A great "swordfighter" learns humility after he is defeated by a master martial arts monk. But his reputation always precedes him, leading to danger, destruction, challenges, cruelty, kidnapping, and killing.
It's a powerful melodrama about a thwarted romance in 1930s Tientsin, China, during the Japanese occupation, and it stars Linda Lin Dai, one of the era's most popular stars. It was part of Golden Horse's 100 Greatest Chinese-Language Films.
A gang of bandits close in on a walled village, and send inflitrators into the village disguised as herb sellers. A mysterious stranger appears and roots out the bandits.
