Billed as an action-comedy, The Butcher, the Chef and the Swordsman is a Chinese film that defies genre. The only certainty is that it is set in the ancient days of China and does indeed contain its fair share of action. Other than that, it’s a mixture of action, comedy, musical, farce, historical drama and video game. Some examples of the strange style of this film include a rap/hip-hop chorus done by a group of prostitutes and a heavy metal theme song for a crazy bearded warrior.
The story follows the events that unfold around the three titular characters. Each story is connected through the presence of a mystical cleaver that has been crafted from the melted-down swords of some of the greatest warriors that ever lived. The movie begins with the butcher, who hears a tale about the cleaver from the chef, who in turn relates the story he heard, which involves the swordsman and the creation of the cleaver. Essentially, the movie plays backwards through time, coming around at the end to return to the butcher and his own dilemmas.
This film is a fun ride, with some serious moments in it, but lacks any sort of focus that might attract one particular audience. It plays very eclectically, jumping backwards and mixing in the serious and the absurd. It is definitely not a boring film, whatever its flaws, and it does have enough fighting and blood to keep lovers of traditional Chinese action films satisfied. This randomness, however, also happens to be the movie’s greatest strength. There are things which pop up unexpectedly that will cause your jaw to drop or force you to break out laughing.
I’d have to say this film was probably designed by genre geeks, for genre geeks. It’s worth a watch if you have nothing else to do and go into it with no expectations.