Back to the story at hand. The wedding day has arrived and all seems to be going well until the second Manchu invasion arrives at their door step. Many of the townsfolk, including Ja-In are taken as slaves by the invading Manchu. Nam-Yi sets off on a mission to get her back with a regiment of archers on his trail.
I found that I did not care all that much about the story. Surely, I was with Nam-Yi and wished him success, but I did not really care about the historical context or who these people really were. I was much more intrigued by the breathless pursuit and the nicely done establishment of the bow and arrow as a deadly weapon.
We get some hand to hand combat interspersed through the chase bits, but the action that is most satisfying are the sniping bits. There is plenty of arrow flying action and the bloody results they bring. I admit to being pretty thrilled with a lot of the action here. It is not your standard swords and fisticuffs. The sound design goes a long way to increasing the effect as arrows whistle trough the air and bowstrings tighten in anticipation.
The ending may play a touch melodramatically, but it pays off and is a fitting end for the action and chasing that came before it. I do not think this is a great movie, but it certainly is a good one that is well worth the time.
Audio/Video. The movie is presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1. The transfer is one that finds me a touch conflicted. There is a strong level of detail throughout with nice depth of field, but there are times, especially early on where I feel it just looks a bit flat. However, as we get deeper into the movie it seems that it straightens out a bit. There are sequences with Nam-Yi running through the forest or taking aim on an enemy that look really good. In particular, I like the sequence where they have to jump across a high gap over a river. While I may have a little complaint early on, this is by no means a bad transfer. It offers very strong detail and is worth the look in high definition.
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