Bing tian xia nu (1971)

User Rating:

8.0/10   

Director:

Wei Lo

Writers:

Wei Lo (writer)
Kuang Ni (writer)

Release Date:

29 October 1971 (Hong Kong)

Genre:

Action | Adventure

Cast

Chiao Chiao	...	Tung Ming Chu
Siu Loi Chow
Li Jen Ho
Simon Hsu
Yu Hsu	...	Hua Niang-tzu
Chung-Hsin Huang	...	Ko Hung
Sammo Hung Kam-Bo
Feng Ku	...	Tung Hung
Ching Lee	...	Shen Ping Hung
Kun Li	...	Hsi-Men Chung
Wei Lo	...	Shen Dun
Chi Lu	...	King of Ping Nan
Niu Niu	...	Young Ping Hung
Feng Tien	...	Kao Yun
James Tien	...	The Prince (as Chen Wen)
Wing-Cho Yip	...	Wan Tzu-fei
Hua Yueh	...	Kao Tien Ying

Also Known As:

Bing tin hap lui (Hong Kong: Cantonese title)
Vengeance of a Snowgirl (Hong Kong: English title)

Country:

Hong Kong

Language:

Mandarin

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

Japan

Company:

Shaw Brothers

Colorful martial arts saga - if you get the original HK version

Colorful martial arts saga; director Lo Wei's last film for Shaw Bros. It begins as a standard revenge story complicated by elements of regret and forgiveness, and turns into a quest fantasy as a crippled kung-fu mistress out to get her parents murderers, only to be offered to have her injured legs cured by one of them in a healing fountain in a distant snow field. Various political disputes between the factions involved in the original murder – which have to do with a rare jade sword owned by her family, and now used by the crippled girl – complicate the quest. I wasn't impressed by the acting and much of the dialog seemed very unrealistic; as the film opens it features a standard plot element in early martial arts films, about a heroine disguised as a man simply by wearing men's clothing – and nobody can seem to recognize that it's a girl despite obvious facial features and other feminine attributes, which always tends to destroy a story's internal logic for me. Much of the characters' behavior in the first half of the film also tended to stretch believability, but the film came around once the quest got going and the final confrontation is a wonderful, epic showdown atop the snowy mountain. As with most Shaw Bros films, the sets are gorgeous, large fight scenes beautifully staged (often from a static long shot, displaying excellent choreography as multiple fighters interact, although at the same time the long shots keep the viewer mostly at a distance), and the use of color is amazing. Released by Celestial in a beautifully restored uncut print in subtitled Mandarin (which spares us the horrible dubbing of the 1971 US release; and by the way, none of the elements complained of by the previous reviewer – about a snaggle-toothed woman teaching a girl kung-fu so she can get vengeance on her father – are extent in this version, and likely were enhancements made to the dubbed American print), this is a very enjoyable martial arts film that, despite some initial drawbacks, develops into an effective multi-layered story with a moving resolution.