Sadly Over-hyped

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

This is a bad martial arts film and unfortunately, it isn't even worth seeing if you are a lover of films so bad they are fun to watch (such as the outrageous MASTER OF THE FLYING GUILLOTINE). Instead, it's bad because the film offers nothing other than the usual martial arts clichés and the fighting in the first 90% of the film is so pedestrian. I am not exaggerating to say that most of the "actors" in the film honestly looked as if they never were trained in any martial art, as almost all the "kung fu" moves were punches (this is in quotes because I have NO IDEA what martial art they were practicing--it looked like "crap poo" or something). The few kicks they did were almost all at knee level and the overall effect was just sloppy. Only near the very end when one of our heroes takes on dozens of bad guys in a knife fight do we actually see some quality martial arts. Otherwise, it just looks awful and forgettable. Life is too short to watch dull bad films.