I also prefer elegant swordfights over more brute force fight scenes. One of my favorites is from Empress Ki, where she tries to save her newborn baby with nothing but a stick, on a cliff, against like ten armed soldiers, right after giving birth. But I think I loved the sentiments and emotions in that scene more than the actual action.

Personaly, I'm not a big fan of sword battle with a lot of "parasite" moves that look cool but not really useful.

I liked Han Heri 's fights in Six Flying Dragons. She used very well her background in Korean dance in the fights.

I think I'm more focused on the energy than the technics. Some actors doesn't show any energy neither strength even the fight looks good like IU in Hotel del Luna.

I liked the fights in My Country, they weren't elegant and classy but pretty messy. But WDH and YSJ were very convincing.

Now, I think they don't really have time anymore to focus on that. The dramas are shorter, they always run after the time and it's complicated to learn the choreo. In AoS, they took the time for the first part and then used Uk's powers to finish the battle in one move of the arm...

The tragic swordsman is one of my favorite tropes, so naturally the sageuks is my favorite genre. My favorite sword fights are in Six Flying Dragons and Chuno (The Slave Hunters). The combination of choreography, directing/editing, and cool music make the fighting scenes in these dramas truly memorable.

Finally a catnip I can get behind! Tho in my case it's more like any type of martial arts action rather than swordplay alone. I'm a kid from martial artist's family myself and those things were always a huge part of my life, MA movies included. So when I first discovered kdramas and their beautiful action scenes in sageuks... you can guess. Initial excitement soon cooled down once I discovered that not all k-actors starring in those dramas can actually do their impressive stunts for real unlike in the movies I saw as a child (and trust me, it's even more jarring when you personally know tons of people who do kung fu as a morning workout routine) . Since then it became a quest - watching closely to pick up rare true martial artists in the sea of "I slay enemies with my handsome face and editor will do the rest". Thankfully, my hard work wasn't in vain and I found some people I follow religiously when it comes to their action projects, historical and modern. Adding one more name to that still way-too-short list is always a huge celebration. Sadly, it's been a while since I've had any new discoveries from kdramaworld... China is doing better at it currently, despite them abandoning the traditional approach of casting MA-skilled actors for action shows ages ago. Some of their kids (and plenty of veterans) still got moves, thank heavens!

Surprised that no one mentioned Chuno yet - now that's the high class action sageuk, jaw-dropping swordplay included. They just don't make them like that anymore, which is a tragedy for the genre... Also the movie Duelist (2005) was really pretty in that aspect.

Great rundown! I don't know much about more classic sageuks, but you've got me interested. I usually go to movies to get my fix of beautiful, elegant swordfights, but I might have to try one of these!

Speaking of Queen Seondeok, Bidam has some cool sword fighting scenes. My favorite one is "ten paces to Deokman."

Love swords. Love fighting. Unfortunately, rarely love the sword fighting in Kdramas these days, because it's not realistic; they don't often get the balance between flare and accuracy in that sweet spot for me. Haven't seen most of these older sageuks yet though 😂

My favorite kdrama swordsman will always be Gil Tae Mi (Park Hyuk-kwon) of Six Flying Dragons, eye shadow and all! He made everyone else forgettable for me 😉

People keep pushing swordfights and bow-and-arrow work as somehow 'romantic' but to me its sheer butchery. Your trying to do to other people what hog farmers do to pigs, but less humanely.

Jang Hyuk actually made a movie titled The Swordsman. He plays a legendary swordsman who suddenly disappeared and hasn’t been seen for years. It turns out that his eyesight was beginning to fail. But when his daughter is kidnapped by a member of the Qing imperial family, he comes out of retirement to save her. Having to compensate for his impaired vision adds another dimension to Jang Hyuk’s swordplay, which is—as always— simply breathtaking. Unfortunately, other than the sword fighting, the rest of the film is a dud.

Oooh great write-up. It is a shame that recent sageuks do not have epic swordfights like they used to.

I do love the adrenaline rush and anticipation when I'm watching a sword fight play out. The clashing of swords until one is defeated.

Still have not watched Six Flying Dragons. >.<;;; Haven't seen enough swordswomen!

I also love great fight choreography, especially when swords are involved. For me, Six Flying Dragons reigns supreme in this department. The fights were aesthetically stunning, but they also felt genuinely dangerous, a combination that shows rarely pull off. Also, they never felt gratuitous. Every sequence revealed character and furthered the story and no moves felt wasted. Maybe one day we'll get similar dramas again from k-drama land?

Swordswomen , Han Hye-jin as Soseono in Jumong .