The family is practicing martial arts by the water. The master receives warning of an escaped criminal. That would be Yi Yuan and he arrives on cue for revenge against the master. The master is killed. Revenge begets more revenge.
After the titles the family is training with a new master. Cut to Polly rides into town and stops at the tea house. Problem after problem occurs and the family ends up reunited plus another helpful martial artist. Yi Yuen is back. He demands the town send 100 people to a slave labor operation. Our guys must flee after fighting him. That night he also kills about 20 men coming to arrest him. Multiple attempts to kill him fail.
How about a magic sword?
Polly Shang-Kuan Ling-Feng probably has more aliases than anyone in movies. She has appeared in some of the finest (1967 Dragon Inn) to some of the silliest (you pick!). Her skills in martial arts are authentic but after the acting began.
Yi Yuan played "Dare Devil" in 1970 "Sorrowful to a Ghost", "The Ghost Sword", and 1971 "Matchless Conqueror". Those three are considered a trilogy. There was also 1971 "Duel with Devil" In this movie he is called Chao Mu-Tien. I know that "chao" can be translated as "super" but that's the limit to my Chinese. Anyway, in this movie Yi Yuan's character resembles the "Dare Devil" character in the trilogy and he may have played that character in more movies.
My copy is a DVD of uncertain source. The video is widescreen and top quality. Multiple language subtitles are included. The dialog is only Chinese.
The movie magic occurs at about the 50 minute mark. There is a perfectly done practical effect of a sword (on a wire) flying into a fleeing villain's back. You will rewind/pause/frame by frame that a few times!.
For fans of martial arts movies from the golden age 1967 to 1984 I recommend this movie and rate it a tad above run of the mill. The fights are frequent and I never had my finger on fast forward, so that counts for something, right?
