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Lady of Steel was the first of two Shaw Brothers films Cheng Pei Pei made in 1970. While Pei Pei shone like a jewel the action and story were rather lackluster.Fang Ning and Chao Hsiung stop at an inn on their way to delivering one million taels of silver to flood victims. The nefarious bandit Han Shi Xiong not only robs them but murders Fang and his family. Chao manages to escape with the youngest Fang daughter. After he dies in the woods, Priest Xuan Zhen takes Ying Qi in and teaches her martial arts. This was before the invention of the training montage which means Ying Qi ages in a matter of seconds and has also become an accomplished swordswoman. She desires revenge against Han but first she’ll have to deal with the Jins who have invaded. On the way to the Flying Dragon Fortress with her letter of introduction she ends up in a fight with a beggar clan who is threatening Wei Tong Ming. She jumps to his defense not knowing he was in league with Han. This pits her against the Beggar leader until she realizes he is the good guy and Wei is the bad guy. Wei also discovers her secret and tells Han who is now called Cai Yi and is duplicitously working with the righteous leader of the Flying Dragon Fortress! From there Ying Qi must face double crosses, multiple ambushes, and wear several disguises until she finally uncovers the truth and acts on her revenge.
Cheng Pei Pei had the opportunity to show off some of her acting skills as she dealt with treachery and took on several different personas. Yueh Hua was a supporting character who only showed up briefly when Ying Qi needed him. Huang Tsung Hsun and Lee Wan Chung made for devious villains. The standard revenge plot was thin and redundant more often than not. Although there were many fights, for the most part they were rather dull. They used the swipe and fall style of choreography with the assistance of some wire work. Cheng Pei Pei and Yueh Hua had a flirty fight in the beginning. Her fight with Lee Wan Chung during a fireworks display had some colorful flashes as the fireworks wrote out “longevity.” There were a few moments of inventiveness in the finale, but even those times were few.
Through no fault of Cheng Pei Pei’s, Lady of Steel wasn’t bad, it was just the kind of lukewarm film I’ll forget very soon because it didn’t have anything memorable going for it. Her next film, Brothers Five, had well choreographed fights and more charismatic characters if you need a better Pei Pei film to watch.
13 Dec 2023
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