Director Yang Bingjia has done fantastic for himself with actor Xie Miao in front of the lens. Bringing to life the kind of role proffered in 2022’s Eye For An Eye: The Blind Swordsman, bares a weight of significant challenge – the most crucial one being keeping the archetype fresh. Undoubtedly, Yang does manage to keep the pace up in his latest sequel, Eye For An Eye 2: Blind Vengeance.
The sequel returns us to the path journeyed by Blind Cheng (Xie), a Tang Dynasty “ghostkiller” – a.k.a. bounty hunter, whose former toils as an army lieutenant often trail him in his escapades to avoid trouble. As is the case with this particular archetype, trouble eventually always seems to find him. In this case, it takes its form in Xiaoyu (Yang Enyou), an orphan left vengeful after witnessing the murder of her special-needs brother at the hands of Li Jiulang (Huang Tao), a murderous government official and his vicious gang.
Yang’s sequel will grow fond on anyone who’s grown up with Zatoichi or the Lone Wolf And Cub films in their playlists, or even screen legend Jet Li’s in his heyday, role in The New Legend Of Shaolin courting a nine year-old Xie as his scene partner. That aesthetic rubs off on you heartily if the nostalgia isn’t lost on you, while director Yang lives up to the legacy in furthering his blind, stoic protagonist to fruition.
Young actress Enyou’s performance lends both poignance and physicality in key areas. Her role of Xiaoyu proves tenacious in shadowing the would-be savior in Cheng, whom she hopes will help train her to take revenge. Reluctance be damned, that effort takes an evolution in several ways, one in which she makes a deal to stay under her wing and be his eyes, in exchange for never bringing up revenge again. At this point, her practice weapon is a paint brush, which I thought was a brilliant plot device.
Even more importantly, the story explores how despite Cheng’s own dismissive disposition at times, there’s just no getting around to being the right man at the right time to save someone’s life at the risk of his own. This aspect plays heavy when Xiaoyu often goes astray and takes desperate measures to get the job done, even if it means breaking into a room full of explosives only to get caught, not knowing if she’d make it out alive. One scene lays clear how grave the stakes are for Cheng after hearing how close she’d gotten to her brother’s killer at one point, with the possibility of getting her revenge if she had the right training.
Of course, that job goes squarely to the man himself, with Xie rightly in his action star element, and under the stewardship of action directors Du Xiaohui, and Qin Pengfei, the latter who worked with director Yang on the first film. Smartly choreographed and shot with ample violence enough to be bloody without being too gory, Eye For An Eye 2: Blind Vengeance won’t hinder your view at Xie’s latest sequel role in the least. Rather, one hopes that even with the suggestive ending at hand, that we get a third. Fingers crossed!
Eye For An Eye 2: Blind Vengeance arrives on March 4 on Digital, as well as Blu-Ray and DVD which will feature an all-new English dub. The film is also currently streaming exclusively on Hi-YAH!.
