Another wuxia movie, and stunning it is too, the desert landscapes and use of colour are breathtaking. This film concentrates a lot on the ‘xia’ element as an assassin (Li) learns while facing his intended warlord victim that there may be larger issues than his own revenge.

In conversation with the targeted warlord his motivation towards assassination is played in retrospective, and the contradicting stories from the assassin and warlord are played out in intense visual form. For instance, two women sword fight with flowing crimson robes and black hair against a backdrop of an autumn wood with uniformly golden-yellow leaves. The leaves swirl as the fight progresses until one is killed and as she dies we see through her eyes the golden leaves in the wood falling and turning red. Visually poetic.

Eventually the true story of prior events is revealed and the assassin calmly accepts his own death, a hero’s death, for the sake of a greater China ‘Our Land’ - all very patriotic stuff.

The storyline is not as deep as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon nor as promising as House of Flying Daggers but visually I think it is the most satisfying, if a little sad as an ending. Perhaps they’ll make a wuxia film where people actually live happily ever after.