I won't talk about the action and cinematography much, just say it was stunning. If China is best at portraying colours in their wuxia, S. Korea is great at using different seasons to depict it. This type of experience is what differentiate watching movies from watching dramas.
Acting: great on all fronts. I was initially no big fan of Lee Byung Hun but he really commands the scenes he's in, from the first time we meet him. First time seeing Jeon Do Yeon and she was great. Seeing Kim Go Eun again is a treat and she never disappoints. You don't feel that she's acting with other big stars she's just immersed into the role. The rest of the cast fit their roles as well.
The story itself is nothing new, starting with betrayal the revenge that follows. The extend to which the character was willing to go for revenge it insane. It's really hard to judge it.
What attracted me most and kept my attention is the complicated characters and the disturbing love story. Deok Ki is corrupted and disgusting in every way, yet his love is so real and pure. As illogical it is, I just totally bought it. Same goes for Sul Rang, that carried true hatred towards him, leading to an insane revenge plan, yet wishing she could forgive him. This is the type of intense crazy romance I totally enjoy watching. There's something so raw and desperate about it. Hong Yi went through many phases in the movie, but I just love her in the last fighting scene, cold yet emotionally intense! Her side love story however was a bore, with typical kdrama cliché that I totally could've done without. Still it didn't remove anything from my enjoyment, it just wasn't too logical. However I find the main leads' love story also illogical but I totally buy it and believe it.
After finishing the movie I read many comments complaining about the movie calling it a Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon copy. While I agree it alludes to it, the movie stands on its own telling its own story. Definitely worth a try.
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This review may contain spoilers
oooh this pissed me off
I normally try to find the good in most dramas and movies that I watch as I give ratings, because I know the actors and crew worked incredibly hard to create the story but this one was difficult.What was the point of it all?
This drama takes you through the insufferable journey of two self-absorbed psychopaths-one who is filled with greed and a need for power to validate his past wrongdoings and the other who utilizes an innocent person to punish herself and the aforementioned greedy man. Lastly, the poor tool in their narcissism, masochism and self-hate: Hong Yi. A child brought into this world and manipulated her entire life to commit what can only be described as the worst sin.
This movie will keep you asking “why” and when you’re done watching it, you’re left with the same question, along with feelings of anger and pity for the girl.
When I first read the synopsis, I thought this was going to be an interesting albeit predictable revenge plot, where a child is raised by her master to avenge her parent’s death, but it turned into a perverted story of two ex-lovers trying to see who can cause the other the most pain using said child.
The mother is a psychopath. If she truly wanted to serve penance for her wrongdoings and she felt the only way to do so is through her life, she could have killed herself or asked anybody else in the world to do so. She could have killed her ex when she had a literal knife to his throat or before he grew in power. She could have served her penance by living a life devoid of “worldly pleasures” and becoming a nun or a devout teacher. I don’t know but she could have done anything other than what she did, and it would have made more sense. Her actions did not absolve her of past sins, it only created another and left a bigger sin on her child.
The ex should have died the day of the betrayal by those he betrayed his people for-it would have been the most fitting as it would have shown him that they would never see a low-born as one of their own and he would have suffered immediate justice for what he had done. What came after that day made absolutely no sense for a movie set in an era that values social standing above all else-especially considering he was a part of a nearly successful commoner rebellion.
I was not a fan of the ending (and not only because of how they died) but because they got to die in each other’s arms while leaving Hong Yi to face a life with the knowledge of what she had done. It was like Cersei and Jamie’s death scene in GOT-wholly unsatisfactory.
Do not watch this if you like dramas with likeable characters as there are only 2.5 likeable characters in the entire movie.
Don’t watch this if you like happy endings because although the girl is alive in the end, it is not a happy ending.
Don’t watch this if you like rational characters as the mother is definitely not.
Don’t watch this if you like good plots.
Watch this if you enjoy beautiful cinematography.
Watch this if you enjoy beautifully shot fight scenes as the final fight is wonderful to watch.
Watch this if you enjoy Kim Go Eun’s acting and works.
Watch this if you enjoy well done acting.
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The plot was there, the twist was there, the emotions should be there, but the storytelling was just a mess. There was close to no introduction to the characters and till the end some of their motivations were simply not explained (why was Yool even loyal to Deok Gi?). Scenes were not concluded in a proper way which led to weird jumps in the characters’ arcs progressions. And don’t even make me start on whatever was going on between Yool and Sul Hee, because that made exactly zero sense and was just a massive waste of screen time.
As I was watching Memories of the Sword I thought “Did they lose some files? This literally feels unfinished, as if there are scenes missing”. You know how at school you wrote essays, used different sources and just wrote all the relevant information in, but after rereading it from the top, you saw how some paragraphs just don’t connect and there is no flow to it? That’s this movie.
The two good aspects were visuals and acting, but that’s barely enough to make me finish the movie. In theory, this movie works. If someone showed me the screenshots and described the plot I would assume it’s an amazing movie… but then, the end product I actually watched was a mess.
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the action scenes in this movie is so awesome
you will see a lot of blood throw the movie so if you don't like that kind of thing i don't recommend you to watch the movie
overall the movie was good :)
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the wigs are better than the narrative structure
On paper, this movie had the potential of becoming the redeeming title in my ever-growing list of otherwise-questionable, hormone-driven viewings.On paper, a period piece with a bombastic cast of widely acclaimed actors such as Jeon Do-yeon, Lee Byung-hun, Lee Kyung-young and, even, Kim Go-eun (and, foremost, my beloved Junho who constantly inspires my watchlist) should have been a failproof winner, right?
Spoiler: it was not.
Now, I can tell that this movie was expensive, not only because of the amazing cast, but also for the undeniable high quality of the production. In fact, cinematography is strong, set design is stunning, fighting scenes are a beauty and even wigs are on point! (in my opinion the least embarrassing Goryeo era wigs seen up until now). The story might not be everyone's cup of tea (with the parricide and matricide and twisted vengeance plot) yet it has all the necessary cruelty and perversion required for epic storytelling both in the western and eastern tradition.
All these superb ingredients are bound to make something memorably tasty and, instead, all we get is the blandest of salads.
What a shame.
It is my humble and unrequired opinion that the reason for such a bafflling nonsuccess is to be found in the narrative structure (or rather in the lack of it). The exposition is very minimal, almost non-existent, and confusing. The relationships between the characters evolve abruptly, with no natural progression and at times I wondered if I was missing scenes. As a result I was totally incapable of establishing any kind of bond with the characters despite actively trying to (I really wanted to sympathize with shirtless Junho).
Someone argued that the movie is too short (with its very average length of 120 minutes) to set the story properly and I had the horrifying thought that binge-watching an unspeakable number of 16 episode-long kdramas must have been damaging to the point I am now unable to enjoy a normal sized movie. So I tried watching 3 more movies after this one and it turns out I'm not broken. I liked all three of them just fine despite the fact that their stories were possibly even crueler.
Therefore, in the end, I stand un-redeemed by Memories of the Sword and I am also a bit annoyed for the fact that it wasted (Lee Junho!) so much potential.
Female Empowerment Score 2/5 I felt like they were implicitly saying that men are driven by reason and ambition, whilst women are driven by their emotions and are terminally twisted.
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This review may contain spoilers
This is the first time I am writing a review, but I feel like I need to talk about this movie. I loved the setting and the cinematography, yet the whole historical aspect wasn't that important. What I liked most about this Drama was Sul Hee and the emotions she portrayed. What made this movie good was, in my opinion, the intense (yet unreasonable (will talk about this later)) family conflict. We see Deok Gi and Sul Rang have this intense relationship full of hatred, love and the past. Their romance was tragic and everything about it seemed doomed. These two individuals have really gone crazy throughout the movie and the one suffering because of it was Sul Hee. Deok Gi and Sul Rang used Sul Hee the whole time as a toy in their revenge game.
Sul Hee was such a sad character, stuck in between the conflict of her parents and forced to mature and grow up within such a short time. Her parents drew her into their fight and revenge plan, leading to Sul Hees life being turned upside down. And the saddest part was, that there was nothing she could do about it since her parents just decided what her life and choices will be like.
Now onto the illogical part. Why were Deok Gi and Sul Rang doing all this stuff? So many choices remained with no explanation and even after everything was over the question remains. What was the point of starting this game? And was it worth it? The ending was great, but it still left a bitter taste. Was all that really necessary? I really wondered if, at the very end, Geok Gi and Sul Rang ever regretted what they did to that poor child.
So, I liked it very much. To me, it was an emotional, sad and beautiful movie, although somewhat illogical.
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I must be a "psychopath" to have enjoyed this!
First of all, this movie made absolutely no sense at all! The aged teacher (Lee Kyung Young) is the only cast member with any common sense to his name...
Deok Gi (Lee Byung Hun), the traitor and Sul Rang (Jeon Do Yeon, the mother and the last of the surviving Three Swordmen, had absolutely no common sense at all; I wonder if Poong Chun (Bae Soo Bin, the first of the trio to die) was also lacking in common sense as well?
More on this later...
The music and cinematography were excellent; they went out of their way to make this a movie with great scenery on the level of Mural (2011) or The White-Haired Witch of Lunar Kingdom (2014), sparing no expense on this part.
The acting was second to none: all three of the main cast did an excellent job in their portrayal of the above-mentioned roles and their interactions. You would even have thought, if they all lived in the same house, they could have been considered a family: a "dysfunctional" family, but a family nonetheless! Some criticized Sul Hee's (Kim Go Eun) acting ability in her swordplay, but since I have never seen her before in a swordfight movie, I cannot judge this.
The support cast also did their jobs well, although no one except the aged teacher tried to talk any sense into the main cast's heads. The support cast excellently allowed the main cast to fulfill their psychopathic roles in this movie.
The music was very good; it many a time foreshadowed changes in the coming scenes in the movie.
The problem is, I don't think anyone actually knew what Park Heung Sik was trying to do in this movie.
I usually don't read other people's reviews of a movie until I have done my own, but I have to admit I had to see what others thought about this movie...and I wasn't disappointed!
Was Park Heung Sik smoking "weed"/marijuana or high on acid when he wrote the screenplay of this movie?
Both of the older main cast members, even though they seemed to have done what the director wanted them to do, were complete PSYCHOPATHS in this movie...Deok Gi at least had a rationale for being a psychopath in his lust for power.
If I was a Psychology professor, I would have my students watch this movie to show what a 'psychopath' looks like, mixed with a little Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and Passive-Aggressiveness thrown in!
Both Deok Gi, for his undying lust for power and Sul Rang, for her undying lust for revenge were total psychopaths from the death of Poong Chun until the end of the movie; Sul Hee (Kim Go Eun), the bastard daughter of the two, was psychotic in her relentless quest for revenge; however, if I read the movie right, Sul Rang raised her this way!
If she had any commonsense Sul Hee could have just traveled in the opposite direction of the Palace; and simply forgot about the vengeance her mother instilled in her.
Deok Gi could have worn his armor before fighting his daughter, and Sul Rang would have sooner or later returned to her tea house; Deok Gi even loved her so much at the end that he would have let her go eventually.
What makes so little sense than any other part of this movie is the LOVE that the two older main characters, the remaining couple of the initial trio, had to each other. Both admitted their love, but both anticipated their death as well.
Both ALLOWED Sul Hee to kill them.... self-preservation is the first and foremost characteristic of all members of the Animal Kingdom.
This movie isn't about common sense, though; and as much as I hated it, it would be a good re-watch in the future...
Does that make me a 'psychopath' as well? Or did it just hit a chord in my mind?
However, there are a few other psychopaths out there that liked the movie as well!
Park Heung Sik is going to have to make a follow-up movie about how Sul Hee was a recluse the remainder of her life, moving around China and mindlessly killing people who remind her of her parents, then asking for their forgiveness!
This is a 3/4ths of a box of Kleenex movie, by the way.
RE-WATCH VALUE: only if you are a psychopath as well!
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A drunken sword master stole the real plot
I love martial arts movies! I did not like this one. The story is so stupid, with Seol Rang being a complete nonsense. I even prefer simple revenge, or an assassin that flies into the clouds, or killing sprees of hundreds than this.Moreover, the reviews! When I read some of the reviews I was amazed how someone with a bad written opinion could rate this with 8 or more!!!!!!
I will not give spoilers, so I stop here.
STORY – completely stupid, 3 friends fighting the injustice: Seol Rang, Deok Ki and Poong Chun. Then, Deok Ki betrayed the other 2 and kills the mother and child of Poong Chun and the betrayed Seol Rang kills Poong Chun! Amazing! Then, after this script arrive to this amazing plot!, the story goes in a way where Seol Rang destroys her daughter life (Sul Hee)! In the process, there is a martial art master, an assassin that likes Sul Hee, etc
ACTING – not bad, but with a plot like this, the characters could not do better. I feel bad because they do not deserve a story like this.
MUSIC – bad
REWATCH – only if Seol Rang or her daughter put a sword in my neck!
OVERALL – I did not like it at all. Yes, some scenes pretend to be beautiful. However, with nonsense like this, even flying through the fields was not pleasant to see.
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Two Hours Of Great Visuals..
Amazing Cinematography...Excellent Direction...Powerful Music..Brilliant Cast & Acting...Interesting Revenge Story.All these summarize this movie and i really don't understand why the Rating is below 8.
I usually don't write reviews about Movies because no matter how good a movie is ,it is really difficult to give us a full depth of each character and a more detailed story within 2 or so hours unlike Series.(Of course when they fail to do that in series it means is a bad one,lol)
Same applies here and this is my only complain about Memories of the Sword.I wanted to see more of their background story,the reasons of the betrayal back then and wanted a deeper look inside their characters.Yet i really enjoyed this one,those 2 hours felt like one.I repeat it,i was mostly impressed and amazed by the Visuals and Diection.And don't forget the movie is back from 2015.
Ommited 1 star just because i absolutely love Sad Endings but..sometimes i want a Happy One..
Whenever you are in mood to watch a Historical/ Action with a hint of Romance Movie,choose this.
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