At the height of the studio’s success in the 1970s, the Shaw Brothers studio was churning out dozens of martial arts and kung-fu flicks that were completely out-of-fashion by the time the 1980s hit. Their beloved period-set swordplay and brotherhood movies were no longer in vogue, and instead offered up a few final stabs at the style while moving on to bigger and more elaborate fare with a series of grisly horror films and more fantastic martial arts pieces. Among those fantasy-laden kung-fu efforts was this stylish and ornate piece from director Lu Chin Ku originally titled ‘Wu lin sheng huo jin’ but known mostly as ‘Holy Flame of the Martial World.’

Finally having grown up, young Yin Tien-chu sets out to help the innocent and downtrodden, unaware of his destiny sent down years earlier from the death of his parents. Settling out into the world,...