Eye for an Eye 2: Blind Vengeance

3 stars

The blind swordsman is an iconic hero of martial arts films and television, most memorably the character Zatoichi, played by actors ranging from Shintaro Katsu in the 70s TV series to Takeshi Kitano in the 2003 big screen spectacle The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi. In 2022, writer/director Bingjia Liu and Martial arts superstar Xie Miao teamed up to add another character to the canon, bounty hunter Cheng Xiazi, in Eye For An Eye: The Blind Swordsman. The film, a near-perfect blend of martial arts mayhem and sly humor, was such a global success that a sequel was inevitable.

Eye for an Eye 2: Blind Vengeance provides action film fans with plenty of fantastic battle scenes. However, the film makes a critical mistake by saddling the hero with a cute little kid to reject, protect, and ultimately fall in love with. It’s the kind of lame plot device that usually only pops up when a popular film franchise is stumbling towards the end of its popularity, a sappy last-ditch effort to show that the hero has a heart. It’s too soon for Xie and Binjia to stoop to that with their Blind Swordsman.

Little orphan kids aside, Eye for an Eye 2: Blind Vengeance significantly ups the ante in murderous martial arts moments, starting with the opening sequence where Cheng walks into a gambling den to apprehend a couple of wanted men. The fights are well staged, but what makes them stand out is how Bingjia uses them to answer the question that anyone unfamiliar with the character or his legend needs answered: How does a blind man fight? By the end of that opening they will have the only answer they will need: He fights like a badass.

The film also has other spectacular fights, including one where Cheng goes toe-to-toe with a bad guy wielding flaming swords. The final 10 minutes of the film are one continual fight scene with a body count that rivals Kill Bill 1 and 2. The ultimate battle between Cheng and the bad guy’s leader caps things off nicely because the baddie has figured out how to use Cheng’s skills against him.

It’s almost enough for you to forget that the orphan is waiting in the wings to try and pull on your heartstrings one more time.