The Sister of the
San-Tung Boxer
Director: Wang
Hung-chang
Year: 1973
Rating: 6.0
Aka - Heroine Susan, the Sister of the Shantung
Boxer
Dubbed in French with English subs
A fairly satisfying Taiwanese kung fu film
with more action than you probably want. If the choreography and martial
art skills of the actors had been more genuine, this could have been a classic.
But they aren't, so there is a ton of poorly executed fighting in which hordes
of axe wielding men keep missing their targets and swings of the arms of
the heroes send men flying. The sister is played by ex-Shaw star, Wang Ping,
who had been in a few classic Shaw films such as Vengeance, The Chinese Boxer,
The King Boxer and The 14 Amazons. Initially, she had the flower vase roles
but eventually had some action roles such as in Duel for Gold where she played
a villainous backstabbing female. In 1973 her contract with Shaw ran out
and she moved back home to Taiwan and appeared in many films there till the
end of the decade.
The other main actor here is Charlie Chin
Chiang-lin - who was to become a mainstay in Hong Kong and Taiwanese films
over the next 20-years but at this time he had just had his first success
with a film titled Heart with a Million Knots for which he won a best actor
award. He never became known for action films even though his training had
been in Peking Opera and he was nicknamed Flipper for his acrobatic skills.
He was one of a famous Taiwanese quartet of actors called Two Qins, Two Lins
- who often appeared in romances together. The other man was Chin Han and
the two Lins were Joan Lin and Brigitte Lin. He was engaged to Brigitte Lin
for four years but they never married. He had to settle for Josephine Siao,
poor guy. We do see some acrobatics on his part here but way too much wild
swinging of arms.
There is a slightly clever plot here that
I would admittedly not have understood if I had not read other reviews. At
the end of the 1972 Shaw film The Boxer from Shantung (which I have yet to
see) there is an enormous fight in which the Boxer, Ma Yung Chen (Chen Kuan-tai)
is killed. This film takes off from that ending - showing a short replay
of it (with another actor as Ma) - and his sister later arrives to find he
has been killed and seeks revenge. It seems she has been trained in martial
arts like her brother and by the end the city of Shanghai is knee-deep in
dead bodies that she and Charlie have killed. The Axe Gang killed her brother
and fortunately for her, they wear a large emblem of an axe on their shirts.
Easier to kill that way.
She meets up with Charlie and they both
have the same aim - kill the Axe gang - and nothing like wanting to kill
the same people to bring two people together in love. After a few smaller
fights at about the half-way mark it becomes one large set piece after another
with barely a breather in between. The main bad guy has more minions than
extras in a Ben-Hur movie and they all meet the same fate. It gets a bit
ridiculous in truth but still enjoyable as one man after another is killed
by a chop to the neck. They even import a Samurai swordsman who is no better
with his sword than the Axe gang are with their axes. Directed by Wang Hung-chang
(A Girl Called Tigress). I believe I got this from YouTube and the French
dubbing is actually quite good. It makes me wish there were more kung-fu
films dubbed in French.
