Ma Su Chen (1972)

 Ma Su Chen (1972)
Aka Rebel Boxer; Bloody Struggle

Starring: Nancy Yen, Jimmy Wang Yu, Chiang Nan, Ma Chi, Sally Chen, Choi Wang, Shan Mao
Directors: Ting Shan-Hsi, Chan Hung-Man
Action Director: Yu Tien-Lung

After three different adaptations of the Ma Su-Chen story, it has become rather clear that there’s not a whole lot of story to tell if one chooses to go down the “Kung Fu girl seeks vengeance for her brother’s death” path. Basically, Ma Su-Chen shows up in Shanghai, ruffles some feathers, has a big fight with the Axe Gang, end of story. I think a story about her training and life in Shantung previous to her going to Shanghai would be a lot more interesting. This movie stands out from Queen Boxer and Heroine Susan in that Ma Yongchen is still alive when his sister arrives in Shanghai, having miraculously survived getting blinded and his body filled with hatchets.

Long story short: While Ma Yongchen (Jimmy Wang Yu, repeating his role from Furious Slaughter) is recovering from his wounds, he has his female benefactor (Sally Chen, of The Guy with Secret Kung Fu) send a message to his sister to come help. The young lady is intercepted by the Axe Gang, who have teamed up with some samurai who want revenge on Ma for killing their colleague, Miyaki, at the beginning of the movie. They find the letter addressed to Ma Su-Chen (Nancy Yen, who looks like Hsu Feng and Michelle Rodriguez being placed in a Brundlefly Machine) and go to Shantung to take her out. She finds out about her brother’s disappearance and kills her attackers. She arrives in Shanghai looking for revenge.

As I said, there’s not a lot of story here. The film runs 75 minutes, at least 20 of which are dedicated to the final fight. There are numerous other fights, including two flashbacks to fights from the previous film. Nancy Yen lacks Chia Ling's sass and physicality, but she looks better in action than Wang Ping. Heck, she looks better in action than Jimmy Wang Yu. The action is directed by Yu Tien-Lung, who starred in and choreographed Infernal Street, which wasn’t bad by early 70s standards. There are a lot of creative edits and trampolines used to create some superhuman moves.

The finale drags a lot, since it’s mostly Jimmy Wang Yu swinging at pickaxe at torch-wielding thugs for 15 minutes, while Nancy Yen occasionally punches people in the face. Moreover, there’s no build-up to it: Jimmy Wang Yu disappears after the first 15 minutes and suddenly shows up at the Axe Gang’s warehouse to fight dozens of nameless thugs. There’s no hint to his return, nor interaction with Ma Su-Chen—why change the story and have him survive if he’s not going to even talk to the main heroine—nothing.

Nancy Yen’s performance is somewhere in between Chia Ling’s take-no-prisoners performance and Wang Ping’s more melodramatic take. She does cry a few times, but she’s also resourceful and a highly intelligent—the early scenes suggest she’s essentially a female version of Wong Fei-Hung. Once she enters revenge mode, she fights just as viciously as Judy Lee did. It’s enough to warrant the film at least a single viewing, although it’s not quite the best interpretation of the character out there.