“Lady Reporter” International Poster
Director: Meng Hoi
Cast: Cynthia Rothrock, Chin Siu Ho, Meng Hoi, Elizabeth Lee Mei Fung, Roy Chiao, Billy Chow, Ronny Yu Yan Tai, Jeff Falcon, Vincent Lyn, Chung Fat, Tai Bo, Melvin Wong Gam San, Wu Ma, Hsiao Ho, Kwan Yung, James Tien Chun
Running Time: 90 min.
By Martin Sandison
In 1995, when I was 13, I visited my local video shop. Ah, those were the days. How I loved perusing the weird and wonderful titles. I still have dreams about it. A couple of weeks before I had rented Project A, an experience that changed my life forever. I was eager for more, and saw a title whose box delighted my eyes: Above the Law, aka Righting Wrongs. It became the first Hong Kong movie I ever owned, and I watched that video to death. I still have it, and it still works despite some tracking lines in the fight scenes. The film is still a firm favourite of mine, and many others. Containing all of the things that made Golden Age Hong Kong cinema so exciting and enrapturing, it also was a showcase for the one and only Cynthia Rothrock. As a kid seeing her kick, punch and sass her way through the movie meant she became my dream woman. I cannot wait for the forthcoming Blu-ray releases of that classic. I’ll be double-dipping, oh yes.
Righting Wrongs is a martial arts action-thriller, one that doesn’t have a lot of room for humour. For the semi-sequel The Blonde Fury, the film-makers decided to spice things up with a healthy dose of Hong Kong style laughs. An approach at turns mildly offensive and at others, due to choice subtitles, hilariously silly. The movie has the distinction of being the only effort in which Rothrock takes lead billing. In Hong Kong film history a Western female taking a lead role hadn’t happened before, and is unlikely to happen again. A wonderful achievement for this legend of action cinema.
Cyndy stars as Cyndy, a reporter from the States who is charged with investigating a criminal in Hong Kong. Unexplainably she is fluent in Cantonese (Rothrock didn’t speak the language, delivering her lines in English with many consisting of gibberish, that were then dubbed over), and makes friends with Yu (Elizabeth Lee, Long Arm of the Law 3). The two get caught up in all sorts of bother involving photographer Hai (Meng Hoi, Hell’s Windstaff) and CIA agent Chin Siu Ho (Mr. Vampire), culminating in a showdown with the baddies.
The cast and crew of The Blonde Fury is top tier Hong Kong action talent; alongside the aforementioned cast, the eternal 80s and 90s villain Billy Chow is here, and has a mid film fight with Rothrock that delivers in spades. The final reel contains Rothrock going toe to toe with Jeff Falcon (Outlaw Brothers) AND Vincent Lyn (Operation Condor), two of the greatest gweilo bad guys. One section in this fight is reminiscent of the classic Martial Club, in which Gordon Liu battles Wang Lung Wei in an alley that gradually decreases in size. Here the combat takes place in a small gap between freights, using the environment brilliantly. Just before that Cyndy fights lackeys on a rope spider’s web, a contraption which I had much fun playing on in my youth. The scene explores the martial possibilities to the utmost. On choreography duties are Meng Hoi AND Corey Yuen Kwai, and one can see the combination of Meng’s acrobatic grace and Yuen’s hard-hitting exchanges. Meng Hoi is also director here, at a time when he and Rothrock were dating, the lucky bastard! There are longer takes here than in the original Righting Wrongs, combined with logical editing that maximises the dopamine release of the fights. Chin Siu Ho vs Billy Chow is one for the ages, both being in the prime of their careers. Some of Rothrock’s best action lies here, despite there being a measure of doubling for the more acrobatic moves. When we cut to a wide shot, you can be sure Cyndy is delivering that bone-crushing kick.
Unfortunately, the first half of The Blonde Fury suffers from that distinct Hong Kong cinema problem: the narrative set ups are silly, there’s not a lot of action and the direction is bland and uninspired. As soon as the second half kicks in the action moves into top gear, and rewards the viewer in sticking with it. Even the comedy becomes increasingly more amusing come the 40 minute mark. Some of the characters seem to be comic counterparts of the ones in Righting Wrongs: Roy Chiao, an honourable forthright judge in the original is here injected with a drug that makes him delusional, and obsessed with the animated show He-Man! Corey Yuen and his father in the original (played by the mercurial Wu Ma) were sweet and silly, here Meng Hoi and his father (Wu Ma again) veer into Aces Go Places territory. That HK film trope, lines delivered by a bunch of characters in sync, are the order of the day. The copy I watched is the HK version release, and the subtitling is some of the most surrealistically funny I’ve seen. At times characters have conversations that make no sense, and in English form are nonsensically hilarious. Some choice ones: ‘You’re one cover girl for sex rag’ ‘You’ll be brainwashed with toilet water’ ‘Do you want bestiality?’
When I first watched The Blonde Fury I was aware that Rothrock’s hair changed length and style throughout the film. This time I noticed it changes sometimes shot-to-shot! And Chin Siu Ho and Elizabeth Lee‘s hair also changes! Hilarious. They were all busy bees back then. While the film is not cream of the crop classic status, once the second half arrives I was in heaven. Taken apart Righting Wrongs and The Blonde Fury are like two sides of the same coin. The latter takes nothing seriously but needs some time to get going, whereas the former hits the ground running and is firmly in serious mode, witty every element, despite some flaws, delivering. Time to rewatch The Blonde Fury’s fights, just as I did with my old VHS of Righting Wrongs, so much so I can recreate the fights in my head. Bliss!
Martin Sandison’s Rating : 7.5/10
I love this movie. It’s hard to believe that this was technically two movies combined together with the fights against Billy Chow and the Thai kickboxer being the finales for one movie while the fights with Falcon and Lynn were the finales for the other. It’s a real hodgepodge, but I love it anyway!
And Ronny Yu as a villain was a real hoot!
Andrew, thanks for the info! I didn’t know that, looking at the movie it makes sense completely.
Meng Hoi was the original director, however when Rothrock took a break to film the ‘China O’Brien’ flicks, upon returning Hoi was replaced by Corey Yuen with the plot significantly reworked. Think I remember reading from Mike Leeder that if you look closely you can see Wu Ma’s character unconscious on the floor during the Thai kickboxer sequence, even though it’s never explained how he got there – a carry over from Hoi’s version that had Ma’s character become someone completely different in the version Yuen ended up putting out as the final product.
I find it interesting that no one knows the name of the Thai kickboxer from the first half of the movie. Not even Mike Leeder as far as I know. And I’ve heard that he never made another movie appearance after this.