From the very first shot of Memories of the Sword, the taste of Asian martial arts cinema at its most gravity-defying floods your palette. Much of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’s DNA has been spliced into Heung-Sik Park‘s South Korean swashbuckler what with all the running up bamboo, nonchalant wind-walking and artful swordsmanship. Its similarities to that cornerstone of modern Asian cinema do not however prove to be its undoing as Memories of the Sword is an often beautifully realized, artfully photographed cinematic experience filled with rich characters and even richer histories.

Park’s saga tells of Soel-hee, a young swords(wo)man with unparalleled talent. Her upbringing composed of swordplay and discipline, Soel-hee is a free spirit unencumbered by social niceties. When she interrupts a local swordplay tournament and bests the reigning champion, Soel-hee sets into motion a chain of events that force her to confront the foundation of her family and, ultimately, her destiny.

To tell us of Soel-hee’s place in the cogs of her ancestry, Park rewinds time to relay the tale of three low-born warriors who fought for the people. A fateful betrayal left one of their members dead, another reeling and the third on track to becoming one of the most powerful men in the country. Told that she is the daughter of the slain warrior and that his executioner had been mothering her since that distant treachery, Soel-hee is hollowed out. Faced with political collusion and a sanguine-stained bloodline, Soel-hee must choose whose side she is on and whether she will join those who have build their castles on the ashes of her ancestors or, as it were, rise up and fight the power.

Seemingly unaware of its progressive gender politics, Memories of the Sword‘s attention to a woman warrior makes for the kind of female action hero role model that is far too rarely seen in American cinema. After all, the literal translation of the Korean name is: Female Warrior: Memories of the Sword.

From a narrative standpoint, Memories of the Sword takes a while to heat up but once the character angles have been properly triangulated and the past and the present stories folded into a satisfying state of cohesion, things really take off. Themes of destiny and good vs. evil are presented without pallid pretense. Rather, archetypal elements hedge their way into the narrative whilst still leaving room for original storytelling. Though occasionally bloody (it’s a martial arts movie, whaddya expect?), Memories of the Sword feels like the kind of Frostian fable of choosing the road less traveled – or, in Star Wars terms, choosing the green lightsaber over the red – whose message may prove especially pertinent for kids. Older kids, at least.

While the aesthetic and narrative propulsion of act one could have been flown in from a Miyazaki film, the second act plays more like a dusty western. With its stylish spectacle and clouded character relations, the third act is almost Tarantino-esque. One could claim that the final showdown was aped from Kill Bill if Tarantino himself hadn’t been homaging Asian martial arts movies himself. The final 30-minutes of the film prove the journey was more than worth the ride and, sans an unnecessary and fraudulently sappy epilogue, the affair ends on near perfect footing.

15 years out from Crouching Tiger, Memories of the Sword only proves competently, if not perfectly, made. Lingering in the long shadow of that important landmark, it hasn’t necessarily sharpened the tools employed there so much as re-purposed them for a modern audience. Occasionally spotty CG blends surprisingly well with deft wire choreography and with the actors flying hither and thither, it’s hard not to get caught up in the magical realism of it all. In case you’re debating its “need to be seen in theaters”-ness Memories of the Sword is a film that will hugely benefit from a theatrical viewing as the events onscreen demand proper proportions and the booming soundtrack ought be amplified to within breaking point.

CONCLUSION: Fans of martial arts movies will discover much to love in Memories of the Sword, a progressive swords-in-the-ancient-East movie starring a strong female warrior.