This is a great piece of work. Amazingly beautiful cinematography throughout and fairly good music too. I agree that the use of slow motion is confusing at times and a bit of a cheap effect (still relied upon in his later work) but it does add to the elegant and leisurely pace of the work. The main thing to appreciate here is that when it comes to new wave kungfu flicks, while he may have been influenced by the greats before him (Kurosawa etc) this film does predate Crouching Tiger and Kill Bill, not to mention Yimou’s masterpiece ‘Hero’. Hey Mr Ang Lee, check out the swordswoman on the water scene