Last Hurrah for Chivalry (1979)

Before his gangster films, John Woo made this swordplay tale of hired killers, betrayal and sworn brotherhood, and you can watch his later obsessions forming. Woo intended it as a tribute to his mentor Chang Cheh and to Akira Kurosawa, and the slow-motion action and wipe transitions show it. Damian Lau and Wei Pai play swordsmen drawn into a feud by a man far less honorable than they are, which makes chivalry itself the subject. It is a cult item rather than a polished classic, but anyone who loves wuxia's code of honor should see how Woo carried it into his heroic bloodshed films.