Kung Fu Girl Black-and-White Photo Set

Chinese action cinema has always had many martial arts heroines, and we celebrate this rich tradition with our Kung Furies Collection.

The first undisputed queen of Hong Kong wu xia movies was Cheng Pei Pei. This Shanghai-born former ballerina was launched as a swordplay movie star in King Hu’s ground-breaking ‘Come Drink With Me’. That film’s success redefined Cheng’s screen image, and she went on to make a dozen hit swordplay films for the mighty Shaw Bros studio.

When former Shaw studio executive Raymond Chow launched his Golden Harvest company, Cheng Pei Pei had just retired from the film industry and relocated to Los Angeles. Chow dispatched the wife of director Lo Wei to lure Cheng back to make two further movies.

‘Kung Fu Girl’, AKA ‘None But The Brave’, is Cheng Pei Pei’s take on Bruce Lee’s ‘Fist of Fury’. Its shot by the same director, Lo Wei, and uses some of the same sets. Cheng’s character, Siu Ying, is described as being from the same Cheng Mo Mun school as Lee’s Chen Jun. The film’s action was  handled by Han Ying-chieh, choreographer of credit for Bruce Lee’s first two Hong Kong starring vehicles.

The film’s supporting cast include chipmunk-cheeked Japanese action star Shishido Jo, star of such chanbara hits as ‘Colt is My Passport’, award-winning Taiwanese actor Ou Wei, ‘Fist of Fury’ co-star James Tien as a brave freedom fighter and director Lo Wei himself as a military man.

Among the Japanese villains is a young Jackie (the ‘Jacky’) Chan, who first caught the attention of his later mentor, director/producer Lo Wei, when he worked on this film. Cheng Pei Pei’s character’s younger brother is played by Meng Yuen-man, who is, like Chan, was a former Chinese Opera school student. Meng later became a kung fu star in his own right, most memorably in the wonderfully titled Shaw Bros film ‘Coward Bastard”.

Reel East are proud to celebrate this martial arts cult classic by making this super rare set of 16 black-and-white publicity stills, printed by Golden Harvest for the 1973 Hong Kong release of the film, available to kung fu film fans worldwide.