Jian hu nu xia Qiu Jin

The story of Qiu Jin is ripe fruit for cinematic picking especially for the rapidly growing China film industry, which has in recent years displayed a penchant for turning the country's own rich history into lavish spectacle. Here is a woman ahead of her time, who grew up questioning the unequal treatment of men and women, who fought for her right to an equal education, and who later on fought against the corrupt Manchu government to her death.

Attempting the dramatization of Qiu Jin's life is the production team behind 'Ip Man: The Legend is Born', and though the poster boasts of these credentials, those who have seen the earlier film will likely agree that the reference doesn't inspire much confidence. Surprisingly then, director Herman Yau and his screenwriter Erica Li have done an excellent job adapting the many facets of her life into a rich, stirring and poignant movie, one that easily stands out as the best among the recent bumper crop of historical epics.

Beginning with the last and definitive fight that would lead to her execution, we first see Qiu Jin's (Huang Yi) arrest following a fierce showdown with Qing military commander Ao Feng (veteran Xiong Xin Xin). Qiu Jin was then headmaster of the Daitong College, the first mixed- gender school whose mission was to give women the chance to receive an education. It was also a training ground for the fomenting revolutionary movement against the Manchu authorities, and that fateful day of 14th July 1907 was meant to be the fall of their Shaoxing province.

Unfortunately, it wasn't to be, and Qiu Jin is subsequently interrogated by both the outgoing Provincial Governor Gui Fu (Lam Suet) and the incoming Li Zhong-yue (Anthony Wong). Her refusal to give up the names of her compatriots leads to her torture and finally her execution, sealing her status as a martyr for the People's Republic of China. Filling in the blanks of the formative years of her life leading up to her revolutionary status are numerous flashbacks, which go all the way back to when she was only a little girl about to have her feet bound.

Yau makes excellent use of these early years to paint Jin as a determined and passionate woman not afraid to defy tradition- as a teenager growing into a young adult,Qiu Jin would ransom her jewels for the freedom of a child bride taken into slavery, who later becomes her loyal companion Fusheng (Rose Chan). Even after her arranged marriage to Ting-jun (Kevin Cheng), Qiu Jin refused to be subordinated as a wife, instead forcing her husband to buy a position in Beijing in the hopes that their proximity to the echelons of power can make it easier to engineer change in the Qing government.

The depiction of their marriage deserves special mention, for Yau and Li are careful not to allow Ting-jun just to be a caricatured husband figure in a feminist-driven movie. Instead, the filmmakers use Ting-jun to illustrate the mentality of those who quietly desire for change but resist being part of the process- and Ting-jun's plea for Qiu Jin to stop projecting her aspirations upon him ends up unexpectedly moving. Rare are such well-drawn supporting roles in films, and the attention Yau pays to Ting-jun is a nice surprise.

And in fact Ting-jun isn't the only one- the unofficial leader of the revolution Xu Xilin (Ip Man's Dennis To) is also similarly well- delineated, whom Qiu Jin meets while studying in Japan after quietly leaving Ting-jun and their two kids behind. There is considerable sizzle as Qiu Jin finds an intellectual equal in Xilin, and their scenes together hum with considerable vim and vigour. Xilin also becomes a catalyst in Qiu Jin's decision to join their Restoration Society and take up arms for the cause, their plans finally taking shape in the form of successive planned uprisings in Anhui and Shaoxing.

It therefore takes more than an hour before the action kicks in proper, but those looking for the kind of heroics in 'Ip Man' will likely come off disappointed. Standing in once again for Donnie Yen is kungfu champion Dennis To, but despite his title, To has a lot more to catch up with Yen. His extended fight scene with Xiong Xin Xin comes off choreographed, lacking the spontaneity de rigueur in any action sequence worth its salt. Xin Xin is also pitted against Huang Yi, but while the actress pulls off the fighting sequences convincingly, there is little in Leung Siu-hung's choreography that truly stands out. But of course, this biography of Qiu Jin isn't meant to spotlight her martial arts however brilliant they may have been in real life, but to celebrate her heroic achievements both as a feminist and as a revolutionary.

Appropriately then, the dramatic aspects of the film are the parts that stand out, brought to life by a stellar cast. Huang Yi isn't always as expressive as she should be, but she does a fine job bringing across Qiu Jin's steeliness fighting for her ideals and her insecurities worrying for her family. As the two most important men in Qiu Jin's life, Kevin Cheng and Dennis To have a nice rapport with Huang Yi as the head of the household and the head of the revolutionaries respectively. And as always, Anthony Wong makes the best of a small supporting role as the sympathetic Governor powerless to prevent the beheading of someone he greatly respects.

With Yau's assured restraint and confident grasp, the film doesn't remain as a stodgy recount of historical events, but rather a moving and inspirational tale of the first woman revolutionary in China's history. So don't let the other lesser films of its genre that have come before it dissuade you, 'The Woman Knight of Mirror Lake' stands high above its ilk, a shining example of history come alive.

• www.moviexclusive.com

The movie can't decide whether it wants to be a biopic of the revolutionary heroine or a kung-fu flick, but (for me personally) that doesn't make the story and characters any less gripping or the kung-fu any less exciting. Worth watching, if you're interested in Chinese movies, kung-fu flicks, historical flicks and/or feminist movies (that are of greater substance than the "strong action womyn kills evil man" stereotype).

There are just a couple of long and detailed reviews (with heaps of spoilers and no warning!) from people who clearly know far more about the subject than me. I wanted to add a more typical non-expert view.

This is the life-story of Qiu Jin, a famous Chinese feminist, revolutionary and poet, who lived at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. The fact that such a woman could exist at that time and place and the historical background on the political situation in the far east are all fascinating.

As for the technical side, the acting is fine, especially the lead, Huang Yi, and the film is competently directed, excellently shot, and generally feels authentic. This film uses the device of opening almost at the end, then going back to the start of Qiu Jin's life, and alternating the two strands from there on – an approach I always dislike as it guarantees built-in spoilers. However this was made for the Chinese market and, this being a significant historical figure, most viewers will know the main events of her life before they start watching.

My only other gripe concerns that fairly common aspect of Chinese cinema, kung fu. While the real Qiu Jin was a more than competent practitioner of various martial arts (in her most famous photo, she holds an unsheathed dagger ready) she was more political leader than action hero. This otherwise serious film has the usual very long and often rather improbable fight sequences: on one occasion she gratuitously leaves a carriage to flatten dozens of armed soldiers to stop them harassing the poor peasants, while her husband and child look on. In itself the martial arts is well-choreographed and exciting, with Huang Li again doing a good job, and I did enjoy it, but I have to question the balance. This film might have been better without some of the very long fight sequences, especially those not involving the main character.

In summary: if you're interested in Chinese or feminist history, or if you like a kung fu film with a more serious message, then you should enjoy this a lot. Even if you don't like any of these aspects, it's still better than most new films you'll see.

It's the centennial year of China's overthrow of its centuries long imperial rule spanning a number of dynasties, and it's no surprise for films coming out of the Chinese territories to be putting out more patriotic, biographical fare of its martyrs and heroes, some more well known like Dr Sun Yat-sen in Jackie Chan's 1911, while others perhaps not so with Qiu Jin, the titular woman knight, known for her progressive thinking and feminism, although my interest was stoked with her character's appearance to kickstart Jackie Chan's film. So having it released post 1911, may be a shrewd move given the trailer for the film had been played for months already before finally being released.

Director Herman Yau may seem like the director to go to if not to latch onto any popularity wave as far as film franchises and genres go. With his Ip Man: The Legend Begins, he took on the character outside of the Wilson Yip-Donnie Yen universe and gave it his own spin with Alex To in the lead, and had a claim to some legitimacy with the casting and roping in of Ip Man's direct descendant Ip Chun as technical reference as well. It's been a long way since his earlier days of achieving cult status with his iconic Category III films like The Eight Immortals Restaurant and Ebola Syndrome, to being at the helm of a film celebrating the life and times of a Chinese heroine when interest has turned toward biographical stories of historical characters.

Actress Huang Yi, better known for her role in Overheard 2 and the campy Treasure Inn, plays the title character who is born into privilege, but having am inquisitive streak and mind of her own, challenging customs and traditions at a young age. Skilled in both the written word and in martial arts, she's an intellect with an independent mind, but is still constraint by societal rules, which at the time under Manchu Qing rule, had in place rather regressive norms such as bound feet and lack of education for women, in order to keep them docile and submissive due to a physical handicap passing off as beauty. Needless to say her shock jock tactics such as dressing in man's clothes do not gain approval from her government official husband (Kevin Cheng) who sees it as a lost of face amongst his peers, and determined to find her true calling, pack up and left for Japan, where she meets similar minded peers including Xu Xilin (Alex To) where the seeds of revolution got incepted and cultivated.

Credit has to go to the scriptwriters to produce a well researched into biographical story, having Qiu Jin's multi-faceted life, roles and talent all incorporated into the character, without feeling repetitive. And in doing so you'll marvel at and admire her talent for poetry, martial arts (though for entertainment sake she fights like she can take on Wong Fei-Hong and Ip Mam together) and her rousing speeches on revolution, although with the latter it's more of a fight against an oppressive regime that condones the lack of female rights. And not only that, her uphill battle involves changing mindsets even amongst the educated women themselves, who have already ingrained what the skewed norm is. If anything her involvement in revolution came from the need to overthrow existing mindsets and provide the level of freedom and equality for her gender in China. And surprisingly Huang Yi manged to pull the character off, as she hadn't really had any role quite in the same league, or noteworthy of a challenge to begin with.

This is one film that was absolutely better than the promotional trailer made it out to be, which was quite the bore as it played out just about every aspect of the film and was a tad overlong, so thank goodness the film was way better delivered. We begin at the tail end of Qiu Jin's revolutionary life with the assault of her Dayong school, a front to train civil servants but in fact used as a training ground for revolutionaries, and slowly from flashbacks we get glimpses into milestones of her life, shifting backward and forward through transitions that worked at times, while others quite clumsily executed, though nothing more than to grab your attention to its technicality with limited impact to the plot of course.

The other gripe I had was with its martial arts. Granted the kung fu set action pieces would draw crowds but I've just about had a limit with wire-work stunts executed in physics-defying fashion. It's a historical biography, and the fight choreography could have been more subtly executed rather than to break the laws dictated by science. You can have superhuman throws in fantastical, mythical stories, but for something like this, realism would be much appreciated since so much effort had gone into creating a credible tale only for this niggling aspect to shave off some brownie points.

But on the whole, Herman Yau had assembled a credible piece of work that can serve as a launchpad for anyone remotely interested in researching Qiu Jin, with Anthony Wong and Lam Suet playing Manchu officials on a divided fence with one adamant to get rid of her soon to please the courts, while the other appreciating the fact the execution of a talented individual he admires, is nothing but a loss to society and country even. The final moments of her life is moving and poignant to say the least, a reminder in the world we live in that one's progressive thoughts and actions often puts one ahead of the pack, but all alone, and it takes tremendous gumption to literally make personal sacrifices and fight for what one believes in for the greater good, especially when up against powers that be who enjoy the status quo for obvious benefits. Highly recommended for that sneak peek into a Chinese heroine's life through film.