Swordsman

Swordsman (笑傲江湖, 1990) is a Hong Kong wuxia adventure you can watch online on iFILM. Adapted from Jin Yong's novel The Smiling, Proud Wanderer and shepherded by producer Tsui Hark, it pairs the old master King Hu with a younger generation of action directors.

It's the end of the Ming dynasty, and a Sacred Scroll holding the deadliest martial secrets vanishes from the imperial library. Everyone wants it. Two carefree sword students, led by the wine-loving Ling Wu Chung (Sam Hui), stumble straight into the manhunt without meaning to. Japanese mercenaries, a clan of snake-charming sorceresses, scheming court officials and rival kung-fu schools all close in. Whoever holds the scroll reshapes the entire martial world.

Four directors, among them wirework wizard Ching Siu-tung, built a film that relit the wuxia craze in the 1990s and spawned a wave of imitators. The fights drift through bamboo and fog, and the hero keeps reaching for his flask in the middle of a slaughter. A great doorway into Hong Kong fantasy action for newcomers. Stream Swordsman (1990) online on iFILM.