Jackson Booth-Millard I found this Chinese / Mandarin film in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, that was obviously the only reason I found out about and watched it, so I hoped it would be worthwhile, directed by King Hu (A Touch of Zen). Basically a government garrison is ambushed by a clan of bandits, their evil plan is to get their Clan Chief back, they capture and take hostage the son of the general for an exchange. The general's other offspring, and an Official from the government, is a young girl known as Golden Swallow (Cheng Pei-Pei), she is sent by the Governor to save the Official. Disguised as a man, the Golden Swallow will confront the bandits group, led by the evil Jade Faced Tiger (Chen Hung Lieh), who is not easy to deal with. Golden Swallow finds a new ally in Drunken Knight (or Drunken Cat) (Yueh Hua), together they will team up against the bandits and try to overcome the crisis, and to rescue the General's son. Also starring Yang Chih- Ching as Abbot Liao Kung and Feng Yi as Chen Hou. Cheng, who would reprise her role in follow-up film Golden Swallow, and would later go on to star as the villain in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, gives a good performance as the fearless swordswoman, I did understand the story of the female warrior sent by her governor father to negotiate the release of her brother, but having to read subtitles I lost track with most other stuff going on, but the fight and bloody sequences just about rescued it, overall it's not a bad martial arts action adventure. Worth watching!

Boba_Fett1138 This movie is quite surprising, considering the time period it got made in. You have to realize that there wasn't really such a thing as the action genre yet at the time, at least not in the way we now know it.In that regard this movie really feels ahead of its time and perhaps can even be seen as a trend-setter. It's a Kung Fu flick, featuring lots of sword fights and all kinds of adventurous aspects. This is a genre that truly became popular much later, in the '70's.It's also a movie that goes very over-the-top with all of its action. It's almost done in a cartoon-like kind of way. Quite ridicules to see at times but also at the same time it's what giving the movie its style and helps to make it the entertaining movie that it is.It's truly a movie that thrives on its action moments. You obviously shouldn't watch this for its story, that is kind of simplistic and formulaic in the first place. It's the action that makes the movie entertaining and luckily the action never disappoints neither. All of the sword fights are quite spectacularly done, though you should all take it with a big grain of salt really, since it's all obviously something that could never happen in real life. But it's not just the way things got choreographed but also really the way it got shot. That to me was the biggest surprise; how dynamically the movie got shot. It features some great camera-work, as well as some nimble editing that make the movie fast paced and often spectacular to look at. It feels and looks like a true action movie, even still now days.It's also quite surprising to see a female playing the main lead and hero of the movie. She's the one who does the most fighting and has some of the most impressive skills. She puts a lot of the male characters to shame in this one and also apparently became popular enough to spawn a sequel after.Simply good entertainment and a great accomplishment of a movie, especially considering that this movie is from the earliest days of the Hong Kong martial arts genre.8/10 http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

KRS_kungfu This movie has it all -- meaning that it's directed by King Hu, and stars Cheng Peipei. The wire work is flawless, the use slow motion breathless, and the butt kicking is epic. The mistaken identity plot RE: Cheng is the same as a lot of pictures from this time -- but King Hu does it with real flair in this one. I was put on to this movie and King Hu in general by a guy I spar with every week at Fu. Cheng's moves are fluid and inspiring. Pay particular attention to how it is that she's able to take on multiple opponents -- I can't say exactly what style she's using, but it's surprsingly believable considering many actors of the time did more ballet/Peking opera acrobatrics, than actual ancient forms. This is a must see for anyone into martial arts.

ConcreteSteelC Da zui xia was a relief. I watched many kung fu movies as a child that were slightly reminescent of this one, and have stopped watching recent ones since the scope of their theme had narrowed down so much.Now, for the first time in many years, I am able to recover some of what I saw back then but did not fully understand. A recent tour throughout China and more familiarity with Chinese philosophy and culture gave me sudden insights in the director's message. This is very refreshing.