Xia nu bao ta jie

Set in imperial China, the Emperor of the Tang dynasty is betrayed and murdered by one of his high officials. His son goes on the run but is poisoned. Two female warriors step forward to protect him from hostile enemies and navigate the dangers of a shaolin temple which stores the only known antidote to the poison.

This is an example of the Taiwanese strand of the kung fu action flick. Like others of this type such as Chase Step by Step (1974) it's pretty much non-stop action from start to finish. The martial arts sword play is well done and the two female fighters made for very good heroines. The final section of the film mainly compromises of two different encounters happening simultaneously and edited together, namely one girl fights with the chief bad guy, while the other navigates the floors of the temple. It very nicely executed and makes for a satisfying pay-off. The film ends a little later with an amusingly silly scene of the prince passing himself successfully off as a dancing girl in order to get close to take final revenge on his father's killer.

Just two points: This is almost certainly a Taiwanese production. Most Taiwanese 'fu films are pretty lowly rated, but I'm beginning to understand that the Tawiwanese film-makers of the 1970s were much more rooted in their theatrical tradition than their Hong Kong counterparts. When the women dance to obviously recorded music in what should be ancient China, they do so not because the film-makers are too cheap to have real musicians there (they have real dancers there, after all), but because that's exactly how it would have been done in a live performance of the story in a theater. For me, this explains a lot of the broad performances and quirky staging.

Second point: The gender-bending here - not only the deployment of the bold sisters who defend the Prince better than any of his male guards, but the 'drag' appearance of the (undeniably effeminate) Prince at the end, raises some interesting historical issues - as the Hong Kong 'New Wave' gained steam during the 1980s, such gender issues became a central theme of historical sword-play cinema. And the theme seems to be deeply embedded in the history of the Chinese imperial court, according to both historical texts and legends.

Such issues do not raise this film above criticisms of low budget and programmer formula; but the film is not unwatchable 'fu fare, and there may also be something to learn from it in the viewing.

I was kind of tricked into watching this since I thought I was recording the much better known 1976 film "Shaolin Temple", but this is really the Taiwanese film "Seven Spirit Pagoda" under another title. The Emperor is betrayed and killed, and his general flees with his son the Prince. They are ambushed, the general is killed, and the Prince is poisoned. The general's daughters must protect the Prince from his enemies while getting the antidote from the top floor of a seven story monastery ... each floor guarded by a monk. An enjoyably action-filled film with some interesting gender switches. Unfortunately, the print I recorded from TV is full frame, badly dubbed and edited for time.