The story unfolds in a muddy manner, but it can be broken down like this: Our hero arrives in a city on the eve of a knife (I think they meant "sword" or "weapon") competition and goes to the bigwig, masked, secret martial society to ask that they suspend the games. As it turns out, both he and the clan leader wanted to find rivals at the competition. Our hero wants to find a man known only as The Man of Sorrow, who ten years prior told him of his fathers death and agreed that he would meet him at the competition and reveal more details of his fathers death. The masked clan leader knows of this man and agrees to turn over his whereabouts if our hero can find a blind, dumb, scarred, and crippled fighter that is the masked clan leaders rival. You scratch my back...

The masked clan leader turns over parchment detailing a secret knife skill to our hero which gets out around the martial world and has different bad guys attacking him in order to steal the document. So, it is pretty clear that the masked clan leader is up to villainous business. As our hero learns more about his fathers death (which was second or third hand information in the first place), it doesn't take a genius to figure out who the masked clan leader is. Along the way out hero crosses paths with a princes who bails him out of nearly every sticky situation and fight he encounters, as well as a one-armed fighter seeking vengeance for his families ruin- guess when, some ten years prior.

This is one of those films that really pushes it's muddled story too much, at least in the terms that it inhibits the action. The plot has a lot of stretches, from the fact that he believes a strangers tale of his fathers death to the fact that his uncle hides out in a cave for a decade and after dropping a few clues about our hero's dad, his uncle commits suicide. Which would all be fine if the action was okay, but our hero is bailed out of every fight by the love struck princess who tags along, rearing her head every time he cant bring himself to bloody his sword. But, at least he ditches the green jade novelty size dagger he uses in his first fight. It is the kind of weapon that might belong on the one-armed swordsman's keychain but is too stupid for a hero's kickass weapon.

While there is plenty of sloppy wirework and the story is crammed with colorful characters, I just didn't find it to be very engaging. I had the movie playing mid afternoon on my computer, and I found myself not bothering to pause when I got up to get a snack or go to the bathroom. It wasn't horrible, but it really lacked a spark, that one ultra cool character or inspired piece of action to really rope you in.

The DVD: Crash Cinema

Picture: Fullscreen. Add another one to the list of worn out tape transfers. Yes, it is hard to track down decent prints of so may kung fu movies, but it still it it a real bummer when you pop in a DVD only to be greeted with a muddy vhs quality image.

Sound: Mono. English dub. Gets the job done, but it is another reverb drenched, laughably acted, chop socky dub.

Extras: Chapters--- Jump to Fight Scene feature--- Gallery (just screencaps)

Conclusion: It was semi-entertaining, in a low budget jumbled mess of a way. Still, it isnt going to convert any non-kung fu fans, and is best reserved for b-film martial fans looking for a casual purchase.