THE BLADE: Big Bad Film Fest And Gardena Cinemas Launches Monthly Screening Series With Tsui Hark Classic This Month!
It’s been several years since the Big Bad Film Fest took off to a great deal of vigor, launching a new corner of the festival map with a sharp focus on action cinema that’s still growing its audience. As the festival gears up for its fourth edition, action fans in Gardena, California can look forward to a new tangential effort by the festival in association with Gardena Cinema for a monthly film series that kicks off on February 23.
The first film in the series will be director Tsui Hark’s The Blade, a 1995 wuxia thriller starring Vincent Zhao and Xiong Xin Xin. The screening will be ceremonial as it revvs up the impeding 4K disc release by Criterion who announced the package back in December. It’s also one of Hark’s memorable best with Zhao front and center if you’ve ever seen him on screen in films like Fong Sai-Yuk, The Blacksheep Affair, True Legend, God Of War, or even Fist Power. Understandably not everyone was a fan of Patrick Leung’s Wu Dang but Zhao is tops in that one as well.
When a master sword-maker adopts the son of a murdered friend, the boy learns the master’s craft well. As a young man he learns about his fathers death at the hand of a mysterious tattooed killer (Xiong-Xin-Xin). He takes fathers broken blade and sets out to seek vengeance. The daughter, Ling, follows but is caught in a bloody ambush. When he tries to rescue her, his arm is hacked off in the battle and he is believed dead by all except Ling and his friend who set out in search of him.
Dunno about the rest of you but I look forward to owning my copy seeing as I don’t live in or near the area for this. If you do and wanna see some cool Hong Kong cinema on the big screen, then head over here and act accordingly. The festival touts free parking at the location as well so… get going!
Native New Yorker. Been writing for a long time now, and I enjoy what I do. Be nice to me!
