User Reviews

Getting the chance to recently see a restored print of the wonderful The Swordsman of all Swordsmen (also reviewed),I was pleased to see another obscure Taiwan Action film being shown at the HOME cinema in Manchester. Being lucky to get hold of a ticket to the packed screening, after accidentally booking for the upcoming showing of A Call Called Dragon, I got set to meet a iron mistress.

View on the film:

For what would become his third credit, director Tsun-Shou Sung brings a Western atmosphere to the Action scenes, via sharp angles pinned upwards, which surround the Tartar invaders and the fighting rebels with a bright blue skyline.

Closely working with editor Chin-Chen Wang, Sung stages the Wuxia Action set-pieces with a fantastic, colourful stylish flourish, drawing the camera with scatter-gun whip-pans on tightly choreographed fighting moves,which land on jagged close-ups to each last gasp taken, after being inflicted with a deadly finishing move.

Opening with the title character leading the charge,the screenplay by Shih-Ching Yang (one of only ten he wrote), struggles to keep the fuse lit across the entire run time, due to attempts to build detailed outlines of the relationships between each of the rebels and the invaders, (which also touches on a allegorical side, in the rebels fighting back at those who have invaded the island) becoming disjointed, due to it pushing the main warrior further to the back of the group, and also bringing a stop/start mood to the most striking elements,from poisoning fears to disagreement mutterings being raised within the groups,as the mistress irons outs the invaders.

A group of rebels taking on the Jin invaders during the Southern Song Dynasty are led by the Iron Mistress (Han Hsiang-Chin) and Wei Shing (Pai Ying). Another revolutionary named Hsin Tsuan (Chien Tsao) says that she may be a strong fighter and able to gather an army, but she has no plan. He offers to be the brains, but Wei Shung feels like he could be playing not just his leader, but the object of his unrequited affection.

Yet according to the actual history of China, Hsin Tsuan is supposed to be Xin Qiji, who wrote under the name Jiaxuan. He became a fighter to gain a measure of revenge against the Jin and had a twenty-year career of military service. He then retired and began writig ci, which are porms written to match existing melodies. He constructed more than six hundred of these poems and became widely admired and imitated for his skill with words, not just swords.

Here is one:

Partridge Sky

When I was young

I waved a flag to lead a thousand soldiers

horses too

how my men

fashioned arrows

of silver at night

they brought

down the moon

now the enemy owns it

I come back

I'm nobody

now thinking of the past

how one

sighs to be neglected

Spring won't bring back the black to my bread

you can't imagine the tracts I wrote on tactics for this country

In return I'm given this poor field bent mattock

and some weather-worn to me titled "how to grow tree"

Directed by Tsun-Shou Sung and written by Shih-Ching Yang, this has a lot of growth in the film for all of its characters to go along with the swordplay.

Female warrior the Iron Mistress joins forces with the crafty Hsin in order to devise a good plan for fighting off an army of Tartar invaders. Director Tsun-Shou Sung relates the tricky and absorbing story in a pleasingly snappy and straightforward manner, eschews needless pretense in favor of just getting down to rousing brass tacks, stages the plentiful spirited and exciting sword fights with considerable go-for-the-throat aplomb, and offers a convincing and flavorsome evocation of the period setting. Moreover, the film is given extra dramatic punch by the meaty themes of trust, loyalty, and betrayal. The lively cinematography injects an additional rip-snorting vitality while the dynamic and melodic score provides a nice sense of majestic sweep and scope. The use of many extras for the elaborate fight set pieces further enhances the impressive spectacle of this real cool and enjoyable item.