The picture of the DVD box displayed with this title reads "Knights of the Old Cathay". I have that DVD and the proper title of this movie is "The Knight of Old Cathay." The IMDb title has "knights" but there is only one knight or swordsman in this movie. Titles of these old martial arts movies can be a confusing mess so I'm trying to straighten this out. On with the review. Taiwan movies of this era seem to differ from Hong Kong movies of the same genre. This movie along with "Dragon Gate Inn", and "A Touch of Zen" are dramas with martial arts added whereas their counterparts are derivatives of Chinese opera. The drama here is well written. The martial arts is rather basic with one swing of the sword the stunt men go flying. Yet there is a cut or two where the lead actor does over ten moves in a single cut. I always give the action choreographer and the actor credit when that happens. The DVD is widescreen with embedded Chinese and English subtitles. The picture is scratchy but most of the color remains bright. All the details and fights are clear except for an early night scene but that scene was mainly dialog and exposition anyway. Overall I rate this movie as just above average for the year and genre.
