An unusual Honk Kong movie that favors the murder mystery aspect over the martial arts with an Asian version of giallo thrown in.
An historian, Fong, records unusual events for posterity. When a man tries to sell a manuscript by Fong it's discovered to be a forgery. But the damage is done. The manuscript details a years-old curse going back 10 years involving butterflies. Before long someone is killed by a swarm of butterflies and several martial arts experts are called to Castle Shum to investigate a mystery. The mystery is that most everyone is gone and the few people remaining are living in the underground chambers of the castle.
The movie has a lot going on. There are two rival clans, a trio od deadly martial artist experts, a female master named the Green Shadow, Fong, who acts as a sort of detective, a mysterious head-to-toe black clad killer, and a couple of other things. The music, like so many Hong Kong movies, is tracked with pre-existing film music. In this case, a lot of it is scored with Jerry Goldsmith's PLANET OF THE APES. There's other music used as well and it's all spotted very well and effectively. It's directed by Tsui Hark, responsible for so many great Hong Kong fantasy films. Good production values. A little bit more care seems to have gone into this movie.
An historian, Fong, records unusual events for posterity. When a man tries to sell a manuscript by Fong it's discovered to be a forgery. But the damage is done. The manuscript details a years-old curse going back 10 years involving butterflies. Before long someone is killed by a swarm of butterflies and several martial arts experts are called to Castle Shum to investigate a mystery. The mystery is that most everyone is gone and the few people remaining are living in the underground chambers of the castle.
The movie has a lot going on. There are two rival clans, a trio od deadly martial artist experts, a female master named the Green Shadow, Fong, who acts as a sort of detective, a mysterious head-to-toe black clad killer, and a couple of other things. The music, like so many Hong Kong movies, is tracked with pre-existing film music. In this case, a lot of it is scored with Jerry Goldsmith's PLANET OF THE APES. There's other music used as well and it's all spotted very well and effectively. It's directed by Tsui Hark, responsible for so many great Hong Kong fantasy films. Good production values. A little bit more care seems to have gone into this movie.
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