But then everyone has to start somewhere, I guess. The film is one of those anti-Japanese Chinese films (apparently the Japanese must have done some nasty things during the time because I used to have a Chinese friend who hated the Japanese, but was not even born when the conflict happened). The other unusual thing is one of the bad guys turns into a good guy (and gets killed in the process). Otherwise it's not as incoherent or non-sensical as other martial arts films, but there is the usual bad direction, editing, and out-of-focus photography characteristic of these films. So, nothing special here. And while some may consider Woo a good director, the only thing he was ever good at is action sequences, and most of these are so over-the-top as to be totally unbelievable (as are the plot devices in his films).
