Review The Blonde Fury a.k.a. Female Reporter a.k.a. Righting Wongs II a.k.a. Shi jie da shai: For the fans of Cynthia Rothrock and Eighties Hong Kong flicks!

genre: martial arts, action

The Blonde Fury was marketed as a follow up to Zhi fa xian feng a.k.a. Above the Law (1986) starring Yuen Biao and Cynthia Rothrock. This time only Cynthia and a few other cast members return. Whether she is playing the same character from that movie is unclear. But it does not really matter much. It's not like there is much depth to her character. What is important though is the fact that Above the Law is one of the best action films made in the Eighties and very likely one of the main reasons will motivate people to watch this film. 

Cynthia Rothrock

Back in the day I watched whatever Hong Kong flick I could get my hands on. Above the Law (1986) was easily one of the best I had seen so naturally I was interested in what the sequel had to offer. At the time it was a no brainer for me to love it. So how does it hold up now? Well, in some elements pretty good actually. The action is superb as you would expect. But there aren't that many action scenes and the few that are present don't last that long. It could be argued that some of these action sequences are memorable Cynthia fighting bad guys on a scaffolding and big net certainly aren't scenes you will forget easily but do they truly impress? Now I would say no. When I watched this for the first time they did. 

For some reason director / actor Hoi Mang focuses on the plot a little too much where you are confronted with the typical goofy and comedic antics that will be lost on the Western audience. If you have watched as many HK flicks as I have it is something you get used to. So for me it never had been that big of an issue. However it does become one if it distracts from the action too much. Which is the case here. This is something you should consider in deciding to watch this film. However for the fans of Cynthia Rothrock and Eighties Hong Kong flicks you can't pass this up since it does offer some great action. (It's with films like these that I am miss watching stuff on VCR. You could fastforward through the scenes without missing anything.)

Also read: