Matching Escort (1982)

Matching Escort (1982)
aka: Wolf Devil Woman 2; Venus the Ninja; Wolfen Ninja; Fury of the Silver Fox; Venus the Cavalier
Chinese Title: 金粉遊龍
Translation: Gold Dust, Swimming Dragon

 

Starring: Pearl Chang Ling, Meng Fei, Wang Hsieh, Sek Fung, Peng Kong
Director: Pearl Chang Ling, Si Ma-Peng
Action Director: Su Chen-Ping

 

The first "follow-up" to Wolf Devil Woman doesn't have the supernatural elements that the previous film does, but it's just as over-the-top violent and is crazy in its own way, and even better in some respects. The problems with pacing that marred Pearl Chang's "masterpiece" are largely absent (save an unnecessary six-minute comic interlude involving Pearl and a group of beggars) and the action sequences are spaced at more uniform intervals, although things kick into overdrive during the last 30 minutes. Pearl continues as director and star, although writing and producing duties have been relegated to others, which is probably for the best. And once more, the overarcing theme of the movie is "Don't kill Pearl Chang's parents, because she *will* get bloody revenge on you."

So there's a kung fu noble by the name of Fang who lives in quiet solitude with his household, including his young daughter, Chu (who'll be played as an adult by Pearl Chang Ling herself). Chu grows up forced to wear heavy metal shoes, which strengthen her legs to the point that, by the time she reaches adulthood, she can fly, jump high into trees, and even run on water! Her father is visited by some men one day who ask him to join their cause in dethroning the emperor. He turns down the offer, leading the men to say, "Screw that!" and murder the entire household. Only Chu is able to escape, thanks to her flying skills.

Chu becomes a vagabond, but unlike women who dress like that in most kung fu movies, the villains are still able to see through the disguise and are on her tail. During one chase sequence, Chu falls off a cliff and into a secret cave! The cave is inhabited by a former kung fu clan leader who was violently betrayed by his own twin brother. For twenty years he has been mixing concoctions from the giant mushrooms and flowers that grow in the cave, with the hope of making a potion that'll restore his broken legs and allow him to get his revenge. The man eventually agrees to become Chu's teacher and she learns not only kung fu, but is subjected to various poisonous plants and vapors that render her immune to the effects of most poisons. That's an oddly specific kung fu ability, you know. I can't possibly imagine it coming in handy later.

At the end of Chu's training, her master conveniently expires, leaving her to take revenge for the both of them. Not conveniently, they don't happen to be looking for the same person, so we get an extra action sequence with the purpose of wrapping up that particular subplot involving her master. Chu then teams up with the 3rd Prince (Meng Fei) and his servant, Peanut (I suppose having a Chinese name that translates to Peanut is more plausible than being a Ming Dynasty Chinese named "Rudy"), to dish out the kung fu revenge that only an angry woman with a sword can deal out.

So no zombies, ghosts or voodoo dolls in this movie, but we do get lots of people being slashed to ribbons with Pearl's sword. The fight choreography was provided by Su Chen-Ping, who worked on a few obscure Taiwanese movies during the 70s, and is probably best known by fans for King of Fists and Dollars. I suspect he also worked on Wolf Devil Woman, since both films have that same proto-Butterfly and Sword approach to choreography: lots of flips, quick cuts, wires, and the like. Don't expect much hand-to-hand from Meng Fei. He usually just wacks people with his fan until the end, when he also whips out his sword and slices his way through a literal army of ninja. Speaking of ninja, Pearl's sword style in this movie is heavily influenced by Japanese chambara movies. Except for the final duel against a villain who wears a Nintendo Power Glove, the fights are over very quickly. Chang whips out her sword (gotta love how her scabbard also has a blade at the tip), twirls it around a little bit, parries an attack or two, twirls it around some more, and then several people just keel over dead with blood spurting out of God knows where. I'm assuming that Pearl's martial arts background was a little limited, so this approach to swordplay is probably a best fit for her skills.

So if you want to see a lot of bloody swordplay and Pearl Chang Ling learn kung fu inside a cave full of giant papier mâché flowers from a guy who do backflips but is unable to actually walk, then Matching Escort is the film for you.