The master of it is director Zhang Yimou, the producer of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and director of the even more amazing Hero.
If anything, Flying Daggers takes everything one step further.
Here is a blind dancer (Ziyi Zhang) with sleeves that extend with deadly blades on the end, armies fighting in a bamboo forest, a chap who fires arrows faster than a six-gun fires bullets and so on.
Set in some glorious countryside and photographed in shimmering colours, the film - plot apart - remains a gorgeous treat for the eyes.
The story is set in 859 AD when the Chinese Tang Dynasty faced various rebel groups, among them The House of Flying Daggers.
Their Robin Hood gimmick is to steal from the rich to give to the poor.
Two Tang captains (Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro) are given the task of capturing the rebel leader and suspect that the blind dancer is his daughter.
So while one arrests her the other pretends to rescue her, hoping she will take him to the leader in question.
