Queen Boxer
The compilation film Deadly Fighting Dolls ends
with a lengthy action piece from Queen Boxer. It is quite an amazing fight
and I have wanted to see this film ever since seeing it. It stars one of
the more famous fighting females from the 1970’s – Judy Lee (aka Chia Ling).
Judy Lee like so many of the femme fatales
from this era was born in Taiwan. She was a classmate of Angela Mao at
their Peking opera school. In 1972 she was discovered by Yeung Kwan and
he cast her in this her first film. Queen Boxer was a hit and Judy went
on to make over sixty films in her career.
This film is fairly simple and really only
has a few action scenes to make it worth a visit. Judy is involved in only
two fights, but both are large set pieces that are quite extended. The
story itself though follows the standard revenge formula. In the opening
scene Judy’s brother challenges the corrupt Boss Pai and is easily killing
off his gang when they throw lye into his eyes. He is then cut down though
he still fights on for quite a while even after four hatchets have been
imbedded in him!
Judy hears about this and comes to town looking
for trouble. At the same time the owner of a food stall (Yeung Kwan) decides
that he won’t pay off the boss anymore and joins up with Judy to fight
him. This leads to the two of them entering the boss’s headquarters and
taking on his gang. A gwielo pulls out a revolver and shoots Yeung Kwan
and the two of them have to escape.
On her own Judy comes back later to finish it
once and for all. This is the fight that was included in Deadly Fighting
Dolls and it was quite a doozy for that time period – especially taking
into consideration that it is a lone female taking on around forty bad
guys.
Judy begins with two knives and slices her way
through her opponents, then it is hand to hand, then on to hatchets. They
attempt to blind her with lye as well, but she uses her ponytail as a shield.
Slowly but surely she kills off the enemy until only the boss remains.
The final frame is a classic as Judy reaches out to close his eyes as the
Shaft like soundtrack swells up.
