It starts with a close up of an actor pretending to ride a horse then cuts long to a stunt man riding a horse. The young master makes it home wounded but the five devil ghosts have followed and kill the father. The young master sets off for revenge. He encounters a palanquin in the woods that is under attack. The palanquin has supreme magical powers and seems quite capable of defending itself but he steps in at the end to find a lovely princess inside. He takes his leave giving her only his name.
Next he is at a large tea house and is attacked and captured. The princess returns the favor and saves him. She then turns from a strong female fighter to a needy little girl who demands that our hero ditch his fiancée and marry her instead. The defeated fighters report back to their leader who sends more fighters out to get our hero. He is attacked again at an old temple. A mystery woman comes to his rescue but it is not the princess. She arrives after the fight and repeats her scene of demanding that he go to her island home and marry him. Mystery woman is next attacked by a guy with magic powers. She defeats him with a single drop of blood. Our guy is attacked again and this time rescued by an old master and his daughter. The man trying to kill our hero is a rejected student of the old master and comes looking for hero.
The movie starts with major wire work. The actors fly totally horizontal and it looks like they are puppets instead. Wires are also used in the weapon attacks. For 1971 this was advanced wire work but it does not stand the test of time and modern special effects. The fights are all swords and the choreography is simple. "I raise my sword and you hit it with yours" or "I spin in a circle and all of you go flying backwards from the breeze." The supporting characters are totally over the top outrageous. My digital file has dual hardsubs and is widescreen though a bit cropped on the sides so appears to have come from a laser disk source.
This movie is totally different from anything else of the genre in 1971. Whether that is a good thing or a bad thing is a matter of personal taste. I have to recommend it simply because of that but to put a number rating on it is also difficult because of that so I will just be fair and rate it average. This is for fans only, if you are not used to this sort of movie you most likely will hate it.
