Miraculous Flower (1981)

Miraculous Flower (1981)
aka: Phoenix the Ninja; Wolf Devil Woman 3
Chinese Title: 蓋世奇花
Translation: Geisha and the Strange Flower

 

Starring: Pearl Chang Ling, Rose Kuei, Chung Wah, Wang Hsieh, Peng Kong, Tien Yeh
Director: Fong Hao
Action Director: ???

 

Much like Matching Escort, this movie is more of a conventional wuxia pian with a few moments of total bizarreness and graphic violence to keep things original. It's considered the third movie in Chang Ling's Wolf Devil Woman "trilogy," although it predates the first two movies by a year. However, on the version I watched, which was ripped from an Ocean Shores VCD, it was picked up for distribution a year after those two movies, which would probably explain the difference in titling. It was also picked up at some point by IFD films for distribution, thus gaining the title Phoenix the Ninja. Wolf Devil Woman and Matching Escort had also gotten some degree of distribution from IFD, and were given ninja titles as well. This movie is easily the least "ninja" of the trilogy, since there is but one masked assassin who shows up during a fight in the second act. But that's neither here nor there.

We begin with a young woman named Leng dragging the body of her mother through the snow. As she does so, we're treated to some flashbacks of the girl's mother giving her instructions prior to her passing, which includes:

- Looking for the Happy Fairy;
- Retrieving a box at the top of Mount Ermei;
- Burning the walking stick she's carrying afterward.

At some point, Leng ditches the body and heads into town, where she meets a wandering scholar named No-Stain (Chung Wah). The two strike up a friendship and he offers his father's estate to Leng as a new home. She turns him down and continues on her journey. While sleeping in the ruins of an old house, she ovehears some men planning a raid on No-Stain's home. She sneaks away and warns the household in time for them to protect themselves against the forces of the spear-wielding Lonely Fly.  To show his gratitude, No-Stain's father takes on Leng as an adopted daughter.

While living with her new family,  Leng discovers that No-Stain is actually a martial artist. He teaches her some palm techniques and how to fly, which will come in handy later. She eventually leaves the home and resumes her search for the Happy Fairy. Reaching Mount Ermei, Leng find the box, but loses it and the walking stick to a hooded thief. She then meets the Happy Fairy, who teaches her kung fu and tells her the story of her family. Leng is actually May, the daughter of a martial arts noble who was murdered by a number of conspirators who wanted his signature weapon, the Bowel-Cutting Blade. May recovers the blade and find the list of conspirators in the box, which the Happy Fairy was hiding. She sets out to avenge the murder of her family...again.

Miraculous Flower is bereft of much of the irritating comedy that marred Matching Escort and Wolf Devil Woman. Because of that, Pearl Chang's character is a lot more tolerable and likable during the non-fighting scenes. The story is pretty conventional wuxia stuff and Chang Ling is once more out for vengeance, even if it's not clear from the outset (well, sort of). There's talk of the martial world and different groups fighting for supremacy, but many of the villains show up almost only to fight Pearl Chang and be killed almost immediately. That would probably be the major flaw in the story, plus the film stops before we learn what exactly the final fate of our heroine is. I do like that the script combines the exposition sequences with the training sequences, which is a far more economical mode of storytelling.

There's quite a bit of action, which is of the same standard as the other movies. It's not exactly at the level of the Chang Cheh-directed Venom Mob wuxias made at the same time, but it's fine for what it is. There are lots of wire tricks and swordplay, with a few villains wielding weapons like assault blades and spears to give the action a little more variety. In some of the later fights, there are some vertical wire spins and running across rooftops that made me think of a test run for the action sequences in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The most unforgettable sequence is the finale, which is set inside of a collapsing magma chamber (shades of Star Wars Episode III) against a monk who rips his own guts out at one point. If you can find another movie where that happens, I'd certainly like to know!