The movie opens with an unsettling scene about castration, though nothing is really shown. I have to question the inclusion of that scene a it seems unnecessary. Perhaps the makers were going for realism. They seemed to be going for many things to make this movie not your cookie-cutter kung fu movie.
The parts fail to add up at the end. Lo Lieh is tossed in for a subplot about honor. Doris and another girl are tossed in to have some female fighters but they disappear before the final fight. Lung Fei is also tossed in and I really don't know what his character had to do with anything other than a kidnapping. Special weapons are tossed in to the fights to make them look different. Some viewers like creative weapons and some, like me, prefer only authentic.
In the end it all just adds up to another average movie of the year and genre suitable only for hard core fans to scratch off their list and say "I saw that too".