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| Images courtesy of 88 Films |
88 Films have taken great pains to bring over to the UK and
US a number of Asian action or drama films usually curbed from the Shaw
Brothers and Shaw Scope or sometimes the Golden Harvest film library. For the most part their efforts have paid off
as with The Shadow Boxing, Hong Kong Hong Kong, The Project A
Collection and more recently An Amorous Woman of Tang Dynasty. 88 Films efforts to curate Japanese cinema
such as the acquisition of Kinji Fukusaku’s Jakoman & Tetsu have
also been handsomely rewarding for filmgoers.
And then there are ones like Dirty Ho and 36th Chamber
of Shaolin director Lau Kar-Leung’s 1983 carefree lark The Lady is the
Boss which starts out with a worthy premise and spunky heroine only to
squander whatever character and story arcs it had been building up to another
damsel-in-distress rescue mission, rinse repeat. A shame as there’s still worthwhile
choreography and fight sequences even if the story and characters around it are
flimsy.
Starring the director himself in one of the leading roles,
Lau Kar-Leung plays kung-fu schoolmaster Wang Hsieh-Yun who is instructing
students in Hong Kong when the era of the 1980s ushers in boredom amongst the
student body tiring of the traditional way of teaching. Enter Chan Mei-Ling (Kara Hui), the plucky
spunky daughter of Wang Hsieh-Yun who quickly becomes the new boss of the
outfit. Americanized to the core, she
initiates changes at the school and curates a new team of students including
but not limited to Li Hon-Man (Gordon Liu) and several others, often off the streets
or from clubs and bars run by lascivious triad groups. Soon however her carefree exploits and
revising of the system lands her in trouble with a local triad gang led by Big
Boss (Johnny Wang Lung Wei), provoking Wang to come and rescue her with a truce
they won’t antagonize the triad group again.
Soon as she’s freed, she turns right back around and fights Big Boss
again only to get captured again and needing yet another rescue by Wang. As I said, rinse repeat.
Light on characterization beyond the larger-than-life
personalities of Chan Mei-Ling and Big Boss with many of the supporting male
characters including the great Gordon Liu shoved to the wayside outside of a
pretty cool fight sequence involving handheld cameras, The Lady is the Boss starts
out promisingly only to slide into becoming a dud. Fights and choreography are good with King
Lee and Hsiao Ho co-directing the martial arts work with Lau Kar-Leung and for
the most part the film is whimsical and fun.
But whatever camaraderie and dynamics between the main male students and
their newfound teacher is being established, it’s discarded completely in the
end when they have to come rescue her not once but twice. After awhile too, it becomes apparent the
real boss here is Wang Hsieh-Yun anyway and for all the cool fighting and
instruction which doesn’t pay off the film winds up contradicting its very own
title card. Women are tough and can hold
their own in this movie until they need the film’s
writer-director-choreographer-star to save them.
Visually speaking the film looks fine with widescreen
cinematography by Cho On-Sun who occasionally captures some beautiful nighttime
hues and photography during sneaky raids.
The score by Stephen Shing and So Jan-Hau is serviceable though you can
totally tell when they’re cribbing music from other movies as it score jumps
from chintzy keyboard strumming to bombastic orchestral renderings. The three central performers played by the
director, Kara Hui and Gordon Liu are generally good with a wealth of
supporting actors filling out the fight sequences and public streetside
encounters. A cute little Easter Egg
involves Chan and her students venturing from place to place including a
Chinese movie theater trying to draw in new recruits for their school, much to
the chagrin of the head schoolmaster Wang.
88 Films’ disc release, as always, is technically sound with
original reversible sleeve and poster art, a limited slipcover, an audio
commentary by Frank Djeng and an essay involving Sam Ho discussing director Lau
Kar-Leung. Fans and Shaw Brothers
disciples keen on collecting everything will find enjoyment here but I’d be lying
if I didn’t say this was one of the weaker ones I’ve come across and Arrow
Video has forced me to wade through dozens of their titles. Fans of Lau Kar-Leung’s fighting and
choreography will get some entertainment value out of it but considering this
is from the guy who gave us Dirty Ho, it is a huge step down from the
pedestal he established for himself years prior. The fight scenes near the end of the film
more or less make up for it’s losses, but if you’re a casual fan of the Shaw Brothers
empire you’d be inclined to maybe skip this one.
--Andrew Kotwicki
