Tigresses (1978)

Tigresses (1978)
aka Black Leopard of Shaolin Temple
Chinese Title: 少林寺黑豹
Translation: Shaolin Black Leopard

 

Starring: Polly Shang-Kuan Ling-Feng, Kim Jeong-Nan, Kim Young-In, Kwon Il-Soo, Choi Sung-Kyu, Choe Jae-Ho, Cho Sung-Go, Kim Jeong-Jung
Director: Lee Hyeok-Su
Action Director: Kwon Il-Soo

 

Another oddball South Korean chopsockey film mixing overwrought melodramatics, hard-hitting martial arts, with a dash of just outright weirdness. Obviously, the film's star, Taiwanese starlet Polly Shang Kuan Ling Feng, was and is no stranger to kung fu weirdness: she fought giant kung fu squids in Little Hero and lobster men in Zodiac Fighters. So she's in familiar territory whenever the action suddenly requires her to fire liquid nitrogen from her hands in order to defeat a fire-breathing foe. And despite these dips into the absurd, this film has a straight-forward revenge story that for the most part, plays the fights completely straight. 

We open with the House of Park being assaulted by a former butler (Kim Young-In) and his kung fu entourage. They kill the Patriarch and most his guards, but one guard (Choe Bong, of Dynamite Shaolin Heroes) is able to flee, along with the matriarch (Cho Hak-Ja of Leopard Fist Ninja) and the family's two daughters: Mi-Ryung (Polly) and Il-Mae (Kim Jeong-Nan, the tomboy from Snake and Crane Arts of Shaolin). Il-Mae is taken and hidden by the house maid, while the matriarch takes Mi-Ryung to study kung fu at Shaolin. She killed shortly afterward by the villain's men. Ten or fifteen years later, the Kim daughters are adults. Kim Mi-Ryung is aware of her noble heritage, and dons a black mask to terrorize the bad guy and his kung fu cohorts. Some time later, Kim Il-Mae shows up, also an expert in the fighting arts, but with little knowledge of her destiny. She ends up teaming up with the villain to fight Mi-Ryung, until they discover that they are sisters...

I saw almost the same exact story done (better) a few weeks ago in Duel of Karate and there are lots of movies that deal with the siblings-separated-at-birth-get-righteous-vengeance story, from Shaolin Prince to Double Impact. There's nothing new in the story here, save the fact the villain employs guys who turn invisible or use hypnotic eyes to make their opponents dizzy. But Polly Shang Kuang Ling Feng is on the job, and she knows how to deal out the weirdness to defeat the weirdness, like emitting smoke and fog from her palms to make her enemies appear. And being 1977, director Lee Hyeok-Su (who later did Hard Bastard and Buddhist Fist and Tiger Claws with Legendary Superkicker Hwang Jang Lee) treats this all with the utmost of seriousness, as if it were completely logical that firing blasts of cold mist was customary Shaolin Temple training.

Where the film falters most, unfortunately, is the editing. Scenes just sort of end and jump around with little rhyme or reason. In one sequence, Polly tries to assassinate the main villain in his sleep but his interrupted and injured by Il-Mae. She arrives at her hideout, but in the next scene, her character is back at the villain's manor, fighting his men. Suddenly, we see her recuperating back at the house. I'm not sure, but I *think* it was Il-Mae dressing up as Polly's character in order to drive up her asking price to the villain. I'm not quite sure, though. Even worse, the climax begins with the free-for-all at the villain's house, but suddenly cuts to Polly chasing the bad guy through snowy mountains for the final fight. It completely forgets about how Il-Mae was fighting off the rest of the villain's bodyguards, so we don't get any closure on that fight. Il-Mae shows up after the final fight is over, letting us know that she's alive, but it would've been more satisfying to see them off the bodyguards together, and then fight the final boss together.

On the subject of fighting, the action isn't bad. I'm not sure who the choreographer was, although Kwon Il-Soo, who played one of the special fighters, does have a background in action direction, so maybe it was him. Outside of the occasionally whack-a-doo moments, the fighting is fairly straight forward. Polly Shang Kuan, who had a black belt in both tae kwon do and karate, gets plenty of opportunity to show off her powerful kicks--she doesn't a lot of flashy aerial boots, but she kicks with strenght and power. The choreography has that madcap energy that Korean films often have in place of more crisp and complex techniques. Sadly, Kim Jeong-Nan doesn't fight as much as we'd like to see her fight. She showed in Snake and Crane Arts of Shaolin that she can bust it out when wants. This film gives her little space for that. But for fans of Polly, I think this film is a must.