Swordsman II (), also known as The Legend of the Swordsman, is a 1992 Hong Kong wuxia film loosely adapted from the novel The Smiling, Proud Wanderer by Jin Yong. It was the second part of a trilogy: preceded by The Swordsman (1990) and followed by The East Is Red (1993). Directed by Ching Siu-tung, Swordsman II starred Jet Li, Brigitte Lin, Rosamund Kwan and Michelle Reis in the leading roles. None of the original cast from the previous film return except Fennie Yuen.
Set in Ming dynasty China, the plot follows Linghu Chong, a swordsman from the Mount Hua Sect, who travels the countryside with Yue Lingshan, who secretly loves him. Caught in the war between the invading Japanese and the Sun Moon Cult, they discover that Dongfang Bubai, the evil leader of the Sun Moon Cult, has located the Sacred Scroll, which has transformed him into a woman while improving his martial arts prowess to near-invincibility. The film received generally positive reviews from critics.
Linghu Chong, Yue Lingshan and members of the Mount Hua Sect are planning to retire from the jianghu. They learn that Dongfang Bubai has seized control of the Sun Moon Cult and is secretly plotting with some Japanese rà Ânin to start a rebellion against the Ming Empire. Dongfang Bubai had castrated himself to master the skills in a highly-coveted martial arts manual, and his appearance has become more feminine even though his prowess is near-invincible.
Linghu Chong meets Dongfang Bubai by chance without knowing his true identity, mistakes him for a woman, and falls in love with "her". Dongfang Bubai knocks out Linghu Chong and imprisons him in an underground dungeon. In the dungeon, by coincidence, Linghu Chong meets Ren Woxing, Ren Yingying's father and the former leader of the Sun Moon Cult. They escape from captivity together and meet Xiang Wentian, a cult elder loyal to Ren Woxing. One night, Dongfang Bubai tracks down the Mount Hua Sect members and kills them while his lover Shishi distracts Linghu Chong.
Linghu Chong takes Yue Lingshan, Ren Yingying, Ren Woxing and Xiang Wentian with him to confront Dongfang Bubai on a cliff. In the ensuing battle, Dongfang Bubai apparently dies after falling off the cliff. Ren Woxing regains control of the cult and starts killing those who pledged loyalty to Dongfang Bubai. Linghu Chong and Yue Lingshan secretly escape with help from Xiang Wentian and Ren Yingying because they know that Ren Woxing cannot tolerate them.
The United States version has nine minutes of the original film cut and was released under the title Legend of the Swordsman. It is dubbed in English and retains the original music score.
The Hong Kong version is in Cantonese and it retains the nine minutes of extended footage and gory violence.
The Taiwanese version, which is dubbed in Mandarin, contains an additional four minutes of rare extended and gory footage that was removed in the United States and Hong Kong releases, bringing the total runtime to 112 minutes. It has some different music scores and features Jet Li's original voice. It has aired on Chinese Television System many times.
In the Mandarin-dubbed version of the film, Rosamund Kwan and speak Sichuanese instead of Standard Mandarin. This was meant to enhance the fact that their characters are of the Miao ethnic group.
The original soundtrack album for the film, "Ching Hsia Lin/ Swordsman 2" (traditional Chinese: æ±æ¹ä¸Âæ ＠æÂÂéÂÂé é»影é³æ¨Âç´Â實; simplified Chinese: ä¸Âæ¹ä¸Âè´¥ ï¼ÂæÂÂéÂÂé çµ影é³ä¹Â纪å®Â; pinyin: Dà ÂngfÃÂng bù bài - lÃÂnqëngxiá diànyÃÂng yënyuè jìshÃÂ) was released by BMG Music Taiwan in 1992. It contains 20 tracks with 3 sound recordings at the scene.
The theme song from The Swordsman, Chong Hoi Yat Sing Siu (), performed in Cantonese by Samuel Hui in the first film, was played in a few scenes in Swordsman II.
Brigitte Lin's performance was listed as one of the "Great Performances" by Richard Corliss under TIME magazine's "All-TIME 100 Movies". On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 71% based on 7 reviews, with an average rating of 6.79/10.
The film grossed HK$34,462,861 at the Hong Kong box office and remains Jet Li's highest-grossing film in Hong Kong to date.