But seriously, this is in my opinion the best of the old school HK ninja movies, alongside FIVE ELEMENT NINJAS and DUEL TO THE DEATH. It has just the right amount of cheese and comedy, balanced well with the fairly serious storyline and awesome action. The choreography by director Yuen Kwai and Meng Hoi is super tight, and shows the various styles on display to their full extent. Conan Lee and Hiroyuki Sanada rarely looked better than they do here. Too bad that Sanada didn't do more HK movies, and that Conan turned out to be an egomaniacal ass, ruining his own career.

I'll admit that the whole thing kind of unravels towards the end. After the awesome pagoda showdown, there really wasn't anywhere for the movie to go. So what do you do? You bring out the big guns, in the form of grandmaster Hwang Jang Lee of course. He is sort of played for laughs here, but still brings the thunder and caps off the film nicely, despite his slightly cartoonish sendoff.

So, in closing, an all time favourite classic of mine that delivers the goods, as well as the bitter sweet sting of nostalgia, for me personally. So if you haven't seen it, and are going by this review, deduct that last half star, that is strictly for the memories.