Broken Oath
Director: Cheng Chang-ho
Year: 1977
Rating: 8.5
This is simply one
of Angela Mao’s best films. It has some of her very best fight choreography,
a great revenge oriented plot (borrowed admittedly from the Japanese film
Lady Snowbird) and an intensity that few of her films have equaled.
Her father murdered by four traitors and her mother framed and sentenced
to jail, Angela is born in prison. As her mother dies in childbirth, her last
words to her fellow prisoners are to tell her daughter to gain revenge on
her father’s killers. As a baby she is placed with a Buddhist nunnery (though
for some reason she is the only one with her head unshaven!). As
she grows up, she has a burning anger and hatred inside her that she can’t
explain. When three men attempt to rape her, she kills them with pure savagery
and tells the abbot “something in me urges me to kill”. The monastery
asks her to leave, but also finally tells her about the story of her parents.
Needless to say – she immediately seeks to find the men and gain revenge.
A pickpocket and her pet killer scorpions come along to assist her.
Angela tracks them down one by one – in a
gambling parlor, in a brothel and finally at a well guarded home. With the
use of sword, staff, knives, her scorpions and other implements of death,
she takes them down. The choreography is excellent – Angela is incredibly
graceful and powerful and has rarely looked so quick with her leg thrusts. The
final fight against the strongest of the four enemies and his henchmen goes
on for nearly 20-minutes and is wonderful. One of his henchmen is Sammo Hung
and he duels Angela in a lengthy fight. She goes up against a number of men
all hidden behind masks and they slowly wear her down with sword cuts to her
body. Does she have enough left to gain her final revenge? This
film is considered a classic for good reasons as Angela dominates it completely
with her personality, charisma and fighting skills. This was Angela's last
film for Golden Harvest.
