Hu has stated that the film is a comment on the popularity of James Bond films at the time. The film focuses on the oppressive power of the tung ch’ang (Eastern Group), the Court Eunuchs whose power he describes as greater than that of the Nazi Gestapo. Hu felt it was wrong to make a hero of a secret service character.

The character of Yang Lien, the Grand Censor murder by the Eastern Group (and the father of the heroine, Yang Hui-chen) was based on a real person who was murdered by the notorious tung ch’ang.

Hu’s fight sequences are heavily influenced by the dance movements of the Peking Opera

The complex trajectory of the film’s story makes as much use of variation in syntax as it does of the plot, which begins with the mundane routine of an impoverished painter-scholar and concludes with the spiritual ascendancy of a Buddhist monk. Opening scenes are deliberately unresolved to create a feeling of unease: scenes finish before they are conventionally ’complete’, tracking shots seem to go nowhere, and there is a repeated discontinuity of action. Ultimately, the story relies on two ’complete’ flashbacks to become clear. The editing is then altered to embrace a faster tempo, wider pans and a subtle change in the construction of montages. The conflicts within the story and the story itself are resolved in a series of spectacular set pieces which complete the film’s transformation from the mundane to the metaphysical.

Hui-yuan, the Buddhist monk who saves Ku and Yang Hui-chen in the bamboo forest, is repeatedly associated with the sun. When he appears in the forest, we see him with the sun behind him so that, when he glides forward to join battle, he appears to be propelled by solar energy. The rapid cutting during the following fight scenes also reinforce the impression that Hui-yuan is himself a source of light.

Hui-yuan represents China’s past, and his fight with Hsu, commander-in-chief of the Eastern Group, is an allegory of China’s struggle to forge a national identity at a time of civil turmoil.