- "In the dawn of the 15th century, during the reign of the Ming Emperor Zheng De, the ambitious King An Hua of Ning Xia province conspired with the neighboring Ai Xin Jue Luo Tribe to overthrow the reign of the Ming. The details of their scheme were hidden in a jade statue of the goddess of mercy: Guan Yin for information transmission." - excerpt taken from the film's intro.
The Swordmates is a 1969 Shaw Brothers wuxia film starring Chen Ping.
A conspiracy to overthrow the Ming Dynasty Imperial Court is plotted, and the plans to conspire with a rebel warlord isinscribed on a letter hidden in the statue of an immensely valuable Jade Goddess. Yen-niang (Chen), a swordswoman appointed by the court, must find and retrieve the statue from the rebels and deliver it, letter and all, to the Imperials. But there are ruthless killers and bandits who wants the statue for themselves as well.
Contains examples of:
- Cat Fight: The bandits' underground hideout have barmaids, two of them which gets into a fight while the mostly male mooks simply cheers. It's a reference to the then recent From Russia with Love, though less-fanservicey.
- Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Yen-niang dons a blue outfit in the tavern fight scene, in comparison to several mooks in generic black.
- In a Single Bound: Plenty, like every good wuxia, notably in the valley and the finale.
- Interesting Situation Duel: One of Yan-niang's fight scenes have her duelling a rival swordsman in a stable... with an out-of-control stallion wedged right in between. She eventually decide to simply hijack the stallion and make a run for it.
- MacGuffin: The statue of the Jade Goddess, which contains a secret message meant to conspire with a neighbouring empire to start a war and subsequent rebellion.
- MacGuffin Delivery Service: Yan-niang's quest is to retrieve the Jade Goddess statue (see above) and prevent it from being retrieved by the rebels.
- MacGuffin Melee: More than once (in fact, at least 6 times) Yen-niang had to fight her way through hordes and hordes of rebels and bandits who wants to relieve her of her Jade Goddess statue, or to reclaim her stolen statue from enemies. The film notably climaxed with Yen-niang, Iron Claw, Wang Tian-piao and several mooks fighting each other over the statue.
- Master Swordsman: The female equivalent though. Yen-niang, another sword-wielding action chick from that period in the late 60s when Shaw Brothers are trying to repeat their success with Cheng Pei-pei.
- Non-Indicative Name: The Big Bad's name is Iron Claws Wang. You might expect him to be wearing a gauntlet of some sorts, but he mostly uses a sword like everyone else. In fact NOBODY uses gauntlets for the entirety of this film.
- Sword Fight: Plenty of these happens throughout the movie, between Yen-niang and scores of mooks. In typical wuxia fasion.
- Wuxia
