If you like Terry Pratchett’s watch novels, wuxia, and The Seven Samurai, there’s a good chance you’ll love this.
Set in early 20th century China, as the country is torn apart by warlords, the setup is straightforward: a teacher flees a massacre with the schoolchildren she managed to rescue; returning to her home town; she finds sanctuary, but only briefly. The son of the worst of them rides into town, murders three people, and the head of the guardians - the police force - is inflexible in his desire to see the murderer punished, even in the face of an army amped around the town.
“We live through out concience,” he explains to a wandering vagrant-cum-martial artist; when his oldest friend and mentor begs him to release the murderer, demanding that, just this once, he kneel he replies, “if we kneel, will we be able to stand again?”
The emtional core of the film is the struggle between what is right, and what is expedient; the framing, with the villainous “richest mn in the village” and his hired triad thugs leading the forces arguing for surrender to the warlodss, against the Sherrif Yang’s desire for justice, and his belief in the rights of ordinary people. This is wrapped up in some sweet fighting, naturally enough.
There are two climaxes in the film; the frst is when Yang finlly acceeds to the wishes of the villaes who woul surrender. unsurprisingly, the camp villain quickly makes it clear that the village is not to be spared. The sheriff has remained in the village to face his fate, while his wife and a small bandof believers conspire to free him and defeat the army. That would be those sweet action sequences, with a finale I thoroughly approved of. Good movie, much recommend.