Overrated

Excellent, smart action film.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

this is one of my new favorite movies...yes it may be odd for them to not show more significance of the sword...yet i think overall a great movie and not quite like hero or crouching tiger...so go get this awesome movie...and don't forget all movies not heard of with big release dates or announced as "THE SUMMERS BIGGEST BLOCKBUSTER" can be sick...just to mention though it has subtitles and if you haven't seen a movie with subtitles this could be your first...go to you closes movie retailer and pick this up...also those girls are a added bonus (guys you know what i mean ;) and now on to another movie and more reviews toodles...

After all of the princes in a kingdom are killed by agents for a rival country, one last prince is located and a female bodyguard is sent to bring him back in one piece. Once The prince is located the journey back becomes a never ending battle for survival. Okay action film is just a little too unreal and fake for its own good. The fighting is stylized with a great deal of wire work and over done effects (lots of smashing rocks, columns and walls) but it is serviceable. The costuming and make up involves a great deal of eye makeup on the men and everyone looks like they are from the roadshow of Pirates of the Caribbean with Jack Sparrow being the model of choice. Give the film points for looking spectacular but at the same time it plays like several direct to video films I'm seen on Voom's Kung Fu channel. Its not bad but it its not great. Its solidly good even though its clearly reaching to be so much more. A rental. between 6.5 and 7 out of 10

"Shadowless Sword" was one of my favorite wuxia movies in the past 2 years. It has creative ideas (see the fight scene under water!), a great couple of heroes (beautiful So-yi Yoon from "Arahan" and Seo-jin Lee), and its simple principle "keep them on the run" avoids tedious moments. The movie takes us into 10th century Korea. After all possible heirs to the throne have been murdered, the warrioress Soha (So-yi Yoon) must bring the last surviving prince Jeong-hyeon (Seo-jin Lee) to the throne. He'd prefer an anonymous life under cover, though. But since enemies are already knocking at the door, he has no choice but trust the girl, follow her and run for his life...Action packed, maybe not quite as stylish as "Hero" but still good looking, and occasionally with good dialog (for example when the prince wonders if he'd make a good king, he never had to think about that before), "Shadowless Sword" is enjoyable throughout.

I saw an extended version of 116 minutes (apparently there is a 104 minute version as well). First off, the title makes you expect something else. I expected this "Shadowless Sword" to play some pivotal role, but no show. This film should better be named "Back to Balhae" or something, because that's what it's all about: a trek to Balhae. The storyline is pretty thin, but a martial arts movie with an original and strong story is a rare thing, so you shouldn't be too surprised about that.Technically this movie is very beautifully shot, with excellent art direction and costumes. The stuff on screen really is exquisite and should satisfy costume-aficionados and the artists among us. The actors do a good job too, no overacting or amateurish stuff, but at times over-directed it seems. The two main actresses are very pretty, so very nice to look at. Clearly intended to attract the mainly male target-audience, I guess. No ugly women to be seen, not even with the extras. The fighting scenes are very enjoyable, but they miss the rawness and directness seen in HongKong martial arts movies. And unfortunately some stuff badly copied from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. And overall the pace of the movie was excruciatingly slow. I hope the director and editors will learn that even pretty shots shown too long do get boring.So bottom line: Don't get me wrong, it IS a rather enjoyable movie, no question about that. But you'll forget in a week or two. Good shot by the Koreans at the Wuxia genre though. Keep 'em coming!