops yourself
for more, better results?
(commissions earned)

The links below
will take you
just there!!!

Find Soul of the Sword
at the amazons ...

USA  amazon.com

Great Britain (a.k.a. the United Kingdom)  amazon.co.uk

Germany (East AND West)  amazon.de

Looking for imports?
Find Soul of the Sword here ...

Thailand  eThaiCD.com
Your shop for all things Thai


Thanks for watching !!!

 

 

In times of uncertainty of a possible zombie outbreak, a woman has to decide between two men - only one of them's one of the undead.

 

There's No Such Thing as Zombies
starring
Luana Ribeira, Rudy Barrow and Rami Hilmi
special appearances by
Debra Lamb and Lynn Lowry

 

directed by
Eddie Bammeke

written by
Michael Haberfelner

produced by
Michael Haberfelner, Luana Ribeira and Eddie Bammeke

 

now streaming at

Amazon

Amazon UK

Vimeo

 

 

 

Robots and rats,
demons and potholes,
cuddly toys and
shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

is all of that.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to
-
a collection of short stories and mini-plays
ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic
to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle, all thought up by
the twisted mind of
screenwriter and film reviewer
Michael Haberfelner.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

the new anthology by
Michael Haberfelner

 

Out now from
Amazon!!!