Transformation: From Girl
Friend to Final Girl
“but I find that girl a bit strange” (“Rock
on Fire”)
Nadeki’s most prominent part was also essentially
a transitional one. In “Crystal Hunt” and the two films that preceded
it (“Killer Angels,” 1989 and “Mission of Condor,” 1990), Nadeki’s character
has a semblance of a screen relationship – with Donnie Yen, Gordon Lau
and Ken Lo, respectively. Whether betrayed (“Killer Angels”), doomed
(“Mission of Condor”) or in the past (“Crystal Hunt”), the presence of
implied romantic attachment affirms both the character’s capacity for warmth
as well as that she has been desired by others. During the first
half of “Crystal Hunt” Nadeki’s character “Winnie” is presented as softly
approachable. Her stereotypically feminine appearance and manner
is transformed once she’s directly threatened, and by the end of the film
Winnie has metamorphosed into the dour, combative, androgynous figure that
would define Nadeki’s screen presence in her later films. Relationship
interest would not feature at all in Nadeki’s subsequent seven roles.
In several, the possibility would be brusquely dismissed.
Nadeki’s physical appearance would evolve in parallel.
The youthful figure with fringe and flowing hair in “Killer Angels” tempered
the harshness of her leather costume with a frilly blouse. In “Mission
of Condor” Nadeki is glimpsed in heels and an elegant, tight black cocktail
dress. She even fights in a similarly skin-tight mini-dress in “Crystal
Hunt.” This look would not return. By the second half of “Crystal
Hunt,” and in all her subsequent films (other than the period costuming
of “Satyr Monks”), Nadeki’s attire favored denim, short leather jackets,
safari or combat clothing, and boots.
Nadeki’s rather striking yet unresponsive appearance
complemented this look – irrespective of whether she was playing the hero
or villain. Perhaps the emerging conventions for female action roles
dictated this. But it also seems evident that such a consciously
hardened persona was predominantly associated with the Japanese female
performers, and occasionally with the other martial artists active in the
industry. The genre conventions of GWG films were arguably defined
in part by the presence of Japanese performers who could embody and project
both menace and the outer control of emotion. In particular, the
martial artist’s “look” involving intense, prolonged eye contact prior
to combat is both a convention of Japanese “high” martial arts ritual and
is faithfully rendered in Japanese martial arts cinema. The Japanese
female martial arts performers who co-starred in so many HK GWG films brought
these attributes to their parts and to the genre. It may be remarked
in passing that comparably detached poise has been primarily exhibited
by Chinese performers when playing the role of assassin – perhaps suggesting
that characters seen as coldly remote yet powerful may be associated with
the most threatening roles.
