Piao xiang jian yu

1977 Taiwan with Tien Peng, Pai Ying, Wang Ping, Tang Pao-Yun and Woo Gam. The movie starts with tremendous body count all attributed to "the Bishop". Tien Peng's wife goes missing and Pai Ying's girl is held hostage and he is forced to join the bishop. It seems they are the same girl. The bishop's men are after Tien Peng because of a "fragrant sword". Yes, this could be the most absurd weapon ever. It is described as a sword that affects the opponent's sense of smell in some overwhelming way. After an attack, Tien Peng is wounded and he escapes over a waterfall. He holes up in a cave with two old masters. They teach him special sword techniques. After leaving he meets a girl who is also against the bishop but he won't ally with her. He enters a tea house and Woo Gam uses magic smoke to take him prisoner. There is a fight and Woo Gam dumps him and he is back with the first girl. He encounters Pai Ying and is captured in a net. The other girl takes over from there and rescues him. Pai Ying again pursues him. They fight and all the truth and plot twists are revealed. Some excellent martial arts movies came out of Taiwan in the late 1960's and then it seemed the movies of the late 1970's tried to recapture that greatness but all failed. That was followed by hundreds of the worst martial arts movies ever made – any movie with "ninja" in the title would be an example. Yet here there was success. This movie really does have a great story line, a plot twist no one would ever guess, and I'll give one thing away – there is no fragrant sword. That was all nonsense because "A man cannot rely on tricks, he must depend upon himself." My highest recommendation and a rating of eight out of ten.

There are some movies that you immediately recognize of having had the potential to become classics, but were perhaps dismissed due to a glaring amount of faults - this is one such film.

The action, acting, diverse characters, swordsmanship, and pacing are all fantastic, but the real stand out is a fairly deep and involved mystery plot that builds up. While perhaps obvious to some, such mystery and third act reveal is still something not often found in many of its contemporaries.

Had the editing and horrific continuity (make no mistake, you will be left with a case of whiplash as characters jump from one set to a field miles away with a single cut) been tightened up this would be deserving to stand side-by-side with the other greats of the genre. The quality of the subtitles (at least for the burned-in ones I watched) is also lacking but good enough to follow along - however I do hope this film gets a remaster one day with a proper translation to go along with it.

There are some very decently choreographed fights in this movie.

Some pretty chinese women and men in the main roles.

Classic kung-fu-movie cinematography, though sets and costumes are not A+.

Probably worth a watch!