Shadow Girl
Year: 1970
Director: Hsin
Chi
Rating: 5.0
Celestial never bothered to release this Shaw Brother's film and probably
for good reason. Not that its terrible but it just kind of sits there like
a surly child. I am not sure where I picked this up - but it looks like a
third generation tape that I got on DVD. The same quality of those tapes
in the old kung-fu stores on 42nd street that sold 3 for $10. Most of those
were dubbed but this one isn't - which is too bad because maybe I would have
understood it better! I look back at those stores and regret not having bought
everything - I bet so many of those kung-fu films are not available any longer.
But this one was full screen with the Shaw logo in the upper left hand corner
the whole time - burnt in subs that were more difficult to read than James
Joyce in the dark. I probably was only able to make out about 40% of them.
But as best as I could tell, this is what it was about.
A girl (Lily Li Li-li) can become invisible - with special effects that Claude
Rains would snicker at - as she drops her clothes - to bother people. Most
invisible people try to keep this power on the down and out but Silver Maid
as she sometimes calls herself just enjoys being mischievous and causing
trouble giggling the whole time. No evil intent - just a girl who wants to
have fun. But when she breaks up a wedding procession and everyone assumes
she is a ghost - it sets in action tragic results. The two families break
off the marriage and decide to hunt down and kill this ghost. Who doesn't
hide as she goes to inns to have tea and freaks people out. She also turns
out to be a kung fu master - all these wonderful skills taught to her by
her dear old near toothless Grandma and all I ever got was $1 for my birthday.
There is also this other group - with a powerful swordswoman (Yue Fung) who
seem to have issues with the family trying to kill Silver Maid and I honestly
have no idea why - it got lost in the white on white subtitles. There are
also two Ancients who have a beef with grandma because many years before
she cut the legs off one of them and plucked the eye out of the other. Good
reason to be pissed I guess and they decide to revenge themselves on Silver
Maid. You might think a legless man and a one-eyed man would be no match
but you would be mistaken.
The film doesn't really have the look of a Shaw film at all though much of
that may be the quality of the video - but it just feels cheap, lazily plotted
and directed by Hsin Chi without a lot of focus - which is a shame because
how many of their films had an invisible girl and she is rather a cool character.
There is a lot of action which is decent enough but nothing that will give
you goosebumps - pretty generic stuff. It is also stuffed with actors who
I don't know at all except for Lily Li, who was to have a very fine career
at Shaw's in action and drama films.
