The Swordsman in Double-Flag Town

Parched with thirst and jumpy from encounters on the trail, young Hai Ge rides into town (actually a walled village in the desert) to find and marry the girl he was engaged to in the cradle. He finds the place cowering with fear of two bandit brothers and their gang, and more by accident than design, kills one of the brothers. Facing up to swordplay skills he never knew he had, he waits nervously for the inevitable showdown with the dead man’s vengeful brother… Whether you take He Ping’s film as a sardonic commentary on American Westerns or as a new approach (in the vein of Red Sorghum) to Chinese folk-myth, it’s a show-stopper. Leone himself would have cheered.