Nevertheless audiences for this type of film haven’t come for the plot and when it comes to the swordplay sequences, the film is quite amazing. The action sequences are directed by Chin Siu-Tung, director of the stunning A Chinese Ghost Story (1987), as well as Swordsman II (1992), the pinnacle of this flying swordsman genre, and the action sequences on fairly much every other Hong Kong film. The film literally explodes into action in the very first scenes with Tony Leung and Yeoh’s bandits flying in to attack a caravan, detonating people with their punches and using their own clothing as slingshots to trampoline one another off. The middle of the film has a remarkable sequence set in a forest with the heroes impaling their enemies on branches while sliding down the midst of a split-open bamboo plants and the like. And it is at the climax that the film reaches the truly mind-boggling featuring blinding sword combat with the combatants running around the walls of the room; the hero chopping his way through people’s bodies and a giant pillar that the villain swings against him; the heroine wielding wound silk as a weapon; and a dizzying finale involving a juggled iron ball and the villain employing a special move that has him spinning around the room like a top.