★★★
“Social soap with some punch.”
Despite this being from Hong Kong, I’m actually tagging this one in the “Pinky” category, because in a lot of ways, it feels closer to a pinky violence movie from Japan, being basically the story of a posse of bad girls. Except, this being Hong Kong in the seventies, where even juvenile delinquents were expected to hold down a responsible job. In the of case of Fung Ying (Ping), this is working in a massive garment shop. It feels almost like prison labour, not least because of various predatory types, to whom Fung takes exception, becoming an unofficial shop steward. It helps she’s a bit of a bad girl herself, a former gang member.
She teams up with a couple of colleagues, and starts helping her co-workers solve their problems. For instance, one girl has been forced into prostitution to pay off her brother’s gambling debts, or another who was dumped by her sleazy boyfriend after she got pregnant (once you get past the first five minutes, there’s a theme here that, if not all men are scum, all scum are men). Needless to say, Fung’s past comes back to haunt her. The factory owner, who I guess is fairly decent as sweatshop proprietors go, is subject to a hostile takeover attempt by her old boss Dai Goa (Hsieh). When Fung derails this, he’s none too happy, and kidnaps her with the intention of burning her alive.
The middle of this is rather too much social drama for my tastes: if Ken Loach was to make a martial arts movie, the end result might be something like this. Fung and her allies seem more concerned with social equity, forming a union to fight against the exploitation of the working classes, sexist men, and so on. Not quite what I expected from a Shaw Brothers production in the mid-seventies. It all comes off as a bit earnest, though the copious nudity – all female, naturally – makes it a little difficult to accept fully any messages of feminist empowerment. It does, however, act as a lovely time-capsule of Hong Kong in that era, in every area from hairdressing through to home decoration.
While well-made, it’s a bit dull until the end. Fung’s kidnapping is followed by a rescue attempt, which leads to a massive extended brawl on a building site, that’s as good as I’ve seen from any heroine of the era. This takes full advantage of the environment, Fung swinging a shovel as if born to it. Naturally, violence cannot be seen to prevail, so this ends in the moralistic style you would, with the authorities – notable by their absence to this point – showing up. Fung and her old pal Shing (Chen) take responsibility for their actions, and are led off to the cheers of their workmates. This finale goes a long way to redeem things, though it’s still guilty of putting its message before the mayhem.
Dir: Chung Sun
Star: Ping Chen, Chung Wang, Chen Kuan-Tai, Hsieh Wang