Revengeful Swordswoman
Director: Artis Chow A-Chi
Year: 1979
Rating: 5.0
Aka - Flying Masters
of Kung Fu
Aka - Heroine of Shaolin
With subtitles on YT - so-so quality - nearly
impossible to see the night scenes
Just don't ask me what this Taiwanese martial
arts film is about beyond the basic "You killed my father, I have to kill
you". In an age old plot like crusty cheese, General Hsiang is betrayed and
killed. One of his loyal men (Wang Hsieh) escapes with Hsiang's daughter
and brings her up in the countryside. And trains her for revenge - by throwing
her off cliffs to see if she can land on her feet or setting wild dogs on
her. And of course, all the regular kung fu abilities like being able to
jump backwards into trees and catching darts thrown at her in the dark. She
is Hsiang Ying soon to be nicknamed the Heartless Lady and played by Chia
Ling. That generally guarantees a fair amount of action. This explains why
when a father or mother is killed, they have to kill every member of the
family down to the family dog - because if you don't, someday, somewhere
thy will come for revenge.
Her sifu puts her in a cage and tells her
that in fact he killed her father. Which makes no sense. He didn't but he
is testing her. Another fellow Brave Ku (Wen Chiang-long) comes along and
sets her free and in an ensuing fight kills the sifu. He feels so ashamed
for this act that he walks away and Heartless Lady is on her own and she
begins a journey across China looking for the man who killed her father.
She picks up some comedy relief on the way who is named Brother Fool (Chang
Ching). And for the rest of the film she is fighting someone or a group.
I have no idea why - they often think
she is the villain and killed some innocents. But it is one fight after another
- I counted eight separate fights and that is before she gets to the lair
of the main villain. I don't know about her but I was exhausted. All different
styles and weapons - sometimes she lets them go, other times she kills them.
Among them are Phillip Ko-fei, Chia Kai, Chang Chi-ping and others I don't
know. The fights are all well choreographed if basic by Pang Chang-ming (The
Proud Horses in Flying Sand with Angela Mao). This is standard Taiwanese
martial arts - nothing fancy but Chia Ling is always worth watching and this
is her movie from beginning to end.
