Shi mei chu ma

A fine tale of an abused woman's journey from near-death to kung fu expert, helped along the way by a merciful Abbess and a crippled orphan. Some of the costumes are in the same league as Lee Tsu Nam's other masterpiece, Shaolin vs. Lama (Shaolin dou La Ma), classic glittering ensembles. Plenty of great fight action as Hsia develops her style coupled with an intelligible story line full of old-favourite characters (eg weasel with squeeky voice and sticky plaster on forehead, supposed to be the "brains" of the gang). Totally unforgettable bad guy having a permanent bad hair day. Warning: anyone buying an ex-rental copy of this film in the UK, be careful. My first copy was on an 80min tape, which meant the last, and best, nine mins were missing. I agree with the previous reviewer, Carol- it's brilliant.