This 1973 film was directed by King Hu, who pioneered Hong Kong-based New Martial Arts movies. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, Lee Khan, a powerful figure in the Royal Court, visits the Spring Inn bar on the border region, with his entourage in order to obtain the secret war map from a traitor in Chu’s army. The bar is filled with sharp tension and bloody duels arise as chivalrous resistance fighters struggle with Lee Khan’s skilled entourage. Following Come Drink with Me (1965) and Dragon Inn (1967), Director King Hu used the small space, ‘the bar’, as the stage of the drama, creating realistic fighting scenes and depicting the mindset of fighters risking their lives. Following in the vein of Touch of Zen (1969), by combining traditional Chinese music and martial arts in carefully crafted montage sequences, the director placed martial arts movies among the artistic genres. This movie exemplifies the original Chinese martial arts movie, expressing the spirit of chivalry between good and evil. (Kang Nae Young)