One of the best adoptions off an original novel or TV series. This one has the same story as a famous book (and later produced into several TV series) written by Gu Long, I believe, about a very famous folk martial artist/wuxia hero - "Xia Li Fei Dao" Li Xun Huan. If you need to see a recent portrait of this character, go see LEGEND OF THE FLYING SWORDSMAN (2000). But this Shaw Bros production is much better. The story basically reflects the magnificent novel, with tons of suspense and unexpected twists that you need to understand the Chinese language in order to fully understand the movie. Nevertheless, it suffers from poor action that is nowhere near as well-choreographed and effectized as the TV series. But I highly recommend this movie to anyone who understands Chinese, especially those who are also fans of wuxia novels and series. [9/10]