Da xiao you long

I found it curious that one reviewer of this film wrote that Polly posing as a man was unbelievable yet another reviewer wrote she was believable. I will cast the deciding vote. Polly looked totally female to me in every scene.

Chinese movies have origins in Chinese opera where men playing females and the opposite was quite common. This continued with movies and it seemed in movies they made no effort to use makeup or any other technique to blur the gender lines. It was just something the audience agreed to go along with and not question. I agree this can be weird to Westerners but there are other tropes fans of the genre accept.

I first watched this movie back in 2015 and made a few notes but did not post a review. To complete my mission I watched it again today. Starts with a kid fishing and catches ladies underwear. Kurata Yasuaki is a robber and the authorities can't do anything against him. Polly's father gets accused of Kurata's crime of salt smuggling. He says it is too bad she is a girl and cannot fight back. She fights back. At about the 15 minute mark there is a long shot where Polly does about 18 moves against different opponents without a cut. In 1974 that was as good as it gets for a fight sequence. Polly started at the top with a lead role in 1967 "Dragon Inn". She made about 50 films before retiring to southern California. My copy is a digital file that plays on a HDTV as wide screen but small. It is English dubbed. The fights are above average but the rest of the movie is below average. My recommendation for fans only is take it or leave it.

I have noticed on IMDb how even the very worst martial arts films often get rave reviews and have very high scores. In fact, other than some bad American martial arts films (such as "Three Ninjas"), I can't recall seeing an Asian martial arts film that people hate. Even "Shaolin Invincibles" (a truly awful and stupid films) has very respectable marks here on IMDb. So, because of this, I shouldn't be surprised that "Lady Whirlwind Against the Rangers" has an adequate score of 5.1 and both positive reviews--even though it IS a very bad film. Now there are worse martial arts films, but about 90% are better! The film suffered some in ways you can't blame the original Taiwanese production team. The print is almost black in spots it's so dark and the dubbing and fight sound effects are pretty poor. Originally, it was probably a lot better in Chinese.

When the film begins, it's early in the 20th century and there are very high government taxes on salt. As a result, there are salt smugglers everywhere as well as government troops looking for them. A corrupt government official sets up an innocent man to be arrested for smuggling and it's up to his daughter to exact revenge. Here's the problem--the BIG problem--the lady poses as a man but simply looks like a woman! I laughed when folks kept calling her a guy--even though she clearly had breasts! In other words, the fundamental idea of the film was stupid--making it hard to enjoy the film. Further problems developed because the film had the number one WORST martial arts element--the annoying and bratty child (who the man/woman is protecting). Overall, the martial arts in the film is only fair but the plot is bad and probably not worth your time. Not rotten but not good by any reasonable standard.

In the early 20th Century, England imposed a salt tax on all its southern Asian colonies - the areas where salt was most needed (due to the heat) and most plentiful (due to the proximity of the oceans). In India this had grave political consequences (it gave Mohandas Ghandi his first major anti-colonial cause in India); in colonies with large Chinese populations, it created a black-market. Hence the subject matter of the film.

Polly Shaun Kuan seems to have made this film as she was approaching the zenith of her popularity. She was to do a number of films where she would appear 'in drag,' as a male. It should be noted, first, that Shaun Kuan is one of the least credible women to appear in such roles - although short and a little stout she has an undeniably female figure. Her chest gives away the whole story here. But women in male garb was a standard convention of Chinese action films, all the way up to the early '90's; if you want to enjoy these films, you're just going to have to accept this as a given.

There's nothing exceptional about this film for it's genre and era. Although laking finesse, the action is pretty good, the plot holds together fairly well, the dialog is no embarrassment. If you don't know who Polly Shaun Kuan is, this is as good an introduction as any. She's pretty much in command here, and she's good when she is. King Kam and Yasuaki Kurata also turn in decent performances.

Standrd fare for the genre.