Movie Review: Sword With No Name

We recently watched the Korean movie: The Sword With No Name.  The Korean title of this movie is actually 불꽃처럼 나비처럼 (Bool-kkott-cheo-reom Na-bi-cheo-reom), which translates to “Like Firework, Like Butterfly.”  For a historical drama, I actually liked this movie.  Normally, I’m not very into Korean historical dramas.  They tend to bore me.  Though, this one was only very loosely based on actual Korean history.

Here is the synopsis:  Moo-myoung is a Joseon dynasty headhunter who tracks down fugitives and lives off their rewards. On one of his missions, he encounters a beautiful noble lady, Ja-young, and falls in love with her.  Ja-young is on her way to the royal palace as the next queen of Joseon. Lovesick Moo-myoung becomes the personal guard to the queen in order to be closer to Ja-young and protect her. After attaining the title of queen, Ja-young tries to modernize the dynasty by allying with foreign nations but becomes turmoiled into a political power struggle. Moo-myoung must fend off devastating threats from the foreign army in order to protect Ja-young from harm.

The plot is based on the story of Empress MyeonSeong, who is a national figure in Korea.  Of course, the romantic plot of this movie is made up, and the high flying CG action scenes are a little unbelievable sometimes.  But, I felt like the two main characters had good chemistry and I cried at the end of the movie (I’ll try not to give any spoilers).  I almost felt like it would have been better to go with the original Korean title for the U.S. release of the film since the butterfly imagery and symbolism throughout would have made more sense that way.  But, I guess I can see why they went with Sword with No Name since it sounds more action-y.  Plus, since Moo-Myeong translates into something like “No Name” and he is her “sword” that makes sense as well.

Su Ae, who plays Ja-Young, does an amazing job.  She speaks so regally, and certainly fit the role of Queen/Empress very well.  I also enjoyed Cho Seung-woo’s portrayal of Moo-Myeong–The Sword.  With tons of high-flying Crouching Tiger-esque action, this film is sure to keep the audience’s interest.  I’m definitely going to have to get this one on Blu-ray just to see how gorgeous the fight scenes are in HD.

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