Chivalrous Forever (2020)

Chivalrous Forever is a low budget 2021 wuxia film featuring a swordswoman. A badass female lead is usually all it takes to perk my interest, however, this movie led me into a trap of mediocrity.

Most of the cast does a decent job of acting. The female lead gave it her all throughout the film and committed herself to the role. There were others who seemed to be reading their lines.

The biggest problem was with the production values. The first 10-15 minutes weren't bad. The cinematography and fights were okay. Then the quality plummeted. Some of the costumes and wigs were downright awful. The evil Japanese couple seeking to steal the list of corrupted officials from the swordswoman and the man she was protecting had wigs that looked like they came out of a bad comic strip. They tried speaking Japanese at one point and then gave up and went back to Mandarin. The evil eunuchs laid it on thick with the high pitched voices to the point it sounded like they'd breathed in helium before some scenes began. I rarely notice music unless it's really bad or really good. I noticed the music in this movie and it wasn't really good.

The movie played out like a wuxia sketch show complete with errors that no one bothered to correct. At one point an unconscious character lying in the road rolled away to avoid being hit by a carriage and then went back to being prone. The sword fights were slow, very slow and badly choreographed. Quite honestly, I laughed out loud several times during the movie at scenes that were not supposed to be funny.

Despite all the errors and bad fight choreography, there was an interesting story hidden beneath the rough appearance. The movie played out in earnest with many heroes and bad guys falling. Normally, I would have scored a modern movie of this quality lower, but because a swordswoman was prominently featured I gave it a little bump because a woman with a sword is my weakness. Unless you are looking to watch a very low budget wuxia you might want to give this one a pass.

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