Review: Memories of the Sword.

Memories of the Sword is a period action drama directed by Park Heung-sik and stars Lee Byung-hun, Jeon Do-yeon, and Kim Go-eun as the three lead roles.

The movie revolves around the teenage swordsman Hong-ee (Kim Go-eun), daughter of a rebel named Poong-cheon, who seeks revenge against the people who killed her parents, one of whom is Yoo-baek (Lee Byung-hun), a military general who is on the path to becoming the most powerful man in Goryeo.

Memories of the Sword leans more into the, well, drama side of action-drama. It's a film focused around tragedy and ancient politics and a bunch of backstory for the main villains of the film.

The editing is just, bad, for the first half of the film at least. The scenes were strung together in such a way that it was very hard to follow and the pacing suffered from it too in my opinion, and I definitely needed to pause and soak in the film every now and then to go figure out what I just watched.

But as it progressed I do personally think it got better, it became a lot easier to follow and was way more coherent after the first 60-90 minutes passed.

The action is good for the most part, wuxia style wire assisted action with superhuman leaps into the air thrown into the mix, but it's hampered by the way it was shot. Camera is too close, they change angles and cut too many times, there is an over reliance on slow motion. It never fully let me appreciate the action as I never got to see it in full.

Despite this, nearing the end of the film it definitely got better. Camerawork was more of a solid fluid shot with little angle changes or cuts, it was far from the characters and allowed me to properly see the fight itself, and while there was still slow motion it definitely felt more like an artistic choice and did enhance the final few scenes in my opinion.

My personal favorite part of this film is that it focuses more on Deuk-gi/Yoo-baek and his lover Seol-rang instead of Hong-ee, and I like how the film adds layers to their characters as the film progresses through the numerous flashbacks.

They give a lot of character to the two and I appreciate that they gave them depth beyond just being pure evil. Sure, Deuk-Gi/Yoo-baek is a vile villain, but they succeeded in giving him more personality than just "I want power!" And being a tyrannical general.

And I did enjoy Lee Byung-hun's acting in this film, his performance was a major standout to me. He really settled in his character and role and it felt natural seeing his portrayal and I do get to an extent why he ended up playing more villainous roles later in his career.

The story of the film is definitely it's biggest strength, I was very invested in the film, primarily through Lee Byung-hun's performance as he had a lot of the best scenes in the film and the flashbacks with him and Seol-rang were, despite the pacing and weird editing, the best part of the film as I enjoyed seeing how he used to be more human before going down this route of tyranny and his obsession of getting in power.

I definitely recommend this film to fans of historical dramas, it's a kinda boring but pretty good 2 hour film.

I do apologize for the state of this review. I slept right after I watched it and didn't really get to process it too well.

That's all for now, Love and Peace!