Baloney! What a wasted opportunity.

Rating: 3/10 (6 December 2009)

This movie is not historically accurate at all, it's more like a fairytale based on a historical character.
Moreover, we are treated to the boring, same-old-same-old wushu acrobatics with some rapid punching and other "short" techniques thrown in to make it feel more like Wing Chun. But there's still ridiculous kicks and flying bad guys everywhere... yawn. The freaky wounds suffered by the baddies are interesting, but so over the top.
Since the Chinese like to portray the Japanese as the ultimate evil (granted, history provides some reason for that), we get a boring depiction of Japanese as evil bastards, predictably combined with a even more boring and overly simplistic representation of Japanese karate.
If you can't get enough of the typical Chinese MA movies, AND you've seen the classics from way back, then by all means have a look at this. The fighting choreography in itself is entertaining, and the cinematography is not bad at all.
But this movie adds very little to the genre, while in potential it could have been so much more.