Queen Boxer (1972)

Queen Boxer (1972)
Aka The Avenger
Chinese Title: 仇
Translation: Hatred

 

Starring: Chia Ling, Peter Yang Kwan, Lee Ying, Ma Cheung, Tsai Hung, Hsieh Han, Lan Yun, David Tang Wei , Yu Heng, Wong Yeuk-Ping, Chiu Keung , Au Lap-Bo
Director: Florence Yu
Action Director: Wu Min-Hsiung, Lam Fung-Sing, Wang Tai-Lang, Ching Kau-Lung, Liao Wen-Chin

Queen Boxer  is probably the first movie made about Ma Su-Chen  and is most likely the most well received, with its memorable 15-minute finale being on the top fight lists of many old school fans. It’s ultimately a cruder film than its predecessor, Heroine Susan, but it’s that raw edge (courtesy of female director Florence Yu) and Chia Liang’s feisty performance that ultimately sets it above its slight-more-polished successor.

The movie opens with yet another reenactment of the climax of The Boxer from Shantung, with Ma Yong Cheng (David Tang, Shaolin Brothers and Naval Commandos) facing off against numerous hatchet-wielding goons before ultimately bleeding to death from multiple wounds sustained during the fracas. The Big Boss (Lee Ying, Marco Polo and Shaolin Traitorous) ends the scene by burning out Ma’s eyes with a cigar—remember this image, we’ll come back to it.

Some time later, Ma Su-Chen (Chia Ling) is strutting into town, looking for revenge. She shows up at a noodle stand that is harassed by your average Republic-era extortion gang, as is wont to happen in these films. The noodle shop owner, Fan Kao-To (Peter Yang, the evil professor in Enter the Fat Dragon), is tired of being pushed around and decides to fight back. He also gets into the casino business by muscling the owner out via his awesome kung fu skills. At the same time, Ma Su-Chen is harassed by the local Axe Gang, although her reaction is to simply knock their teeth out as if it were as easy as taking candy from a baby.

The Big Boss learns about Fan Kao-To and Ma Su-Chen, although not exactly how you might imagine. What we do know is that Fan is trying to raise money to bring his family from Shantung to Shanghai. The Big Boss hears a story that the entire Ma clan (Ma Su-Chen and Ma Yong Cheng’s mother was the subject of the film Kung Fu Mama) is on their way to Shanghai, which isn’t entirely true. So, he orders his men to exterminate the first family that arrives in Shanghai from Shantung. That would not be Ma’s family (since his sister is already in town), but Fan’s family. So now both Fan and Ma have a good reason to get revenge on the Big Boss and the Axe Gang.

Storywise, this film feels like two separate movies (once you get past the opening fight sequence). The first half deals more with Fan Kao-To and his attempts to establish himself in town, butting heads and locking horns with the local riffraff until he becomes a medium-level hustler himself. While that is going on, Ma Su-Chen stays mainly in the background. The movie is about half over when Ma steps up to the plate, and even then, she doesn’t get a whole lot of actual character development. She’s just there to kick butt and take names, which I’m perfectly fine with. It helps that Chia Ling, even though she was only 18 or 19 at this point, has a kick-a** demeanor, a no-nonsense swagger, and can tell a person to shut up with so much authority that the Trump himself wouldn’t be able to tweet back an insult to her. Her performance helps make the movie, in essence.

It also helps that Chia Ling had more martial arts experience than Wang Ping presumably had, so her two major fights in the second half (and both fights are very long) are a lot stronger than those in Heroine Susan. The most famous fight is the finale, which was featured in Top Fighter 2: Deadly China Dolls, almost in its entirety. Even more empowering is that Chia Ling is completely alone by this point, with no man to assist her (unlike Heroine Susan).  So Chia punches, kicks, cartwheels, fights with knives and hatchets, and does God-knows-what-else as she takes out at least 50 axe-wielding ruffians on her quest to revenge. And who could forget that final shot, a POV shot of a dead body as Chia Ling sticks forth her hands to put the guy’s eyes out?

The choreography itself is a bit crude—this was the 1972 after all—but it’s more convincing and hard-hitting than that of Heroine Susan. The action directors—all five of them—mainly worked during the early 70s, although Wang Tai-Lang would go on to do Ape Girl/Lady Iron Monkey and Lam Fung-Sing would work on The Art of War by Sun Tzu, which had nothing to do with the book itself. There’s some flailing arms and low, swingy kicks, but for the most part, it’s stronger and more high impact than that of its successor.

Queen Boxer isn’t a great movie, but it’s fun to watch. Some of the lighting is murky. Attempts to do quick cuts of close-ups for emphasis are a bit clunky. The plot feels like two movies stuck to each other. But if you stick around for Chia Ling to let loose, there are rewards to be had.