The Sword With No Name is a formulaic tale of romance, honour and tragedy, spun around the controversial figure of Korean Empress Myeongseong. It presumes a greater knowledge of the history of the period than is likely in a Western audience, and crucial plot points whizz past like a sword cutting air. Nevertheless, you’ll get the general idea: this isn’t an account of a powerful woman locked in political and diplomatic machinations; it’s a yarn about the love of a swordsman called Mu Myeong (making a nonsense of the title), who devotes himself to protecting her from assassination attempts. With his slavish devotion, and the quease-making gender stereotypes (we’re given the distinct impression, for example, that the Empress’s foreign policy is shaped by her curiosity about European corsets), you’re never really rooting for the couple, though it would take a hard heart to entirely resist the high melodrama of the finale. The Sword With No Name feels a little cynical with its genre box ticking but moves along entertainingly enough, with atmospheric set-pieces and lustrous period details, fantastical fight sequences, and exquisite tragedy, plus it has some brilliantly sinister black-hatted palace guards.