Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain (1983)

Tsui Hark threw everything at this fantasy: flying swordsmen, a Blood Demon, magic mountains and an Ice Queen played by Brigitte Lin. He hired Western effects artists, including one known for Tron, who helped train Hong Kong film students in miniatures, optical compositing and matte painting, and the film points straight at the effects-driven wuxia of the decade that followed. Based on a 1932 novel about the swordsmen of the Shu mountains, it sits at the legendary end of the genre, closer to sorcery than swordplay. The story is chaotic, but the energy is infectious, and John Carpenter credited it with the visual design of Big Trouble in Little China.