Rendezvous with Death (1980)

Sun Chung had been recognized as an expert comedy and crime thriller director, but he was to gain even greater acclaim for his soulful, powerful, intelligent, and beautifully-made martial arts epics. This stands alongside The Deadly Breaking Sword and The Kung-fu Instructor as one of his very best. It’s not so much the plot – a master swordsman protects a treasure chest on a dangerous journey – that makes this great, but what Sun does with it, inspiring the cast and crew to some of their finest work.