Born to Fight

The 1989 action-comedy film "Shi jie da shai," directed by Hoi Mang, is a fast-paced, entertaining ride through Hong Kong's underworld.

The story follows Cynthia Rothrock as Cindy, an American FBI agent who goes undercover as a journalist to take down a criminal newspaper editor, Ronny Dak, played by Ronny Yu. With a runtime of 90 minutes, the film delivers a good balance of martial arts, humor, and intrigue.

The action is the film's strong suit. The fight choreography is impressive and features a variety of martial arts styles, including kung-fu and taekwondo. The film earns its "Born to Fight" moniker, with well-shot and edited action sequences that showcase the skills of the cast, particularly the leading ladies. Rothrock, a world champion martial artist, is a force to be reckoned with on screen, and Lee holds her own as well. The film also has some creative and humorous uses of everyday objects as weapons, adding a layer of inventiveness to the fights.

The standout scene involves a thrilling fight sequence, showcasing Rothrock's acrobatic and high-kicking skills as she battles a series of opponents, including some of the era's most notable "bad guy" actors. The choreography, a collaboration between Mang Hoi and Corey Yuen, fuses graceful, acrobatic moves with hard-hitting style.

While the film excels in action and has a talented cast, the plot is not its strongest point. The narrative takes a back seat to the fight scenes, and the humor, though subjectively entertaining, may fall flat for some viewers, especially with the challenges of translation from Hong Kong comedy to other audiences.

Overall, "Shi jie da shai" is an enjoyable martial arts film that showcases Cynthia Rothrock's skills and solidifies her status as one of the top action stars of her era. It's a must-watch for fans of 80s Hong Kong cinema and martial arts enthusiasts. So, if you're in the mood for some over-the-top kung-fu chaos with a side of slapstick, give Shi Jie Da Shai a go. Just don't expect a comedic masterpiece-the laughs are few and far between, but the action might just knock your socks off.

Blonde Fury is a pure, undiluted action movie, taking a thin plot and spicing it up with some easy to appreciate comedy and some kick ass action choreography. I think it's the only movie I've seen that was fully directed by one of my favourite action directors, Mang Hoi. He's the guy primarily responsible for the action in ROYAL WARRIORS and MAGNIFICENT WARRIORS, which feature some of my absolute favourite fight scenes. He brings with him quite the cast of fighters and stuntmen, and a few other respected HK actors to fill out the cast. The script puts Cynthia Rothrock undercover and on the case of some nasty counterfeiters, who have an unequal-opportunities employment scheme which dictates that all their employees be top martial artists. Bad for Cynthia, cool for us. The choreography is of that brutal late 80's HK style, where cast and stuntmen get crashed and smashed into anything on set for our entertainment. Fast, inventive, intricate and with a lot of genuine skill on display.

It's actually quite a good story too, in truth - overall implausible, but it all seems to kind of make sense when you're watching it, and there are some good characters. Cynthia herself is actually quite charming here, though that might be due to a particularly charismatic voice actress on the Mandarin dub track more than her natural charisma.

Not a complicated movie, but a greatly entertaining one - and a must see for anybody who needs a good fix of action HK golden age style!

(1989) The Blonde Fury (Chinese with no English subtitles) ACTION/ COMEDY

The weakest one Cynthia had ever done out of the five films she had been in Hong Kong but it is still better than the martial art films she did do coming out of the United States. Saw this film from a recorded Japanese Laserdisc onto VHS that had no English subtitles at all making it even more harder to understand, but do know this was real life kick boxer champion Cynthia Rothrock's final film of five Hong Kong films she had done before trying out for Hollywood produced, crappy martial art movies. Some of the martial arts is still phenomenal to look at and they're others that're not memorable at all particularly the ending. Anyways, some of the more memorable fights also included the same factory Samo Hung used at the end of "Dragons Forever" and the bamboo stick fight against the baddie using a long copper pipe! And the fights are still hard hitting despite the plot being non-existent.

When your film opens on shots of 80s New York playing to the tune of not quite Crockett's Theme by Jan Hammer, you know the filmmakers were cooking.

Blonde Fury aka Lady Reporter has the unique distinction of being the first and only time a Western actress has ever had lead billing in a Hong Kong film, with Cynthia Rothrock turning in a fun and charismatic performance to boot. Blending the hard-hitting style of Corey Yuen and the graceful acrobatic choreography of Mang Hoi into a movie that's tremendous fun but sloppily put together. The story is way too convoluted for its own good supported by way too many characters, although the performances from its cast are deliciously hammy in particular Roy Chiao and Ronny Yu, they just lobbied with some pretty awful dialogue. Despite its issues, Blonde Fury hits that sweet spot of the 80s and 90s Hong Kong cinema, taking the very rough with the very smooth, not all the comedic beats land but the punches certainly do.

It seems that the last three movies I've watched recently - "Guardian Angel" (1996), "New Killers in Town", and this one - have followed pretty much the same pattern: they're terrible, but contain some good fight scenes that are worth seeing. "Blonde Fury", one of Cynthia Rothrock's last Hong Kong vehicles, is almost unwatchable - I struggled to get through it. But Cynthia shows some great moves and makes clever use of her surroundings in about 5 or 6 fight scenes. The highlight comes in the middle, when she takes on a guy with particularly powerful kicks, following a pretty good Chin Siu Ho vs. Billy Chow fight. Martial arts fans are advised to keep their finger on the fast-forward button; non - martial arts fans are advised to avoid this film altogether. (**)

P.S: No wonder Elizabeth Lee was runner-up of Miss Hong Kong 1987. She's freaking gorgeous!