The Lady Hermit (1971)

THE LADY HERMIT (Cheng Pei Pei, of GOLDEN SWALLOW and THE SHADOW WHIP fame) is living undercover as a maid when Cui Ping (the beautiful Shih Szu, from THE LEGEND OF THE SEVEN GOLDEN VAMPIRES) shows up wanting to learn kung fu from her. Lady Hermit, however, has plans to find The Black Demon, leader of a gang that's selling "protection from ghosts" to the frightened residents of a nearby village. (Anyone who doesn't buy a charm and affix it to their door at night is mysteriously murdered. By "ghosts.") Cui, handy with a whip, joins the Security Agency for which Lady Hermit works and finds herself pining for Changchun (Lo LIeh, in another rare sympathetic role), who pines for Lady Hermit. Before long, Lady Hermit takes Cui under her wing and together they prepare to take on The Black Demon and his gang. At one point, Lieh tells Lady Hermit: "You live, I'll live. You die, I'll die." Not as artistic as A TOUCH OF ZEN, maybe, but not bad at all.

This is a subtle, clever film that is almost as good as it gets. The first two thirds of the film are strongly character driven with the two strong female leads and Lo Lieh interacting very well. There are a few fights and given Cheng Pei Pei showed herself a master of the whip in SHADOW WHIP it is surprising that it is Shih Szu who uses it here - though she switches to the sword for the almost AZUMI like ending. Here no quarter is given and the set pieces on the wooden bridge and the pagoda are very bloody and terrific action. One of the great martial arts films and worth adding to any collection. Unusual for having two strong, almost equal female leads and a real love story. The Celestial DVD is very well done with for example the fight in the misty bamboo forest showing as well as any modern film. An few interviews would have been nice to give some background as it must have been an interesting film to make. This was Cheng Pei-pei's second-to-last Shaw Brothers film. It is also fun to try and spot Sammo Hung who appears briefly as one of the villains several times.

Before the Venom series and the martial art miracles of Liu Chia Liang, Shaw kung fu films were a very mixed batch of stagy melodrama and frequently flimsy martial arts. Not to take away from the many good films from that era but it's like watching pre "2001" science fiction or silent films, you have to make an adjustment in expectations and then enjoy what there is. Many of the sword films are very stagy but that's the tradition they came from. Here is a rarity, a film that mostly transcends the technical limitations of the time and is quite enjoyable today.Since others have covered the plot quite well, I'll write about the similarities to "Crouching Tiger". The love triangle is clearly repeated in the Ang Lee film. Two super fighting women and a man who is quite frankly not their fighting equal but the object of their affection. The younger woman goes on an angry mission to defeat the number one martial artist which includes a fight in a tavern (albiet an open air one). "Crouching Tiger" is not a remake but I would wager that it was influenced by this film.The martial arts in the film are OK until the last third when the fight scenes go into overdrive. There's a noticeable chambara influence which in this case, unlike other Shaw films, is very good. Some of the martial arts are unfortunately simulated by camera tricks but the story keeps that from being a problem. Strangely the young woman is introduced as a whip master but at some point the whip disappears and she never uses it again.A good story driven kung fu film.

THE LADY HERMIT (1971) offers two wonderful swordswomen for the price of one. Shaw Bros.' top female martial arts star of the late 1960s, Cheng Pei Pei (COME DRINK WITH ME, GOLDEN SWALLOW), stars as the title character, a famous veiled crusader who fights bad guys with her sword but has dropped out of sight when the film opens. Shih Szu plays an eager, whip-wielding aspiring swordswoman who seeks to track down Lady Hermit and become her student. To make a long story short, the master-student relationship is forged and Lady Hermit does indeed teach the young girl her skills, including "flying tiger" style. This is a rare martial arts film in which both master and student are female. Lo Lieh (FIVE FINGERS OF DEATH) plays a young man who is in love with Cheng's character and who is, in turn, loved by both women. During the time he spends with them, he learns new techniques as well.The villains are a gang of evil Taoist monks, led by Lady Hermit's old adversary, Black Demon, who operate a racket whereby they sell Taoist charms at high prices to households seeking to ward off ghostly nighttime attacks. The gang then goes out in the dead of night to raid houses that have refused to buy the charms. Lady Hermit and her two followers engage the gang in a series of extremely lively sword battles which are spread throughout the entire film. There are several great setpieces, including a bit where the characters fight on one of those perilous rope bridges across a gorge and the bad guys cut the ropes and Shih Szu has to hang on to the dangling remains of the bridge and climb and fight her way to the top. The climactic battle in a towering pagoda is quite spectacular. There is a good mix of location work with studio sets.Fans of Cheng Pei Pei from films such as DRAGON SWAMP, THAT FIERY GIRL, THE THUNDERING SWORD and the two mentioned above will, of course, enjoy this one just as much. But the real find here is Shih Szu, who starred in a number of martial arts films in the late 1960s and early '70s, beginning when she was still a teenager. She is bright-eyed, round-faced, beautiful and all smiles, as well as being quite an agile and energetic fighting performer. She appeared in the Hammer Films/Shaw Bros. collaboration, LEGEND OF THE SEVEN GOLDEN VAMPIRES. Curiously, after a few good starring roles, she was relegated to supporting roles at Shaw Bros. for the rest of the 1970s. Which makes this film all the more valuable for providing a rare opportunity for fans of female martial arts performers to discover this delightful unsung star.