The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter may have arrived at the midpoint of Lau Kar-leung’s career, but it plays like a late-period reckoning with a genre he helped create. Possessing some of the action maestro’s finest set pieces, and steeped in spiritual exhaustion, this is kung fu’s answer to The Searchers.

You can always rely on Lau Kar-leung to make good on a film title loaded with so much promise. The Shaw Brothers maestro writes, directs, and stars in this gloriously entertaining blend of wuxia and kung fu. Rolled out for the grand finale, those weapons prove as plentiful as they are legendary.