Notable Cast: Xie Miao, Gao Weiman, Xiang Hao, Liu Ben,
Zhang Di, Gao Yi, Zhang Haosen
“It’s a life for a life. You don’t need to take 10,000
lives. Don’t you understand that?”
In a sequence prior to the final showdown with the film’s
nemesis in Eye for an Eye, our hero Cheng is informed that one of his
cohorts has fallen. The manner in which Yang Bingjia shoots it is caked in deep
black shadow, Cheng’s back to the woman telling the story through her tears, as
he sits on his knees. The moment is intercut with the villain, Yuwen Ying,
preparing his team for the eventual showdown with a ritual in falling snow as
drums beat heavily and dancers in all-white costumes move swiftly around.
The juxtaposition between the deep black of Cheng’s pre-war
ritual and the bright whites of the Yuwen’s personal guard in the snow,
partnered with the stillness of our hero and the scattered movement of the
enemy, makes for a fascinating contrast of ideology, invoking a yin-yang style
of interconnectedness with its color scheme, and how each character is treating
how their roads will intersect. Cheng, a blind swordsman and bounty hunter,
pulls his sword from his cane while still kneeling in the darkness and opens
his eyes for the first time in the film; the paleness of his eyes pops like the
metal of his sword in the blackness. He only closes them as he sheathes the
sword once again. He might be blind, but his sword sees the truth of this
moment, opening his eyes in this split second, before being closed again. The
moment ends as it cuts to black, then cuts to Yuwen, his eyes closed, only to
open upon Cheng's arrival at his front door. No words are exchanged, and the
final bloody conflict commences.
This is the kind of moment and sequence of shots reserved
for big-budget epics and massive studio films aiming for awards recognition.
The kinds of films that premiere at prestigious film festivals or are made by
well-regarded world auteur filmmakers.
Did I mention that Eye for an Eye is a
straight-to-streaming, low-budget action flick?
The film premiered on the Chinese streaming service iQiyi and was met with strong word-of-mouth and an impressive critical response. Enough that it was eventually picked up for US distribution by Well Go USA, with a digital release on Hi-Yah! prior to a DVD and Blu-ray release in the States. It deserves it too. Despite its obstacles, it elevates its premise to one that should be considered among the best martial arts and action movies of the decade. It’s wickedly efficient with its script, impressively performed by its small, tight cast, and the action is crisply choreographed and shot to maximize its budget and performers to the best of its ability. Then, to top it off, director Yang Bingjia slathers it in a style that only grows more stylish as the film goes on, using the visuals and tone to exponentially echo the film’s themes and characters.
Certainly, there are critiques of the overall plot and
narrative of Eye for an Eye. Some of them are justified. The ‘blind
swordsman’ trope is one that media uses regularly. Film icons like Zatoichi are
memorialized in the Criterion Collection, the video game Mortal Kombat
found one of its more interesting new characters in Kenshin with his ghostly
powered blade that allows him to see, and other movies have taken the character
and pushed them into other action tropes - Donnie Yen is getting a spin off of
his John Wick character Caine and Denzel Washington go to play a similar
character in the film Book of Eli. It’s one of the reasons I’m sure the
title of this film was changed for its US release to Eye for an Eye: The
Blind Swordsman.
Yet, it works impressively here. Xie Miao, who found a second life in his career as an action star in the Chinese streaming world - which has led him to be one of the leads in this year's action opus The Furious- is ripe for the role. His face showcases the wear and tear of his career since childhood in the action film industry, punctuated by faux scars next to his eyes and a wig that could have used a bit more time to be fully realized, and his slight stature works great against the massive amounts of pressured violence that emanate from his overtly stoic stillness in the film. While others will know him now from The Furious, this might be one of his best performances, as it’s not showy and his lack of dialogue allows him to do it through small movements in his body language.
And while there’s a fantastic pairing of actor and character
at the heart of Eye for an Eye, it’s necessary for its plot. Mostly
because the plot is, at its core, a hitman-with-a-heart motif. Xie Miao is
Cheng, and he accidentally gets caught up in a corruption cover-up that ends
with a husband being slain and a wife seeking revenge. What works remarkably
well for the plotting is that Cheng is not inherently connected to it at all,
outside of the kindness of a stranger, and it makes his decision feel like this
was finally the straw that broke the camel’s back, which makes him, for the
first time in a long time, give two shits. He recruits a bit of help from an
old comrade, played by Zhang Di, who steals a ton of scenes with her cutting
banter and subdued chemistry with Xie Miao, and he starts following a trail
back to the film's big bad.
Naturally, as he follows the trail of this widowed wife
looking for justice and vengeance for her husband, he interacts with a slew of
gimmicky villains and various fighters. The grounded realism of its wuxia
elements plays incredibly well for the action sequences, pushed slightly to the
fantastical with wire work, as highlighted by an early battle with a “bird
assassin” who essentially flies and flips around the sets. The sword work is
impeccable, made even more interesting when it's revealed that the big bad,
Yuwen, is an archer. There’s a slew of great battles with various weapons and
styles, and Yang Bingjia manages to craft some incredible stunt work and fight
choreography on a limited budget. Even when the film is aiming for a moment of
bigger spectacle, say having Cheng light his sword on fire in the final act,
the film manages to power through it in small moments and not overburden the
visuals or content with too many CGI elements, which is a pleasant change of
pace.
Then, as if it were just the cherry on top of a delicious
martial arts sundae, Eye for an Eye clocks in under 80 minutes. It’s a
well-executed, gritty wuxia with plentiful action, great characters, and an
artistic slant that other directors might have let slide, and it does it with
an efficiency that one rarely sees anymore in action cinema.
If you’re looking for great wuxia-style martial arts action,
look no further than Eye for an Eye. While it certainly hits all the
points one will look for in a great action flick - enigmatic characters,
lightning pace, brisk and well-choreographed action sequences - it’s a film
that manages to incorporate thematic elements and artful choices throughout to
elevate it to that next level, particularly around its lead character. Even now
that I’ve seen the film a half-dozen times, it’s sometimes hard to believe it
was developed straight for streaming. Just goes to show you that you can’t
judge a film by its release strategy.
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