A Girl Fighter (1972)

A young heroine with superb fighting skill volunteers to capture a dangerous murderer and bring him to justice during China’s Ming Dynasty. With the aid of several lawmen and a hero with a grudge, she nabs the killer. While escorting him to city hall for sentencing she is forced to contend with attacks from men working for the captive’s father who is determined to free his son at all costs. Polly Shang-kwan and Tien Peng star in this wuxia actioner that borrows its premise from classic Hollywood Westerns and comes loaded with fierce open-hand fighting.

A GIRL FIGHTER is one of a number of martial arts films released in Hong Kong and Taiwan in the early 1970s that blurred the lines between wuxia and kung fu conventions as swordplay was quickly falling out of fashion with the rise of Bruce Lee. It still takes place in the realm of the jiang hu, or martial underworld that is populated by wandering knights and super-powered fighting moves. Yet the fight choreography increasingly looks like the street brawling in early basher movies like FIST OF FURY and BOXER FROM SHANTUNG.

The film also marked the end of Polly Shang-kwan’s run at Taiwan’s Union Film Co. From here she would transition out of strict swordplay movies and go on to star in Golden Harvest’s award-winning, contemporary kung fu comedy hit BACK ALLEY PRINCESS and secure her place as one of the decade’s leading female screen fighters.

The plot is reminiscent of a number of Hollywood Westerns, including Howard Hawks’ 1959 classic RIO BRAVO, starring John Wayne. The knight errant becomes a lawman, or in this case a lawwoman, and must fend off attacks while trying to bring a captured criminal to justice. It’s a simple, yet effective dramatic angle as it plainly establishes that the hero believes in the rule of law and is willing to die by it rather than cave in to outside pressure or become like the villains. By the end of A GIRL FIGHTER, it seems almost inconceivable that the heroes would endure multiple escape attempts and attacks, see their numbers reduced and key figures held hostage, and end up killing dozens of people and never once consider ending the conflict by ridding themselves of their captive. It is the one constant that drives the film to its predictably violent finale as Shang-kwan, Tien Peng and a couple guards make their final stand against a small army of fighters along the banks of a river.

In previous films, Shang-kwan shared equal screen time with her male co-stars but as its title suggests, A GIRL FIGHTER is all about Shang-kwan and she makes the most of the opportunity. She wields a sword towards the end of the film but does her best screen fighting earlier with excellent open-hand fighting forms. By this point, she had been training extensively in martial arts and was quickly surpassing many of her fellow female peers in technical proficiency, as well as presentation.

Shang-kwan really comes into her own in this film as a charismatic screen fighter. She has always been one of the genre’s most expressive fighting stars and this ability to project emotion and intent during action sequence was never fully realized before. Watch just one of her fight sequences in this film and you’ll see facial expressions that range widely, from stern and sly to iron determination and frenzied bloodlust. Even with a script that leaves her character completely undeveloped, Shang-kwan remains compelling because of her vibrant performance.

The film’s action director, Pan Yao-kun puts together a generous amount of competent fighting that provides the centerpiece for the film. Some of it is unnecessarily exaggerated but it’s important to understand where the state of screen fighting in Hong Kong and Taiwan was in 1972. Bruce Lee had only just emerged to show audiences and filmmakers alike what could be accomplished with real skill instead of wires, trampolines and trick editing. So while the film displays a lot of throws, blocking and other well-choreographed and conventional kung fu fighting we still get to see teacups tossed as weapons, fighters bouncing around and swinging sideways unnaturally, and finger jabs leaving deep holes in solid wood.

Outside of the fighting and Shang-kwan’s performance, the film is disappointing. Union Film’s production standards are decent but editing is odd and disjointed at several points. Adding to this problem is a number of awkward oversights in continuity, as when one moment Shang-kwan and her party are following behind Miao Tien and the next he’s off by himself getting ambushed with no help from anyone.

Yang Ching-chen had previously directed Shang-kwan in the solid wuxia actioner THE GRAND PASSION and went on to direct her again the following year in THE GHOSTLY FACE. He does a great job of framing the heroes and the action they take part in but could have tightened up the story more and picked a better villain. The murderer’s father is played by Cho Kin, who is adequate but doesn’t look like much of a fighter. The steely-faced Miao Tien, who usually does plays villains, would have been a better choice for the role instead of being wasted as a police captain assisting Shang-kwan.

As a wuxia film A GIRL FIGHTER is average. As a showcase for Polly Shang-kwan, it’s a blast and highly recommended to those who enjoy watching attractive women fight with ferocity and skill.

From this point on, Shang-kwan established that she was one female screen fighter not to be trifled with. At the same time, she was willing to remind us that she is still a woman by being acknowledged as such despite dressing as a man and by letting her hair down at one point to offer a scintillating tease of what she really looked like outside of stately costume actioners.

In a word, Polly Shang-kwan is a knockout. If her looks don’t floor you, her fists will.

Related Topics: A Girl Fighter (1972), Genre: Basher, Miao Tien, Pan Yao-kun, Polly Shang-kwan, Tien Peng, Union Film Co., Wuxia