This film deserves to be a cult classic and Pearl Cheung (aka Chang Ling) and could be described as a precursor to Azumi. Except that watching it you feel the whole production crew must have been taking quantities of illegal substances. This is beyond weird. The sets are cheap and full of dry ice and strange objects that seem to have no purpose. But the costumes are amazing - done by a Chinese version of Versace and the weird hairstyles (particularly the 'disguised' Emperor (Mang Fei)). The other comment mentions the very strange throne room with green flashing eyes and the cave of Silver Fox (with Silver Fox for once playing on the good side) which looks like something out of la la land. The plot is almost indescribable and the acting at times barely approaches the meaning of the word. Starting out as a simpering, pouting pretty girl, Pearl Cheung turns (with no real training shown) into a sword demon killing any who come even close. The scene where she holds a sort of funeral for her dead master (in a bamboo box) and kills everyone in the room is worth watching for. The dead master even manages to blink! At the end the fight between the main villain, Pearl and Mang Fei with swords and flying killer gloves is amazing. Pearl seems to be fatally wounded but appears again dressed as a beautiful girl to say goodbye to her Emperor (she is apparently too poor to share his life) none the worse. This film needs to be watched to be appreciated. I must find the two other films in this trilogy. Great fun (very bloody in places by the way and not suitable for children).
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phillip-5820 September 2007
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BandSAboutMovies30 September 2022Released under so many names - Matching Escort, Fury of the Silver Fox, Wolf-Devil Woman 2, Wolfen Ninja, Venus the Cavalier, Venus the Ninja and Venus: Wolf Ninja - some of those are due to director, producer and star Pearl Chang, who was also the auteur who made Wolf Devil Woman even if this was made a year before. Chang is amazing because she was making her own kung fu movies in Taiwan and as a woman in the early 80s and that'd be a big feat even now. To add to the odd charms of this movie, it was written by the man who would unleash a hundred or more ninja clones, Godfrey Ho.
Wronged by the warlord who killed her family - and seventy-four other leaders - Chang is a princess who trains in an underground cave filled with neon-hued colors and homemade skeletons prepping for the final battle with that very same final boss, a man who has a Nintendo Power Glove seven years before the rest of the world and knows how to use it to break swords and shoot out on a long metal coil. He also has on a sparkling costume that looks like Frank Brunner drew it.
Pearl Chang's movies probably won't be getting a high end blu ray release anytime soon - the fact that I missed out on the Gold Ninja Video microrelease kills me - so the ultrabright colors and hyperkinetic wirework is lost in multiple transfers as this movie moved from the East to the West.
Here's just one reason why this movie is so great: as a child, the princess had to wear concrete boots. That way, when she grew up, she'd be used to be weighed down and as an adult, she can run so fast that she can walk on water.
The final battle is filled with spraying blood every few seconds before the good guys take out the eyes of the evil warlord. It's super graphic and very fake at the same time, which is actually perfect when you think about it. Sometimes, people get stabbed so well that blood sprays ten feet directly upward.
Movies have never been more magical. -
ckormos111 February 20171982 Matching Escort or Venus the Ninja or Wolf Devil Woman 2 or Venus the Ninja Wolf or Wolfen Ninja or Fury of the Silver Fox
2/3/1982 Taiwan with Pearl Cheung Ling, Mang Fei, Wang Hsieh, Peng Kong, Sek Fung and Yu Chung-Chiu
It starts with a child being tortured to wear weights on her ankles. In this movie world if you grow up with weights around your ankles then the laws of gravity are repealed by the time you grow up. Next Pearl gets into an argument with a stranger over her peaches. Father intervenes and insists the young man leave. Suddenly spooky music plays but nothing actually happens until father says "Just kill him". He instructs Pearl to keep the jade amulet and if she gets into trouble to take off her shoes and keep running. I am sure this advice will prove to be wise before this is over. Pearl escapes but many are after her. She is immediately captured and remembers to take her shoes off but not until making a big dramatic scene about it. The leader who ordered her captured is displeased. He gives his men the customary three days to capture her. She is soon captured by a clan of beggars.
I usually start my reviews with a description of the opening scenes. This is so we know we are talking about the same movie. If you are a fan of this genre you know that many of these movies were retitled to profit from the VHS rental business. My copy is labeled in the opening credits as "Fury of the Silver Fox". Of course, any or all of these subsequent titles are meaningless to anything going on in the story. Notice that an alternate title is "Wolf Devil Woman 2". There is also a Pearl Cheung Movie titled "Wolf Devil Woman" that one might think came first but the release date is actually after this movie. Another reviewer here mentions a third film in this series (not by title) but I am unaware of any such movie. Perhaps if he reads this he can come back with the title but that review was ten years ago. My copy is also dubbed in English but I don't recognize any of the voice actors. For the most part, they avoided the cartoonish or exaggerated voices that can kill one of these movies. The resolution is poor but the color is good and there is no evidence of VHS such as tracking lines so I suspect there must be a laser disk version out there somewhere.
Overall, even as a hard core fan of this genre, I was ready to toss this movie into the recycle bin by 16 minutes into it. Since I hardly touched my beer, I let it go until at least the bottom of the first can.
The first problem with this movie is "Can she fight or not?" There is no consistency in her abilities. Next, the gravity defying stunts wear out fast. Also Mang Fei pops up out of nowhere to save her too often. I keep hanging in there, hoping for a good fight but all I see is Pearl flying away.
At about 45 minutes Pearl is learning from some old master in the beggar clan. The villain kills a guy with a flying guillotine built into his glove. I pop open another beer and try to finish it and this movie simultaneously. The second can and second half are often better.
In 1982 the martial arts movie genre was dying of exhaustion and about to be reinvented. The four directions of reinvention were Jackie Chan, the Yuen clan, bullet ballet, and fantasia. After watching this movie I can see in it the roots of such films as The Chinese Ghost Story and The Bride with White Hair. For that reason alone I have to recommend it for fans only. -
shrame24 November 2017Poor Fei Meng and Pearl Cheung, both good looking actors (they actually almost look like brother and sister and oddly enough they look like the perfect match...) but they both often ended up in these substandard kung fu / swords play period films with completely irrational, erratic and nonsensical story lines. This movie fits the very definition of CAMPY KUNG FU. It features ridiculously fake looking sets, wacky out of this world characters that seem to be thrown in for no reason, badly choreographed flying scenes with the wire often visible, dollar store quality props and even a throne room featuring a dragon background with red glowing eyes (almost looks like a disco of sorts). I'm almost inclined to classify it as one of those movies that's so bad that it's good, but there's too many weird coincidences, bad acting and plot holes for me to overlook, even though the ending was pretty fun to watch... If you are going to watch this, just make sure that you leave your expectations at the door... 5/10
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Leofwine_draca15 July 2016A trashy Taiwanese kung fu film scripted by the one and only Godfrey Ho under one of his pseudonyms. This one's about a female fighter played by the enthusiastic Chang Ling whose parents are murdered in the opening sequences. Inevitably she swears revenge so undergoes some gruelling training in the martial arts in order to bring the perpetrators to justice.
This is a weird little film that has some of the slapdash look of an Indonesian fantasy like THE DEVIL'S SWORD to it. The sets and costumes are rather garish and cheap-looking and some of the lairs appear to be from children's movies. Chang Ling's transformation from innocent to killer is rather sudden, although the unbelievability of the plot is easy to ignore as there's plentiful action here with quasi-ninja henchmen and the like. There's also a surprising amount of bloodshed which is always a bonus in a kung fu flick. FURY OF THE SILVER FOX is no masterpiece but fans of the genre might get a kick or two out of it.