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Because he has a relationship with Li Zhishen's wife Yuexiang, Long Zhentian
of the 3 evil Long brothers wants him dead ... but Li Zhishen wields the
invincible Golden Blade, so when the Long brothers arrive, he teaches them a
lesson ... only his unfaithful wife is clever enough to overcome him, when she
drugs him with exactly the poison he has ordered her to take for her
infidelity, then she steals his golden blade ... & it is a small wonder
that, with the help of his faithful servant Li Sheng, Li Zhishen & his
young daughter Xiaoyan manage to escape. Soon they meet up with poor herbalist
Liu & his son Quingyong, who save Li Zhishen's life ... 18 years later:
Li Zhishen, his daughter & his servant have stayed with the herbalist &
his son all the time, & Xiaoyan (now played by Chin Ping) has grown up to
be a fierce swordfighter, determined to one day avenge her father - even if she
doesn't quite know why or whom she should fight to avenge him. But apart from
fighting, Xiaoyan has remainded terribly naive, so on her first visit to the
neighbouring vilalge she is promptly lured into a brothel, & almost drugged
& raped ... woulnd't the brothel be run by her own, unfaithful mother
Yuexiang, who ultimately lets her go without revealing her true identity to the
girl, but is quite eager to learn the whereabouts of Li Zhishen ... which
Xiaoyan tells her, rather foolishly. That night, she witnesses Yuexiang
visiting ehr father, overhears the fact that she is her daughter, & runs
away, disappointed by her father who told her her mother is dead ... soon
later, she sees their home burn. Xiaoyan realizes that she has wronged her
father, & her heart is set on revenge. So she goes after the Long Brothers,
& the first 2 are hardly a match for her superior sword(wo)manship, &
thus lose their lives in a jiffy ... but then there's Long Zhentian, who
doesn't only own the Golden Blade, but is also cunning: while Xiaoyan was out
killing his brothers, he has kidnapped Li Zhishen & master Liu & is
keeping them in his fortress, a deathtrap for anyone who would try to free them
... but Xiaoyan, with the help of Quingyong, tries anyway, but the full-on,
swordfighting approach proves futile, & Xiaoyan & Quingyong are lucky
to escape with their lives ... so Xiaoyan pretends to sell herself to Long
Zhentian to get close enough to him to kill him ... & it would almost have
worked, wasn't it for her mother's interference ... Ultimately, Xiaoyan gets
to fight Long Zhentian though, & almost kills him, but again is stopped by
her mother, who tells her Long Zhentian is her real father, a claim confirmed
by Li Zhishen, who has since been freed again. Again Xiaoyang runs away,
& Li Zhishen, convinced that he has failed his adoptive daughter, wants to
leave to so spend the rest of his days as a hermit, but again, he is attacked
by Long Zhentian, with the Giolden Blade. But somehow Xiaoyang has gained
possession of the Hablong Blade, the only blade that can defeat the Golden
Blade, & which her father has made in secrecy, & a fierce battle
ensues, in which Yuexiang is killed, rather accidently, Xiaoyan manages to
break the Golden Blade ... & ultimately loses the fight, being no match for
Long Zhentian after all, who has somehow got hold of the Hablong Blade ... but
ultimately is killed by a shard of the Golden Blade Li Zhishen throws into his
back to save his daughter. Xiaoyang promises to stay with Li Zhishen, the
only father she ever had. Nice little swordsplay movie, that might
take a bit long to kick into gear, wasting a tad too much time setting the
story up, but once the action starts (& quite violent too), it's really
worth your while ... even if the film is never on par with acknowledged genre
classics of its time like Come Drink
with me.
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