Shi jie da shai

(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.

I can't say that I was harboring much of any grand expectations to the 1989 action movie "Shi Jie Da Shai" (aka "Lady Reporter" or "Female Reporter"), as I stumbled upon it by random chance here in 2023. I had, in fact, never actually heard about the movie prior to sitting down to watch it. But then again, I never been a fan of Cynthia Rothrock.

Writers Sai-Shing Shum and Michael Swift put together a very stereotypical late 1980s action script. But hey, if you enjoy that kind of cheese, then you're in for a treat, because "Shi Jie Da Shai" is full of 1980s cheese, for better or worse. I found the movie to be semi-watchable, but it was not an outstanding movie experience. Nor is is a movie that I will ever return to watch a second time.

And something I don't understand about the 1980s movie's that were made in Hong Kong and then released worldwide got such terrible dubbing work done, every single time. And "Shi Jie Da Shai" was no different. The dubbing in the movie was just toe-curling bad.

There were some fair enough action and martial arts scenes throughout the course of the 90 minutes that the movie ran for. But it was overshadowed by a rather inferior script, and the movie was ultimately suffering from that fact.

I am sure that there is a fan base out there for a movie such as "Shi Jie Da Shai", especially if you enjoy the work of Cynthia Rothrock. I just happen not to be a part of that particular club.

My rating of director Hoi Mang's 1989 movie lands on a four out of ten stars.

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!

this movie amazed me because it has nice story,good cast,good directors,very good fights and awesome soundtrack.Cynthia rothrock acts very well in this , she has a lot of charm,is very beautiful in this and fights very well.She is my favorite martial arts actress because she makes her own stunts and she is not fake.i think this movie don't deserve a 10 because i was disappointed by a fight between Cynthia fighting against a bad guy in the house of her roommate and i didn't like the ending also because i expected a brutal fight between she and the chief villain.but the fights are very well photographed and Corey yuen does its job very well as usual coordinated the fights scenes.fans of Cynthia rothrock watch this movie because she was in top form in this and because BLONDE FURY it is in the top 3 for sure in her list.

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.