Kung Fu Girl Fighter
Director: Hou Cheng
Year: 1972
Rating: 5.0
Aka -
On the Waterfront
It is difficult to say whether it is the
quality of the video off of YouTube or the fact that it is poorly dubbed
or whether it is the many instances of illogical narrative jumps but this
Taiwanese kung fi film feels very cheap. This poster makes it look James
Bond cool. It isn't. In fact, it has nothing to do with this film. But at
the same time, it has two ex-Shaw Brothers actors, a ton of action eventually
and a lot of location shooting. Perhaps years ago before it was mutilated
and embarrassed, it was a solid film. But then maybe not. Watching these
dreadful quality videos from YouTube isn't really fair to the film but it
is all we have in many instances.
Chow (Chang Yi, usually a bad guy in Shaw
films) gets off the boat in the Shanghai harbor with his brother. Chow has
come from the south while his brother already lives in the city. They go
their separate ways but not before Chow asks who is that woman - as she walks
by with an umbrella all in red and retainers all around her. Oh, answers
the brother - that is Red Rose, the most dangerous woman in Shanghai. It
is in the early part of last century and the British still have their areas
in the city. With the famous sign up - "No Chinese or dogs allowed". But
it isn't Bruce Lee who kicks it down but the Red Rose! That is still
in the future. The arrival of Chow sets tongues wagging in the underworld
- who is he - a hatchet man from the south they wonder. His first stop is
the Dragon House, owned by the Red Rose and her sister and husband. Their
top man is Pei-pei played by the always dastardly Chen Hung-lieh, Jade-Faced
Tiger in Come Drink with Me. A face and wicked grin that can never be trusted.
A face that spells betrayal. Almost always a villain.
Across town there is the Leopard Gang that
traffics women and wants to take over the Dragon House by hook or crook or
an ambush. Behind them is a man in an iron mask who calls the shots. After
Chow wins big at the gambling table by being able to hear what the dice are
doing in the cup ala Zatoichi - the Red Rose offers to be his bodyguard on
his way home. When twenty men jump out, she beats them up. She does a lot
of that in the film. Chow tries to convince her to be a good Chinese and
take pride in herself - that is when she takes down the sign and has to beat
up a group of Sikh guards. Chow is in fact not a hooligan, but a secret agent
sent to clean up Shanghai. There are a bunch of one on many fights - especially
in the final 30 minutes it is one after another. None of it though is particularly
impressive. Red Rose is played by Tang Pao-yun who I am pretty sure had very
little martial arts training. She played the servant girl asked to have the
baby of a prisoner in the prestigious Execution in Autumn as well as appearing
in Black Forest from the Shaw Brothers, The Chinese Amazons and a couple
wuxia films with Tien Peng - Love and Sword and The Lost Swordship - both
of which have decent DVD releases.
