King Hu’s A Touch of Zen took so long to make that his assistant director Tu Chung-Hsun and the cast made a whole different movie, the one you’re about to read about.

Shang Yen-Chih the Jade Dragonfly (Feng Hsu) is in trouble. She was supposed to get plans to defeat the invading Manchu army from her contact in Dragon City and when she gets there, he and his entire family — nearly eighty of them — are dead. Now, she has to find the plans, get revenge on Commander Bu Lung (Shih Chun) and get out alive.

Sure, it’s wuxia, but it’s closer to a spy movie than an out and out fight film. That’s what makes this stand out and it’s still wild that everyone went back to working on A Touch of Zen and King Hu was probably waiting for a particular plant to be in bloom or a roof to have the perfect aged look that had to come from nature and not paint.

Want to see it for yourself?

You can watch A City Called Dragon on Sunday, April 23 at 7:15 PM in Theater 1 at Metrograph and Subway Cinema in New York City. It’s part of the 10th Old School Kung Fu Fest: Sword Fighting Heroes Edition from April 21-30, 2023!

Tickets are on sale right here!