It's a very straightforward tale of good versus evil, even to the point of the bad guys wearing all black (well, with the exception that the officers and better warriors among the Japanese pirates wear red), and the good guys wearing white.

Wang Yu's character is a swordsman who arrives in a small town on his way to Hangchow to help his uncle (a garrison commander) battle the latest pirate incursion. He's too late to help his uncle, as Hangchow has already fallen, but after killing and driving out an advance party of pirates in the town, he feels honor and duty-bound to protect the little town from an inevitable future reprisal.

Therefore, he recruits some martial arts masters, and conveniently two of them head formerly rival schools with a large numbers of disciples, offering an instant large army.

The real heart of the movie boils down to one of the longest, most intense, and intricately battle sequences put on a martial arts film as the full weight of the pirate force attacks the town. It's probably half an hour long of non-stop combat, street to street and house to house fighting. The body count piles up until the faces withdraw for a breather, and the hero must face the evil pirate warlord in a final one on one duel at night.

Also, this is one of the few films that's practically all male in its cast. There is not only no leading lady, one can hardly even spot a single female among the few crowd shots of civilians. If you just want to see a no-nonsense, action-packed, stick 'em with knives, stick 'me with spears (and even stick 'em with chopsticks) type of flick, this is the movie for you.