Iron Sister
Director: Yeh Hung-wei
Year: 1997
Rating: 4.5
Though this Hsu Chi
video is showing up in Chinatown video stores and apparently was released
in HK in 1999, according to Ryan it was a film made very early in Hsu Chi’s
career – perhaps in Taiwan. An early Hsu Chi film might fill most serious
moviegoers with horror, but she actually does a very nice job here. I can’t
say the same for the film – though it has an intriguing plot with potential
– it is very badly executed.
It takes place during the Japanese occupation
of China in the 1930’s and 40’s. Tung Fei (Jackson Lau) is caught by a Japanese
commander playing house with the commander's Chinese mistress and in the ensuing
fight he kills the commander and escapes into the grasslands. There he is
found by Hsu Chi and her father (Dick Wei behind those whiskers) and nursed
back to health. Hsu and her father earn their living by hunting and farming.
Tung Fei is soon telling everyone about his heroics – but leaving out a few
details such as the fact that he was sleeping with the commander’s mistress
and was in fact a Japanese collaborator.
Hsu Chi is in love with Little Tiger and after running down a deer one day
– they decide to celebrate by going skinny-dipping and then making love. Within
a few weeks Hsu Chi is throwing up in the morning – must be that damn venison!
One day all the men decide to go out and kill some Japanese and Little Tiger
is killed. With a child on the way, Hsu Chi feels she has to marry Tung.
Years pass, a little girl (Tigress) is born and Tung discovers that the
mistress is now a prostitute in a town nearby. He again begins an affair
with her and this leads to the inevitable tragic results. The end of the
film is pretty good as Hsu Chi turns into Lone Wolf and Cub when Tung and
some other collaborators try to kill her and Tigress.
For the male readers – how much nudity is there here? A little – Hsu Chi
in her dip in the river and the mistress a few times. Whether this is enough
to rent this tape is up to you!