This luscious production by the premiere auteur of phantasmagorical wuxia films puts a surprising new spin on his usual motifs of gallantry and intrigue. Lilly Ho plays a seductive but innocent girl sold into a brothel where the lascivious madame (Betty Pei Ti), ensnared by the young nubile's charms, lets her in on the secrets of esoteric and deadly kung fu, unwittingly sowing the seeds of a devious revenge plot. A singularly provocative martial arts film, its feminist subtext coyly veiled by its elegant yet decidedly lurid veneer.