Temptress of a Thousand Faces
Temptress of a Thousand Faces
aka 千面魔女 aka Qian mian mo nu aka Temptress of 1000 Faces
1969
Written by Song Jin
Directed by Jeng Cheong-Woh
This sexy Shaw Brothers crime caper has influences from the classic female-lead action films of yore, the 1960s Jane Bond films, James Bond, Eurospy, and even Fantomas! Temptress of a Thousand Faces meshes these sources all together into a terrific crime caper. One of those films where there are master thieves who can be anywhere and disguised as anyone. Even your mom! Okay, probably not your mom. Or is that just what they want you to think? You better call your mom an make sure, just in case. It’s the old master of disguise story, but with no need to worry about people being turtlely enough to join the turtle club. Because none of them are! Freaking lack of turtle love in Temptress of a Thousand Faces…
The big switch is this time the thief is a woman. The thief being female throws the entire police force for a loop, as everyone is looking for a male master thief. I’m not sure why, almost every crime shown involves women, maybe the police have all taken stupid pills. It’s girl power, but only sort of. Of course, only another woman can take her down. Further continuing the gender bending, the police officer hero is the female Ji Ying, while her boyfriend Yuk Dat plays the Torchy Blane role of reporter who is on the case. But unlike Torchy, Yuk Dat doesn’t contribute to the solving of the case, just becoming yet another chess piece to be played by the mastermind and the detective.
Temptress of a Thousand Faces was discussed before during our Infernal Brains episode covering the Jane Bond films. If you prefer your reviews in audio format, that’s your best bet, along with a whole history of the genre that won’t be repeated here. But if you love things written down, then feel free to read on! Or just look at the pretty pictures. Either way, hopefully you are convinced enough to track down a copy, because you will not be disappointed!
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Categories: Bad, Movie Reviews Tags: Carrie Ku Mei, Chan Leung, Fan Mei-Sheng, Hong Kong, Jeng Cheong-Woh, Kam Man, Lau Leung-Wa, Pat Ting Hung, Shaw Brothers, Song Jin, Tina Chin Fei, Yeung Chi-Hing, Yip Bo-Kam
Come Drink with Me (Review)
Come Drink with Me
aka Da zui xia
1966
Starring
Pei-Pei Cheng as Golden Swallow
Hua Yueh as Drunken Cat
Hung Lieh Chen as Jade Faced Tiger
Chih-Ching Yang as Abbot Liao Kung
Back in the day, Kung Fu women still kicked butt. Pei-Pei Cheng was one of those women, who helped blaze trails that modern action women march down every day. This film is one that helped inspire countless films after it, it transcends being simply a martial arts film, and becomes a great martial arts film. It’s not just the fights, it’s the costumes, characters, actors, story, and just overall feel of the film. Does it have flaws? Of course. They are fewer in number than most of the films that come down the pipe, but we shall have no inhibitions about pointing them out. A good time is to be had, come this way. Come drink this movie with us. (Boy, that sounds a lot better than the literal translation “Big Drunk Hero” which would cause us to invite you to become a fat drunk slob.)
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Categories: Bad, Movie Reviews Tags: Chen Hung-Lieh, Cheng Pei-Pei, Hong Kong, King Hu, Lee Wan-Chung, martial arts, Shaw Brothers, Women who kick butt, wuxia, Yeung Chi-Hing, Yueh Hua
