A Girl Fighter (1972)

A GIRL FIGHTER is a prisoner escort film with an extended inn-based interlude, reminiscent of DRAGON INN or The Fate of Lee Khan with Polly Shang-Kuan playing the usual firebrand type.

I sometimes think Union Films only had other directors to make King Hu look good in comparison, though it's not as if he needed it so a more likely explanation is that the rest of the cast and crew needed something to do whilst King Hu was deliberating, so they did what they - sort of - knew.

The result here is a derivative film that is not particularly well made, but does have one or two novel ideas, and since a fight breaks out roughly every five seconds it at least never gets boring. Being under 90 minutes probably helps too.

The most frustrating part of the film is that the good guys and the bad guys wear essentially identical costumes. There are some blue and some black, but it's not even consistent who wears which. It must have been a case of making do with what the wardrobe department had available. The important characters are distinguishable enough though, and it doesn't really matter which anonymous goon is which until someone significant sticks a sword in them.

Despite its conspicuous flaws, A GIRL FIGHTER is reasonably entertaining... though it probably shouldn't be at the top of anybody's watchlist.