I gave this movie just 1 star at first long time ago, then I changed my rating to 9 after I've reviewed it the 2nd time. There's something so subtle, so melancholy, so retrospected to the Chinese martial arts, even the making, the writing and the editing were very awkward and patchy throughout the whole movie. The screenplay is somewhat a bit weird, the historical background also awkward, but it shows how the traditional Chinese martial arts had been gradually phased out during and after that specific era in the turmoiled early 20th century. The on-going of this movie sometimes felt heavily pretentious and also so awkwardly patched, the acting also felt quite staged, especially the two warlords' henchwomen, who were so weirdly and so pretentiously dressed and talked, but nonetheless it showed something so subtle and so difficult to put finger on. A very very nostalgic and melancholy retrospection to the lost era in Chinese history. A tribute, a salute and a sayonara to an art that could never be retrieved but only fake outcomes from China.
