Swordsman

On the data. Three things. The lead actor changes between the first and second films, from Sam Hui to Jet Li, and then disappears entirely by the third. The series follows its villain instead, which is unusual and is why the second and third films are remembered. The character in question, Asia the Invincible, is one of the most discussed figures in Hong Kong cinema. In the novel a man mutilates himself to master a forbidden manual and becomes increasingly feminine; in the films the part is played by Brigitte Lin, a woman, and the result is a character whose gender the films treat as genuinely unresolved rather than as a joke. Readings of it vary enormously and it is worth going in aware that it is complicated rather than simple in either direction. The first film's production was a mess. King Hu, one of the great directors of the genre, started it, fell out with the producers and left, and the film was completed by a rotating group including Tsui Hark and Ching Siu-tung. Hu's name is still on it and he disowned the result. Jin Yong's novel is enormous and has been adapted for television many times, entirely separately from these films. The films use its setting and a few of its characters and go their own way.

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