Lady of the Law – 88 Films

Directors: Stanley Siu Wing, Shen Chiang
Screenplay: Shen Chiang
Starring: Shih Szu, Lo Lieh, Dean Shek Tin, Yang Chi-Ching, Ou-Yang Sha-Fei, Chang Pei-Shan, Chan Shen, Tung Lam
Country: Hong Kong
Running Time: 90 min
Year: 1975
BBFC Certificate: 18

The Shaw Brothers wuxia (“martial chivalry”) film Lady of the Law (a.k.a. Nu bu kuai or Female Sheriff or Female Vigilante) was reportedly made in 1971 but not released until 1975. There’s no definitive answer why this happened, but it seems as though the original writer-director, Shen Chiang, left the production when he left Shaw Brothers. This would have left the film unfinished, and perhaps it wasn’t picked up and dusted off until a couple of years later.

A lot happened during that gap. The Big Boss was released in 1971, making Bruce Lee a megastar in Hong Kong and helping steer martial arts cinema towards more grounded hand-to-hand combat. The kung-fu craze kicked off in the U.S. too, with the release of King Boxer, which was soon followed by Lee’s films.

Wuxia was feeling a little ‘old hat’ at this point then. There was life in the old genre yet, but it didn’t really boom again until the 1990s.

Perhaps due to it being relatively ‘out of time’, Lady of the Law is not one of the better-known wuxia classics. However, 88 Films have deemed it worthy of a second life and are releasing the film on Blu-ray. I got hold of a copy and my thoughts follow.

The film opens with Jiao Tianhao (Tung Lam), chief escort of Yuntong Escorts, getting hijacked by a group of bandits known as the Four Devil Spirits. They have kidnapped Jiao’s son, Yaner, and say they will kill the boy if Jiao doesn’t let them take the valuable goods being exported.

Jiao knows giving up the goods will ruin his reputation but he can’t risk the life of his son. He tries to save both in a desperate counterattack and manages to get away with Yaner. However, Jiao is mortally wounded in the process.

Before the Four Devil Spirits can finish him off, Jiao gives Yaner his coveted Flaming Dagger martial arts manual. He orders him to practice for ten years, intending for Yaner to avenge his death and bring honour back to the company.

A group of men from the rival Wancheng Escorts, led by Chief Chen Huatang (Yang Chi-ching), arrive just as Jiao dies and they prepare to to kill Yaner too, as they ordered the attack and don’t want any loose ends (though they hide this fact at the time from those present, claiming Jiao staged the hijacking and that Yaner will grow up to be as treacherous as his father). However, young Leng Rushuang and her teacher, Madam White Brows (Ou-Yang Sha-Fei), intervene just in time to save the boy. Madam White Brows is highly respected and manages to talk Chen into bringing Yaner up himself. Chen agrees, seeing this as a way to keep an eye on the boy.

Ten years later, the now seemingly simple-minded Yaner (Lo Lieh) is still being treated poorly by Chen (though he’s managed to secretly learn the Flaming Dagger techniques), and Leng (Shih Szu) has become the feared Lady of the Law, who brings swift justice to all hardened criminals.

Leng arrives at a local village to catch a serial rapist, and that villain happens to be Chen’s son (Dean Shek). However, Chen’s son frames Yaner for the dastardly crimes, so Yaner must prove his innocence and defend himself against the driven Leng.

I found Lady of the Law to be a decent entry to the wuxia genre but an unexceptional one.

The story is fairly complex without getting confusing, making for an engaging watch. It has an intriguing central dynamic too, in that the titular hero is actually tracking down the other ‘good’ protagonist, believing him to be a villain. However, this also manages to lessen the impact of Leng’s character a little, due to her running around on a wild goose chase, trying to catch someone who’s not actually evil, rather than fighting real bad guys.

The revenge over the death of Yaner’s father isn’t given a particularly strong payoff either. Yes, the main villains that were behind it are faced at the end (spoiler – but, come on, what do you expect to happen?) but the fight against the Four Devil Spirits, who were directly responsible, comes out of nowhere and is rushed.

There’s not a huge amount of action, compared to similar titles of the era, but there are some solid swordplay scenes. The best of these involves a pair of characters fighting on a tightrope. It’s a shame they set up such a cool special skill with the Flaming Daggers technique without putting it to much use though.

Overall, Lady of the Law is a solid, old-school wuxia. There’s nothing drastically wrong with it and the story is relatively diverting but the film struggles to stand out from the crowd. As such, I’d say it’s worth watching if you’re a Shaw Brothers fan but there are better examples out there if you’re only dabbling in the wuxia genre.

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