Extremely influentional Wuxia fantasy film that served as a major inspiration for a directors of a generation later like Tsui Hark, Ang Lee, Ching Siu-Tung and Wong Kar-Wai. A smart but sort of scatterbrained scholar/painter who lives with his mother meets up with a mysterious young woman and her seemingly blind companion. In reality they are kung fu-powered warriors on the run from the government which is constantly dispatching wicked officials with martial arts abilities of their own to catch them. The first thing that will definately strike anyone about this film is the running time, which is just over three hours. Surprisingly, despite the slow-paced establishing shots and loving overpasses of natural scenery, the story moves very quickly and the time flies by. The plot is certainly stretched a bit, though, and the subject matter is nowhere near epic enough for this sort of length. What the film has a lot of is very human, believable and endearing characters, a handful of intense action sequences and a blueprint for many of the flying swordsman adventure films that would flourish in Hong Kong in the 1980s and early 90s. This is a certifiable classic in the HK film pantheon, and has been quoted by many prominent directors in dozens of films. Because of this, its legacy may weigh a little heavy of its viewers, but taken on its own merits it's a fun, well-performed and engaging tale of friendship and swordplay.