I had high hopes for this film, especially after watching the vastly superior sequel: Secret Rivals II and had read a lot of good reviews here and elsewhere. Unfortunately, although I think many people disagree with me about this, it was a huge let-down and had little appeal what-so-ever, except for some unintentional hilarious bad English dubbing. The story, although generally non-essential to kung fu-movies of the era, was excruciating at times, with prolonged scenes about some side-plot involving a mutual love interest of our heroes, and the rest isn't much better. This wouldn't have mattered at all if we were treated with a lot of fighting in between the tedious story telling, but WE'RE NOT! I'm a huge fan of Jon Liu and especially Hwang Jang Lee, but they are never allowed to show off their skills properly since they hardly get to fight.
The choreography is really sloppy in the first half of the movie, but doesn't improve nearly as much as I had hoped even for the end fight, which is over really fast. I don't know what other reviewers saw in this movie.. naturally John Liu and Hwang Jang Lee are excellent fighters and their skill somehow manages to bear to movie to some extent, but I was honestly never entertained by any part of it.
If you, like me, are into Chinese classic Kung Fu flicks of the 70's and 80s, you are likely to either have seen this or be about to do so, but I can't recommend it, in spite of it's good reputation. See Secret Rivals II instead, it's a masterpiece, this one isn't.