Swordsman 4K Blu-ray Movie
HomeSwordsman 4K Blu-ray Movie 
Siu ngo gong woo / Xiao ao jiang hu / 笑傲江湖 / Hong Kong Cinema Classics #30 / 4K Ultra HD + Blu-rayShout Factory | 1990 | 118 min | Not rated | Mar 03, 2026
Price
Movie rating
6.9 | / 10 |
Blu-ray rating
| Users |  | 0.0 |
| Reviewer |  | 4.0 |
| Overall | | 4.0 |
Overview
Swordsman 4K (1990)
During the middle of the Ming Dynasty in China, the royal court is controlled by powerful eunuchs. The Story begins when the 'Sunflower Scripture' is suddenly stolen from the Forbidden City. In order to avoid any scandal, head eunuch Koo Jin-foo appoints Cho Leng-tsan to investigate. The investigation leads Cho to a dye factory in Fukien, whose owner Lin Tsun-nan is indeed responsible for the theft. Lin sets up explosive devices all over the factory and plans of annihilating Cho and his men. Just at this moment, young swordsman 'Fox' and his colleague Yue Lin-shan visit Lin, and enter the factory surprisingly unharmed. But when Cho steps in, Fox accidentally ignites the explosives, and they go off earlier than planned.
Starring: Samuel Hui, Cecilia Yip, Jacky Cheung, Sharla Cheung, Siu-Ming LauDirector: King Hu, Ching Siu-tung, Tsui Hark, Ann Hui, Raymond Lee (II)
| Foreign | Uncertain |
| Action | Uncertain |
| Period | Uncertain |
| Romance | Uncertain |
Specifications
Video
Video codec: HEVC / H.265
Video resolution: 4K (2160p)
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Audio
Cantonese: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono
Subtitles
English
Discs
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (2 BDs)
4K Ultra HD
Playback
Region A (B, C untested)
Review
Rating summary
| Movie | | 4.0 |
| Video | | 4.0 |
| Audio |  | 4.5 |
| Extras |  | 3.0 |
| Overall | | 4.0 |
Swordsman 4K Blu-ray Movie Review
Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson April 22, 2026Swordsman (original title: Siu ngo gong woo, 1990) is being released as part of Shout! Studio's four-disc box set, The Swordsman Trilogy.
Did Tsui Hark's Film Workshop have too many cooks when it was preparing the wuxia siu sung (main course) that became Swordsman? A total of six directors worked on the picture: King Hu, Ching Siu-Tung, Tsui Hark, Raymond Lee, Ann Hui, and Andrew Kam. The translated titles on Shout!'s restored print reads: "Directed by King Hu". But this credit is terribly misleading. There's debate from the film's crew and an actor on the Blu-ray about how much Hu involvement had in the production. Ditto for Hong Kong cinema scholars. For instance, in his expansive book Planet Hong Kong: Popular Cinema and the Art of Entertainment (Irvington Way Institute Press, 2011, 2nd ed.), David Bordwell writes that Hu began directing Swordsman but departed following "disagreements" with Tsui Hark (p. 161). In his book Hong Kong Cinema: The Extra Dimensions (BFI, 1997), Stephen Teo reasons that Hu griped about "Tsui's interference" (p. 95). Lisa Morton writes in her book-length study The Cinema of Tsui Hark (McFarland, 2001) that Hu exited the production following ten days of work and without a single frame of footage he shot survived the final cut! All of this should disprove the rumor that King Hu left midway through the project. Moreover, when Swordsman played briefly in Los Angeles in 1990, critic David Chute received info from what sounds like a trusted source that Tsui was the movie's “acting director” and “90 percent” of the finished product belongs to him. Still, it's fair to say that Hu was a creative contributor to Swordsman but his degree of involvement seems moderate.
Whatever stylistic flourishes remain of King Hu in Swordsman (there are tangibly some if you have at least a little familiarity with his oeuvre), the narrative's pacing is different than what Hu originally planned. The impression I got after watching the second disc's interviews is Hu wanted the story to unfold at a more leisurely pace. The converse occurs as the tightly edited scenes lack any long takes. Tsui presents the action at a breakneck rate with rapid-fire speech.
As the film opens, the manual is pilfered from the Imperial Library. The lead eunuch from the Royal Eunuchs commences with a wide search. There are many clans in the story's setting (16th-century China) and any of them could be a suspect. On the hunt is Ling Hu-ching (Samuel Hui) and his assistant, Yue Lin-Shan (aka "Kiddo," whose portrayed by Cecilia Yip), each from the Wah Mountain School of Swordsmen. Hui delivers a confident and mature performance as the main protagonist. While Swordsman can be difficult to following during the first couple viewings, the sumptuous cinematography by co-DPs Ardy Lam and Peter Pau has much to savor in it.
Swordsman 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality
The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray and standard Blu-ray are each taken from a 4K scan of the original camera negative. The image appears in its native exhibition ratio of 1.85:1. I viewed parts of Swordsman in both HDR10 and Dolby Vision. Lam and Pau's photography employs special filtration for nighttime exteriors and some interiors as well. For instance, the former features a midnight-blue tint that SD formats would have trouble rendering but the 4K and regular Blu-ray handle it quite well. The crew has also added mist and smoke (see Screenshot #s 12-13 and 35-36). The trees and woody grass in the bamboo forest look exquisite (see capture #14). Lam and Pau have suffused a lot of the interiors with an amber-like tint (see frame grab #s 16-17 and 39-40). The Dolby Vision brought out increased color depth. For example, tree leaves in the distant background (shot #30). In addition, the moon almost made a pop-out effect (#15). There's solidity to the reds on the period costumes.
Swordsman contains a bit more damage than the regular HKCC title. Specks and flecks pop up from time to time. In addition, if you examine capture #s 21-23, you will notice a wavy pattern akin to TV transmission lines. My video score for the 4K and Blu-ray is a very solid 4.25/5.00.
The UHD carries a mean video bitrate of 86.9 Mbps for the feature. The BD-100 delivers an overall bitrate of 93.2 Mbps. The MPEG-4 AVC encode on the BD-50 is very healthy. Its sports a rough average bitrate of 34000 kbps.
Screenshot #s 1-30, 32, 34, 36, 38, & 40 = Shout! Studios 2026 4K Ultra HD BD-100 (downscaled to 1080p)
Screenshot #s 31, 33, 35, 37, & 39 = Shout! Studios 2026 BD-50 (from a 4K restoration)
The nearly two-hour film has received eleven chapter stops.
Swordsman 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality
Shout has supplied a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono mix (1566 kbps, 16-bit) in the original Cantonese and an optional English dub, also encoded as DTS-HD MA Dual Mono (1562 kbps, 16-bit). I watched Swordsman twice with the native Cantonese. There's a tiny bit of a blare that is heard during the first couple scenes. If you have a calibrated receiver, you'll be able to hear the sound track plenty well at regular volume. No issues occur with dialogue and delivery. Sharp swooshing noises are accented during sword duels. The score by James Wong and Romeo Diaz is a mixed bag. While it generally underscores the drama reasonably well, there are some horribly dated synth drones that sound completely out of place. Diegetic folk songs are an occasional presence. Wu Ma sings the ballad "Xiaoao Jianghu" ("Laughing Proudly in the Jianghu"). There's also the recurring song "Hero of Heroes."
There are various subtitles and intertitles: subs for dialogue (#24), italicized subs for song lyrics (#s 25-26), subs for a score book to play the zither (#27), intertitles for locales (#28), and hard-coded subs (#29). A forewarning that the duration for many of the regular English subs is short. Some of this is unavoidable because a different character will begin speaking immediately after. Shout! has not kept the subs onscreen when there are shot changes. They could have kept them on screen for longer durations.
Swordsman 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras
In coordination with Ballyhoo Motion Pictures, Shout! has produced four recent interviews and a featurette, which are all located on Disc Two. The boutique label apparently was unable to license the bonus materials on the 2003 UK R2 DVD from the Contender Group. This "Hong Kong Legends" disc contains a feature-length audio commentary with Bey Logan plus interviews with Yuen Wah and Cecilia Yip subtitled in English. In addition, HK label Fortune Star (whose titles I used to collect) includes interviews with Jacky Cheung and James Wong as well as a pair of deleted scenes. (I cannot confirm if any of those are subtitled.)
- NEW A Time of Legends: Raymond Lee Remembers The Swordsman (10:36, 1080p) - co-director Raymond Lee explains how he joined the HK film industry and the TV/film photographers that he worked with. He also shares his thoughts about the filmmaking skills of King Hu and Tsui Hark. Additionally, Lee specifies which scenes he directed. More, he explains the challenge of editing footage together that was shot at different times which became part of the same scene. Lee addresses the communication problems Tsui had with Hu pertaining to character development and pacing of the story. In addition, he speaks about working with Sam Hui (whom he has much to say) as well as Sharla Cheung and Fennie Yuen. In Cantonese or Mandarin, subtitled in English.
- NEW Cult of Personality: Interview Fennie Yuen Remembers The Swordsman (6:49, 1080p) - this interview with Fennie Yuen has the actress going over a director's (King Hu or Tsui Hark?) selection process for casting, the various directors who worked on Swordsman and which scenes they oversaw. She briefly discusses collaborating with Sharla Cheung and Cecilia Yip. She remembers details of performing the snake scene. Yuen covers a lot of details in six minutes. In Cantonese or Mandarin, subtitled in English.
- NEW David Wu: Proud Wanderer — A Career Retrospective with Editor David Wu (14:52, 1080p) - Wu reminisces about growing up with movies in the 1950s. He recalls meeting Chang Cheh and other directors at the Shaw Brothers's studio. Wu the unified vision in filmmaking that he has shared with John Woo. The programs segues to Wu describing the use of musical counterpoint in A Better Tomorrow. He talks some about working in pre-production and post-production on Swordsman. He hums melodic lines of James Wong's original music for the film. Entirely in English, not subtitled.
- NEW Hark's Dynasty: The Early Years of Film Workshop — Interview with General Manager/Executive Producer Terence Chang (11:01, 1080p) - this is a decent career overview of Chang's work as a TV executive. He speaks about doing foreign sales work for D & B Film. Chang explains how The Film Workshop's productions stood out from a couple hundred other Hong Kong films. He spends part of this interview on Swordsman and filming the picture in Thailand. In English, not subtitled.
- NEW Hong Kong Confidential: Inside Wuxia with Author Grady Hendrix (18:01, 1080p) - this video essay is one of the better programs Hendrix has done. He describes the tropes of the wuxia film and draws several comparisons between them and the American Western. He delivers an historical overview of Shaw Brothers films and "color wuxia films." There's also a portion on King Hu's films in both Taiwan and Hong Kong. Hendrix also discusses Swordsman and its sequels. In English, not subtitled.
- Theatrical Trailer (5:22, upconverted to 1080p) - Golden Princess' official trailer for Swordsman presented in about 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen. While it retains lots of grain, the trailer itself hasn't been restored. The audio on the DTS-HD MA 2.0 track seems to have received a re-master. The titles credit the film's co-directors. In Cantonese, subtitled in English.
Swordsman 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation
Swordsman is a rapidly paced wuxia/period action drama that takes multiple viewings to follow all the story lines and character introductions. The production design, costumes, special filters for lighting, and swordplay all make it a worthwhile watch. Shout!'s 4K presentation is very good. There are an hour of extras that cover both this movie and other works by the filmmakers. RECOMMENDED.
