An origin story for Guanyin, known as the Goddess Of Mercy. In this version, the pious daughter of a vicious warlord tries to persuade her father to be more magnanimous now that he has triumphed in the war, but he just wants to enjoy the spoils of victory.

The film presents a simplistic vision of Buddhism... Miao Shang is faultlessly compassionate whilst her father and sisters are unfailingly nasty. No explanation is given why she has turned out so differently, growing up in the same environment, it just seems to be their nature. As such there's little growth or discovery and her "conversion" to Buddhism is just her meeting a Buddhist and thinking "seems cool".

The first half of the film is therefore a little dull. Eventually she ends up attempting to free captured slaves and things pick up a bit. The picture of Buddhism it paints is still very simplistic.. Miao Shang prays to Buddha and the group are miraculously saved. If it's that easy, why does Buddha need to be prompted?

Things get more interesting after this though, leading to a final act that gets pretty nuts . It's "too little, too late", but by the end of the film I was starting to enjoy it.

I don't believe this is the canonical origin story for Guanyin, but as a salacious advert for Buddhism I guess it could have been of interest to audiences of the time.

Apparently there is a Korean version with a different actress in the Li Li-Hua role. I'd be interested to see it, as her performance was one of the film's weakest points.