Slave of the Sword (1994)

Slave of the Sword (1994)

One would think fusing Hong Kong's fantasy swordplay genre with Category-III erotica would be a match made in heaven, but Slave of the Sword disproves that naïve theory. Not even repeated scenes of Pauline Chan making out with Joyce Ngai can salvage this movie.

As a movie reviewer and a lover of cinema, I've seen my fair share of critically acclaimed motion pictures. I've also bared the brunt of numerous, shoddy Wong Jing flicks. But I'm no snooty film geek; I really do like all kinds of movies. And of all the genres Hong Kong cinema has to offer, wuxia is one type of Chinese film that I am particularly fond of watching. On a seemingly unrelated note, like any other red-blooded, heterosexual male, I do enjoy seeing naked women. So imagine my complete delight in stumbling upon Slave of the Sword, a film that purports to cross-pollinate those two heretofore-separate genres into one magnificent thrill ride of sex, sin, and swordsmanship. Well, not exactly.

Slave of the Sword details the erotic misadventures of Cheung Wu-Nien (Pauline Chan), a down-on-her-luck dancer who finds herself starving and alone when her father is murdered by assassins. Wu-Nien has a couple of chance encounters with Yun (Jackson Lau), a cold-blooded killer who takes a shine to the buxom young lass, and gives her some steamed buns out of pity before soldiering off on his merry way. But Yun is abducted and sold to a brothel, where she meets Madame Hun (Joyce Ngai), a bisexual bitch looking to make some money off the innocent, virginal Wu-Nien. After some sexual training and a little torture, Wu-Nien escapes from her captors and flees to swordsman Yun's forest shack to seek shelter. At the cabin, she learns the shocking truth about her so-called knight-in-shining armor, Yun—he's having a fling with Hun! Oh, and Yun and Hun are brother and sister! Cue dry heaves. And if that level of perversion isn't enough, there's a creepy eunuch played by a slumming Max Mok, who shows up to randomly strangle people and laugh maniacally in the twisted, not so family-friendly climax.