Starring Jet Li and with a transsexual theme, Swordsman II was a smash hit that launched a wave of martial arts films with gender-fluid characters

• Brigitte Lin plays a man who castrates himself to gain unbeatable powers, falls in love with Jet Li’s male lead and has a fling with a female subordinate
• Her transsexual sorceress role permeated Hong Kong culture, and Lin said the film’s success showed Hong Kong audiences to be more open-minded than was thought