Zhong kui niang zi

Lady Hermit (Pei-pei Cheng) was injured in a fight against a man called Black Demon 3 years ago. Avoiding the rematch, she hides disguised as a serving maid in the house of Master Wang where Chang Chun (the ubiquitous Lo Lieh) also works. Young Cui Ping (Szu Shih) comes to town, as she wants to become Lady Hermit's student in the martial arts. Of course, she does not recognize the maid. But rumors come to Black Demon that Lady Hermit is back, and after he kills Master Wang, Lady Hermit and Cui Ping want revenge - but the problem is, they are both in love with Chang Chun and have to settle this matter between them first...

Wonderful movie. Everything you'd expect from a genre classic of the early 70s is there, blood and tears, love and hate, fights and drama. Not unusual for the time period, violence is close to the edge of cartoon style. Pei-pei Cheng has one scene when she tells 3 rogues she will cut an arm, a leg and the head off one of them each. A few seconds later - whoosh, slash, aaargh - guess what's lying on the floor? An arm, a leg and a head. But there are always the emotional moments, too, which make the characters interesting, for example the storm scene, when the roof is torn off and Lady Hermit offers shelter to Chang Chun. Memorable and highly recommended.

Although the main plot is the standard "young inexperienced student trains under master to defeat evil overlord" story, the fact that both heroic kung fu masters are female adds a welcome turn of events. The fact that they are also engaged in a love triangle also adds another dimension to the plot. Both Cheng Pei-pei and Shih Szu look fabulous in this film and it marks an interesting point in both their careers.

At this point, Cheng Pei-pei had been a major star for the Shaw Brothers for a few years. Enter Shih Szu, only 16 when this film was made. The theme of "young student taking over where master leaves off" is very appropriate for this film as Shih Szu became the Shaw's newest female star.

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.

This film essentially begins with a young woman by the name of "Cui Ping" (Szu Shih) walking into a small village to inquire about the location of a legendary martial arts master known only as the Lady Hermit. While there she notices a man being robbed of his valuables and immediately takes action to stop it. Although somewhat disappointed in not being able to find who she is looking for, she eventually takes up temporary residence at the local school of martial arts where she meets two particular people who live there as well. The first is a young man named "Wu Chang Chun" (Lieh Lo) who seems to be quite friendly. The second is a woman by the name of "Shang Yu-ling" (Pei-Pei Cheng) who works there as a maid. The next morning, having heard that the Lady Hermit might be at a temple in the next town, Cui Ping decides to check it out. When she gets there, however, she discovers that the people claiming to work for the Lady Hermit are part of an extortion scheme which the local villagers pay out of fear of being killed. Puzzled by this, she tells Shang Yu-ling who suggests that perhaps the name of the Lady Hermit has been misappropriated and she isn't really there at all. So, with that in mind, both Cui Ping and Wu Chang Chun decide to go there that night to investigate even further. But this time, she encounters disciples of an evil man known as the "Black Demon" (Hsieh Wang) who Cui Ping has sworn to kill upon sight. To that effect, a fight soon breaks out with both Cui Ping and Wu Chang Chun badly outnumbered. Fortunately for them, the real Lady Hermit-who is none other than Shang Yu-ling-- arrives and saves them both. The problem, however, is that the Black Demon also knows where his main nemesis now lives, and he is determined to kill the Lady Hermit at all costs. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this was an entertaining martial arts film which benefited from a decent plot and lots of action. Admittedly, although I would have preferred a bit more focus on the overall plot at times, I still found this to be an entertaining martial arts film, and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.

The story is of a new student taking up an established master to become the next bright star in the martial arts world. This also reflects the situation with Cheng Pei Pei and Shih Szu's acting careers. In "reality versus expectation" Shih Szu made movies until 1988 and Cheng Pei Pei until 2015 (and could return anytime).

I would like to give respectful mention to Hoa Li-Jen ('1911-1978). I call him "Old Snaggletooth" so as not to confuse him with other bit players at Shaw Brothers. He has over 222 movie credits over a 24 year career. He probably played "villager" more than any actor in history. More specifically he played "drunk villager", "villager at execution", "suffering villager" and "old villager". Yes, he could fill an entire village playing one villager at a time. He was not limited to that role as he also played "waiter", "beggar", "rebel", "vendor" and even "mental patient, dies in bed". He seemed to peak at such roles as "kung fu master", "Chief Imperial doctor", and the unsurpassable "Village God". I consider his absolute best career moment to be when he played a relative of Bruce Lee in "Enter the Dragon". In this movie he played "The Explainer". His dialog explains to Shih Szu what is going on with the thugs selling magic tokens to prevent death by ghost.

Lo Lieh has a quiet supporting role here as the Lady Hermit's unrequited love interest. He started as one of the few lead actors proficient in martial arts before acting. He played the ideal hero and peaked with his title role in "King Boxer". After that he was cast primarily as a villain and is remembered as such by most fans. Sadly, when the camera was not rolling, he was always at the end of a lit cigarette and died relatively young because of smoking related causes.

This movie is a classic that all fans of the genre know so my recommendation is meaningless. For the trouble of my review I get to add a number to the ratings and that would be a solid eight out of ten considering the year and genre.