Badass.

This movie can be summed up in that single word.

Badass, even though it’s kind of a Western, and I don’t love those. Badass, even though it has clowns in it, and I love those less. Badass even though it stars Kate Bosworth, and I’ve had a problem with her since Superman Returns. It is just Bad. Ass.

The badassiest aspect of all is that of almost silent star Don-gung Jang; his performance in this movie is little short of miraculous. Oh, sure, the effects lend him a lot of his allure, his character -- Yang, the Warrior of the title, nicknamed “Skinny” -- being so very the master of swordsmanship that it is practically sorcery. But his implacable expression, conveying so much with only a twitch of facial muscle and the emotion (or lack thereof) found in his obsidian eyes, is truly a wonder, and makes our assassin anti-hero both irresistibly sexy and damned irritating, as well.

The rest of the performances are uniformly excellent; Kate Bosworth  redeems herself entirely for her terrible attempt at Lois Lane (not to mention Win a Date With Tad Hamilton!), being all adorably Calamity Jane. And, man, Geoffrey Rush shows up in the randomest stuff, doesn’t he? He’s like the Australian Michael Caine.

As for the plot, this is the tale of two great warrior clans of the Orient who have been at war for centuries; finally, one has almost wiped out the other, but when Yang, the greatest swordsman the world has ever seen, shows mercy during the final battle, he and his last remaining blood enemy venture to the New World to escape the predations of his family. There, he stakes out a quiet life in the dusty, tumbleweedy town of Lode as a laundryman, and hangs up his sword, lest it sing of all the lives it’s taken and attract the attention of his vengeful clan. (Yes, it’s a singing magical death sword. Go with it.) He makes friends, gets up a flirtation -- that’s with the super-cute and persnickety Kate Bosworth, don’t you know -- but, of course, we can’t have happily ever after yet, we’re not even halfway through the movie! So when a squickily creepy bad guy comes to town with his army of other bad guys, swords are unsheathed, old wrongs are avenged, there’s a whole bunch of angsting (plus some cleverly staged fight scenes; I have never seen such liberal gore perpetrated with such subtlety), and, hell, yeah! Awesome ending.

This movie is little bits of so many things. Everything from 300 to Crouching Tiger to Shanghai Noon to The Golden Child to Shane to all those revenge ninja movies Tarantino referenced in Kill Bill, there are plot elements, and even moments, that ring many a geeky bell. But it is all done in such a refreshingly homagey manner that it doesn’t feel derivative at all -- more like an in-joke we’re invited to share. Which is another way it’s all very Tarantino.

And all very badass.

Also, by the way? This movie features the cutest baby in the world, ever! I’m not exaggerating. Cutest. Ever. So in her own way, she’s pretty badass, too.

  -- Rachel Hyland