Ni Kuang
Director Chang Cheh stated that for "Golden Swallow" he disregarded a historical backdrop for the film to give the story more creative freedom. Chang Cheh was his first time partnering with Ni Kuang to write the script. Cheh said that Ni "quickly picked up the techniques of scriptwriting—'The Invincible Fist' (1969) was simply a masterstroke by a gifted writer! The ensemble of characters was each vividly portrayed and the script depicted the four seasons with a sensibility rarely found in Chinese films. I also heightened the romantic sub-plot of 'The Golden Swallow' which centres on the triangular love relationship between Jimmy Wang Yu, Lo Lieh and Cheng Pei-pei." The Shaw Brothers intended to base the script on the character of Golden Swallow character in King Hu's "Come Drink with Me". After several script re-writes, the characters bear little to no resemblance to the original characters from "Come Drink With Me". Chang also stated he took influence from Japanese cinema at the period, and chose to shoot the film entirely in Japan.