I have noticed on IMDb how even the very worst martial arts films often get rave reviews and have very high scores. In fact, other than some bad American martial arts films (such as "Three Ninjas"), I can't recall seeing an Asian martial arts film that people hate. Even "Shaolin Invincibles" (a truly awful and stupid films) has very respectable marks here on IMDb. So, because of this, I shouldn't be surprised that "Lady Whirlwind Against the Rangers" has an adequate score of 5.1 and both positive reviews--even though it IS a very bad film. Now there are worse martial arts films, but about 90% are better! The film suffered some in ways you can't blame the original Taiwanese production team. The print is almost black in spots it's so dark and the dubbing and fight sound effects are pretty poor. Originally, it was probably a lot better in Chinese.
When the film begins, it's early in the 20th century and there are very high government taxes on salt. As a result, there are salt smugglers everywhere as well as government troops looking for them. A corrupt government official sets up an innocent man to be arrested for smuggling and it's up to his daughter to exact revenge. Here's the problem--the BIG problem--the lady poses as a man but simply looks like a woman! I laughed when folks kept calling her a guy--even though she clearly had breasts! In other words, the fundamental idea of the film was stupid--making it hard to enjoy the film. Further problems developed because the film had the number one WORST martial arts element--the annoying and bratty child (who the man/woman is protecting). Overall, the martial arts in the film is only fair but the plot is bad and probably not worth your time. Not rotten but not good by any reasonable standard.
