Way of the Lady Boxers
Director: Wong Wai-yip
Year: 1993
Rating: 5.5
The only reason to
go out of your way to see this very standard and often times dull “girls
with guns” film is to watch Sharon Yeung (aka Yeung Pan Pan). Though she
was certainly one of the better female action stars, she did not appear in
very many modern action films. Most of her best work was in the earlier kung-fu
films of the late 70’s and early 80’s. Here she has a number of fighting
scenes that display her athletic abilities.
The plot is very routine – the most interesting part of it being it’s very
pro-Mainland attitudes. This is certainly reflected in its Chinese title
– “Pull Open Iron Curtain”. Sharon is a HK cop chasing after some drug/arm
dealers and in the opening she kills one of the top dealers. The brother
of this dealer then attempts to kill Sharon throughout the film. She and
her partner then follow the case to the Mainland where they have to co-operate
with cops, Sibelle Hu and another kung-fu star – Carter Wong. At first Sharon
is a lone ranger type, but by the end of the film she is enlightened and
sees the folly of her ways. As Sibelle states “it is much better when we
work together”. Perhaps some of the funding came from the Mainland for this
film or maybe they were just getting prepared for 1997. This theme of co-operation
with the Mainland police became common as 1997 drew closer and afterwards.
There is a fair amount of action, but most of it is not all that well done
with Sharon’s fights being somewhat the exception. Even hers though are a
bit inconsistent. In some of them she uses wires and can improbably jump
20-feet, while in other scenes they don’t use wires and she becomes very
earthbound. She still has some good moments such as jumping off a building
while holding on to a balloon, being dragged along by a truck and grabbing
on to the bottom of an elevator for dear life.
Sibelle Hui’s popularity in action films
is somewhat mystifying. This popularity stems I believe from her appearances
in two Lucky Stars films of the mid-80’s and she has gone on to make a seemingly
infinite number of low budget action films. She is certainly attractive and
I enjoy her in her non-action moments – but she has no martial arts abilities
at all and it is always very obvious that she is being doubled in any scene
that involves anything slightly acrobatic. Most times it really doesn’t bother
me too much unless she is fighting side by side with someone of Sharon or
Moon Lee’s capabilities and then her lack of mobility and her slowness is
very evident.