The Bod Squad (1974)
"Yang chi" (original title)

Five Western girls are kidnapped by Chinese pirates and sold to a brothel. While they are being trained to become prostitutes, a couple of local citizens take mercy on them and plots their ... See full summary »

Directors:

Ernst Hofbauer, Chih-Hung Kuei

Writers:

Yu-Hsun Chen, Yi Hsun Cheng

Stars:

Hua Yueh, Hui-Ling Liu, Sonja Jeannine

Cast

Credited cast:
Hua Yueh	...	Ko Pao
Hui-Ling Liu	...	Ko Mei Mei
Sonja Jeannine	...	Donna
Diane Drube	...	Anna
Gillian Bray	...	Brenda
Tamara Elliot	...	Karen
Deborah Ralls	...	Celia
Hsieh Wang	...	Chao
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Yuen Biao	...	Extra
Han Chiang	...	Chao's guard
Yang Chiang	...	One-Eyed Dragon
Yao Ko Chu
Hsiung Kao	...	Chao's guard
Ti Hua Ko	...	Tiao Tao Fu
Nino Korda	...	(voice)

Storyline

Five Western girls are kidnapped by Chinese pirates and sold to a brothel. While they are being trained to become prostitutes, a couple of local citizens take mercy on them and plots their escape by teaching them kung-fu. The five scantily-clad girls, using their newfound martial arts skills then fight their way to freedom.

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Plot Keywords:

brothel | kung fu | chinese | pirate | prostitute | 

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Taglines:

Virgin on the Ridiculous! Fantastic Chop Chop! Plenty Hanky Panky! Very Very Sexy!

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Genres:

Action | Comedy

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

Hong Kong West Germany

Language:

German English Mandarin

Release Date:

October 1976 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Bod Squad

Company Credits

Production Co:

Rapid Film, Shaw Brothers

Technical Specs

Runtime:

99 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

German Import DVD has Super-8mm version (German Audio), as a special feature.

User Reviews

Interesting collision of 70's exploitation genres

Although I'm a big aficionado of 1970's exploitation flicks, I have to admit that, unlike your typical Quentin Tarantino type, I am NOT much of a fan of martial arts films (I'm always reminded of the famous scene in "Raiders of the Lost Ark" where Indiana Jones comes face to face with a fearsome blade-wielding ninja, shrugs, and casually pulls out his side-arm and shoots the guy dead). The possible exception though is FEMALE martial arts movies, not those featuring someone like Cynthia Rothrock, who could kick some serious real-life ass, but the more pre-feminist 1970's brand with girls who looked more like big-breasted fashion models that probably couldn't fight their way out of a crisp paper sack in real life, but that's hardly the point then, is it?

The Shaw Brothers were the widely acknowledged masters of the 70's Hong Kong kung fu genre, but they were also as cash-strapped as any 70's low-budget filmmakers and had to participate in any number of, um, interesting co-productions in that era. The most famous perhaps is their collaboration with British Hammer films in the last Christopher Lee "Dracula" film "Legend of the Golden Vampires". There was also the urban actioneer "Man from Hong Kong" they did with the Aussie film industry and "Blood Money" the first (and last) kung fu/spaghetti Western. More obscure are the WIP film "Bamboo House of Dolls" and the off-the-wall sex comedy/kung fu movie "Adventures in Denmark" they did with Danish sex film producers. It's saying a lot then, but THIS film might be the MOST interesting Shaw Brothers co-production because here they are collaborating with German sex filmmakers and, specifically, director Ernst Hofbauer, co-creator of the infamous German "sex-report" movies.

This doesn't work very well as kung-fu movie, not surprisingly, but Hofbauer did bring with him to China two of of the sexiest girls from his "schulmadchen-report" series, Sonja Jeanine and Deborah Ralls. The pair are much more obscure than the more famous actresses of that series like Ingrid Steeger or Christine Lindberg (although, interesting, Lindberg herself appeared in at least one Japanese martial arts film, "Sex and Fury"), but they are both very memorable in the few films they appeared in. An even more interesting actress though is American ex-pat Gillian Bray, who had appeared earlier in the excellent Italian giallo/crime thriller "Death Occurred Last Night", a film that is marred only by having statuesque beauty Bray cast as a mentally-challenged sex crime victim. (Bray tried her best in the role, but was COMPLETELY unbelievable as someone who is severely mentally disabled).

I can't say this film is really any good, but it certainly is an interesting collision of two very different kinds of 70's exploitation filmmaking, and it has a rather obscure but definitely very interesting female cast.