Two strangers meet in a desolate area and discuss the world of swordsmanship. Of course they also fight. More fights follow and a helpful narrator explains who these guys are but not why I should even care. The fights were not to the death. The fight choreography was "I will raise my sword and you hit it with yours". The third opponent was female and the fourth a Chinese "Zatoichi". Next he seeks "Sword Saint".
A girl is following behind, looking for him. She takes time to rescue a village from a gang of extortionist robbers. The village had an old kung fu master there but he did nothing. The fighting improved a bit with the girl. Wire work and reverse effects were used and they were primitive even for 1969. The gang returns, she is drugged and captured. The town and a masked man come to her rescue. She has a back story with the lead. They were previously students together but he went too far and the master threw him out because of the dagger technique.
I have written reviews for over 1000 movies from the golden age of martial arts movies, 1967 to 1984. Yet I had to look up the names of all the actors in this movie as none seemed familiar to me. Niu Fang-Yu made about eight other martial arts movies. I remember her from "The First Swordsman or Life and Death Entrance", and "A Daughter's Vengeance or Vengeance of a Snow-Maid". I have not been able to acquire her other movies. Some of them must have been released in Thailand because I've seen the covers and they have Thai letters.
Some actors have had dozens, even hundreds of roles, but none stand out as martial arts stars even considering in 1969 (the year of release) the typical star had no real martial arts experience. The copy was VHS format as a digital file and it had above average color and resolution compared to the typical "Ocean Shores video presentation". The voices were Chinese with Chinese hard subtitles. Unique were English subtitles on top of everything. Is it possible the English subtitles were the work of a fan? If so, I would love to meet this person!
