Reviewing several Hong Kong wuxia heroine films

In my ongoing quest for movies in which heroines kick ass, I checked out several older Hong Kong martial arts films that predated the "Girls with Guns" genre movies I investigated extensively a couple years ago. It's not possible to go too far back in time with HK movies, as the film studios there tended not to take care of their back catalog. Some films from the pre-Bruce Lee era no longer exist, and most have never been published in any video format. So these are mostly from the late 60's and 70's.

The setting for all of these ranges from ancient China to the early 20th century. Common to all of them, though, is a fantasy element, with the best martial artists possessing magical powers, so they all belong more or less to the Wuxia genre. While most of these are deservedly regarded as classics, only one really worked for me.

Glossary term: "Goat Boy syndrome" is when a film or TV show that is ostensibly about an action heroine turns out instead to be a show about the heroine's male sidekick. Often, the male sidekick seems to perpetually have a one week old stubble beard, hence "goat boy." The examples that inspired Morgan and I to name the syndrome were shows like "Highlander: The Raven," "Dark Angel," and "Sheena."

Come Drink With Me (1966) ( Read more... )

Golden Swallow (1967) ( Read more... )

The Angry River (1971) ( Read more... )

A Touch of Zen (1971) ( Read more... )

The Shadow Whip (1971) ( Read more... )

Lady Whirlwind (1972) ( Read more... )