Lady Black Cat
This 1966 film starring Connie Chan as a kung
fu do-gooder behind her very cute little cat mask is more in keeping with
what I expected from the Cantonese film industry around this period. The
term often used for these films was “weekly” due to how long it usually
took to shoot these films and how long they generally lasted in a theater.
Shot in black and white with no real sets to speak of, they were low budget
affairs that were intended to put a big star like Connie on the screen
as often as possible and generate a quick financial return. Stars like
Connie and Josephine Siao were churning out over 20 films a year that were
primarily intended for the Hong Kong audience during this period.
This was one of the major issues with Cantonese
film at the time – while the Mandarin film industry had a tremendous distribution
network all over Asia to show their films, the Cantonese films did not
– and thus the budgets of the Mandarin films grew larger while the Cantonese
film budgets became smaller and smaller – a similar trend to what happened
to Hong Kong films beginning in the mid-90’s when Hollywood took away their
audience throughout Asia and their budgets had to be reined in dramatically
as producers shied away from investing in Hong Kong films.
The production values of this film as well as
the simplistic plot doesn’t rise much above an action serial episode from
Hollywood in the 1930’s – the film is shoddily shot and most of the action
is poorly choreographed and the only real reason for modern audiences to
give it a look is another lovely glimpse of Connie Chan and a frenzied
face-altering performance from that perennial bad guy Sek Kin. Connie is
more than a little cute in her cat get up, but she also disguises herself
as a guy on a few occasions, a meek mole-faced secretary and a rock and
role singer with attitude. Sek leers and smirks like it’s a lost art with
his thin moustache almost winking lasciviously at you and he makes being
the bad guy seem like so much fun. Even without subtitles on this DVD it
was enjoyable watching these two work their thing to the bone.
Without those subtitles I was admittedly a bit
lost at some of the plot twists but in general the story seemed fairly
basic. The film begins with Connie getting ready in the morning for her
day job – a little makeup, comb the hair, paste a mole to her right cheek
and then the coup de grace – dark rimmed glasses. Now no one will possibly
recognize her as the crime fighter Lady Black Cat! Of course, since Lady
Black Cat hides her identity behind a mask, the need for an everyday disguise
was lost on me. Nevertheless, she is a secretary to Woo Fung who is either
a private detective or perhaps an insurance investigator (or neither!)
and he thinks his secretary is a scaredy cat instead of a Black Cat – as
she cowers nervously every time a fight begins.
Sek Kin has a gang and a hot busty girlfriend
and spends his days by his pool throwing darts at a huge cardboard picture
of a black cat – clearly these two have met before. He has gotten a hold
of a huge diamond – smuggled in a dead fish – and he invites Woo over to
his house where he first shows him his well-endowed girlfriend with the
helium voice and a safe where he places the jewel. A note arrives – on
the end of a thrown knife – that says that the Black Cat will steal the
diamond tonight!
This fits perfectly into Sek’s plans because he
proceeds to knock everyone out with some gas (and later pulls out two nose
plugs from deep up his nostrils) and allows LBC to steal the jewel – but
in fact he did a switch and she steals a fake – and he then frames his
old servant for the crime while having the real one safely tucked away.
Much of the rest of the film deals with Connie trying to get the real jewel,
prove the servant is innocent, Sek chasing after a young babe who wants
nothing to do with him, a number of sock em ups, Connie bringing a band
to his house and singing a rock and roll song and a fairly enjoyable finale
in which two gangs, Woo Fung, the young babe and her boyfriend and Connie
are all in a giant tussle to get the diamond. Guess who wins? A sequel
“Lady Black Cat Strikes Again” came out the following year. One thing of
no consequence struck me – a few times money is exchanged and Hong Kong
had these gigantic bills back then – how cool would it be to whip out a
$10 bill the size of your head!
My rating for this film: 5.5