Posted in: Movies, News | Tagged: action, Brigitte Lin, chinese film, Invincible Swordsman, Jin Yong, smiling wander, Swordsman 2, the proud, tsui hark, Wong Jong, wuxia

Invincible Swordsman: A Pointless, Mediocre Remake of a Wuxia Classic

Invincible Swordsman pointlessly remakes Tsui Hark's classic Swordsman 2 which also erases a major part of the original movie that it a hit.

While we in the West are waiting for Tsui Hark's blockbuster adaptation of Jin Yong's wuxia classic Legends of the Condor Heroes: The Gallants, another adaptation was released in China and Hong Kong days before the big event opened, namely Invincible Swordsman; it is, unfortunately, an utterly pointless and toothless remake of Swordsman 2, a hit produced by Tsui Hark and directed by Ching Siu-Tung. The original was recut, you could say butchered, by Harvey Weinstein when Miramax grabbed the rights and retitled Legend of the Swordsman. Jet Li may be the lead, but the original version was a huge hit in Hong Kong and Asia and not only made Brigitte Lin an international star but an LGBTQ icon.

Invincible Swordsman is A Complicated Remake of a Complicated Adaptation

Both Swordsman 2 and Invincible Swordsman are adaptations of Jin Yong's novel The Proud, Smiling Wanderer, which had been given a straight adaptation previously in a Shaw Brothers movie in the 1970s. The wuxia story is about carefree swordswoman Linghu Jong, who gets drawn into a war between martial arts sects, including his own, with the most powerful enemy, a eunuch named Donfang Bubai, which translates into "Asia the Invincible" or "The Undefeatable East". Asia the Invincible castrated himself to learn the magical martial arts from a mystical scroll. Asia the Invincible wants to conquer all of China by defeating all the other martial arts sects.

Tsui Hark altered Asia the Invincible in Swordsman 2 into an androgynous female-present character and cast Taiwanese star Brigitte Lin instead of a man. Jet Li plays wine-loving hero Linhu Jong as he tries to avoid the battles and bloodshed of the martial arts world but gets sucked in nonetheless. He encounters Asia the Invincible during a peaceful moment and mistakes her for a damsel. They become attracted to each other through their mutual love of wine, each unaware they're supposed to be sworn enemies, especially when she later puts her plan of conquest and slaughter into action. Brigitte Lin's performance overshadowed Jet Li and the rest of the cast and made the film a huge hit in Hong Kong and across Asia. It turned Lin into an international megastar all over Asia and also an LGBTQ icon. Jin Yong reportedly hated the movie because Tsui Hark turning Asia the Invincible into a trans woman changed the main drive of his original novel and added a love story that wasn't there before.

Let's be clear, Invincible Swordsman is a remake of Swordsman 2, not a faithful adaptation of the book. Shameless Hong Kong schlockmeister producer Wong Jing seems to be trolling fans of the original and Tsui Hark by remaking Swordsman 2 and releasing it  before the premiere of Tsui Hark's new Jin Yong blockbuster  which is arguably the biggest wuxia action blockbuster of 2025. Wong Jing can produce and direct a good movie when he wants to, but this is not one of them.

That plot stays the same in Invincible Swordsman, which means Jin Yong would have hated it, too. What Wong Jing has done is made Asia the Invincible a cis woman, perhaps because LGBTQ characters are erased from Mainland Chinese movies and televisino. This robs the story of the surprising and transgressive love story between Linghu Jong and Asia the Invincible. Despite a higher budget and slicker production values than Swordsman 2, this remake just feels more bloated.

Invincible Swordsman is Like if You Ordered Swordsman 2 from Temu

Brigitte Lin was one of the biggest Chinese stars in Asia before she retired in 2004, and it was Swordsman 2 that shot her to superstardom due to her androgynous looks and steely glare that caused both men and women, straight and LGBTQ, to fall in love with her. There is no way a remake or recasting could surpass her because she played Asia the Invincible with the expressiveness of a classic silent movie actress where the slightest twitch or change in her face could speak volumes. Kitty Zhang (dressed to look like Brigitte Lin and ironically a Tsui Hark discovery when he cast her as a Rosalind Russell-esque businesswoman in his early 2000s screwball comedy about modern Chinese women All About Women) doesn't have Brigitte Lin's range or expressiveness and has zero chemistry with lead actor Tim Huang when they're supposed to be in love.

As of this writing, there is no information on whether Invincible Swordsman will get a North American or European release. The trailer doesn't even have English subtitles though the release prints do. It might be picked up by a streamer in the US, but at the moment, there is no news of a Western release. But it was fun to write about this because it's always fun to write about Swordsman 2. You should just wait for Shout! Studio's upcoming remastered re-release of Swordsman 2 instead.

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