Brave Young Girls (1990)

Brave Brave Young Girls (1990)
Aka: Blood Sisters
Chinese Title: 黑海霸王花
Translation: Black Sea Queen Flower

Starring: Yukari Oshima, Margaret Lee Din-Long, Jo Jo Ngan Lai-Yue, Ha Chi-Chun, Shing Fui-On, Leung Kar-Yan, Pak Yan, Chan Pooi-Kei, Kara Hui Ying-Hung
Director: Luk Bong
Action Director: Chiang Tao

Brave Young Girls is a lesser-known entry in both the Girls n’ Guns genre and Yukari Oshima’s filmography. It is notable as the final film of director Luk Bong, who had been in the director’s chair since the early 1950s. Luk Bong’s wasn’t particularly distinguished among fans, with his notable martial arts films being Blind Fist of Bruce and Rocky’s Love Affairs, of which he was producer. The film is more of a(n) (unfocused) melodrama, revolving around three girls who are more or less compelled to enter the prostitution business.

The three girls are connected by Cheng Ga (Shing Fui-On, of City Cops and The Killer), a mid-level criminal who runs a handful of small rackets: a hotel for prostitution, a hostess club (which often ends in prostitution), and a loan shark business. He also tries to get into the parking lot extortion racket, which results in a random fight between his men and Kara Hui (My Young Auntie and Lady is the Boss).

Anyway, first their Hong (The Centipede Horror’s Margaret Lee), a fugitive from the Mainland. Hong and her brother need to raise money for a sick relative back in the PRC and is on the lam after getting in a shootout with the police. She eventually runs into Cheng Ga, who offers her 20,000 HKD in exchange for a year’s worth of turning tricks.

Next we have Li (JoJo Ngan, of Fury in Red and City Warrior), who appears to the daughter of Cheng Ga’s borrowers (Gam Biu, of The Lama Avenger and Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold). The old man owes a lot of money and has asked for a second loan, so Li is given as collateral to work at the hostess club. But soon she learns that it is assumed that she’ll have to service clients at Cheng’s hotel, too. And that is something she did not sign up for.

Finally we have Jenny (Ha Chi-Chun, of Eastern Condors and Aces Go Places V), who is a veteran prostitute at this point. She’s pretty good at what she does, but soon finds herself in trouble with the law. Her savior, so to speak, is “Lady Overlord” (Yukari Oshima), a Japanese policewoman who has arrived in Hong Kong in order to arrest Cheng Ga’s boss (Leung Kar-Yan, of The Thundering Mantis and Cantonen Iron Kung Fu).

The film mainly goes back and forth between Hong’s and Li’s stories, with frequent intervals of Cheng Ga running things like the scuzzbucket we the viewer expect from Shing Fui-On. Jenny’s character has less to do until the final half hour, when they team up to find dirt on Leung Kar-Yan’s character. It all leads up to a final battle royale, with Yukari Oshima trading blows with Beardy, while the other girls just blow away Shing Fui-On…because of course, they do. Despite dealing with forced prostitution, the film is quite chaste (at least the cut I watched was) and may feel sleazy, but never is sleazy.

There are four action sequences in this film, the first of which starts out the movie and the others coming in intervals of 20 minutes or so. The opening sequence is a drug deal in which Cheng Ga’s men buy drugs and then ambush the vendors so as to get their money back. It is mainly gunplay, but at one point they engage in fisticuffs, too. That is followed the aforementioned scene with Kara Hui, who is only in the film for that one scene. Her fight scene is with Cheng Ga’s men at a parking garage, much like her big fight in the previous year’s Burning Ambition. Later on, Yukari Oshima is introduced and gets in a fight with the same guys at a pier. And finally, Yukari gets to beat up Shing Fui-On’s men again at a mansion before squaring off with Leung Kar-Yan. Yukari does some fine work, especially in the extended one-on-one fight with Beardy, and the sequence may be one of Oshima’s better one-on-one duels. Ha Chi-Chun gets to show off some bootwork, too, despite never having been established as a fighter up to that point. But that’s the thing we love about vintage HK action: any character will suddenly start throwing down with the kickboxing, even those whom we least expect.