Lady Reporter [Shi jie da shai] (aka The Blonde Fury aka Righting Wrongs II, aka Above The Law II!) is a Hong Kong action film starring Cynthia Rothrock as a butt-kicking FBI agent.
Presented as part of the Eureka Classics range in its UK debut on Blu-ray from a brand new 2K restoration, Lady Reporter is available to order now from Eureka Video and Amazon!
Trailer
Cast
Cynthia Rothrock‘s success as co-lead in “Yes Madam”, eventually led to her headlining this movie as “Cindy”, an undercover reporter/FBI agent. This was the first, and to this day, only time a Western actress had lead billing in a Hong Kong film.
A bona fide martial arts champion, Cynthia appeared in popular action hits such as “Millionaires Express“, “Righting Wrongs/Above the Law”, “Magic Crystal” and “Inspector Wears Skirts/Top Squad”. Her popularity in Hong Kong action films is a feat rarely replicated by other Westerners, with perhaps only her regular co-star Richard Norton coming close.
Returning to her native USA, Rothrock carved out a successful career with films such as “China O’Brien”, “Martial Law“, “Rage and Honour” and “Blonde Justice”. She continues to teach martial arts and appear in movies, including “The Martial Arts Kid” and the upcoming “Black Creek”.
Lady Reporter aka The Blonde Fury
Former Miss Hong Kong contestant Elizabeth Lee Mei-Fung co-stars as “Judy Yu”. She has appeared in titles such as “Gunmen”, “Long Arm of the Law III”, and “The Sword Stained with Royal Blood”.
Hong Kong actor, martial artist and stunt performer, Chin Siu-ho stars as an undercover “C.I.D.” officer. Martial arts fans will know him from his notable roles in films such as “Mr Vampire”, “Tai Chi Master” and “Fist of Legend“.
Opera-trained stunt performer, action director and actor, Mang Hoi not only directs but appears as tabloid reporter “Hai”. A frequent collaborator with Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan, Mang Hoi has worked on dozens of classic Hong Kong films, including “Iron Fisted Monk”, “Warriors Two”, “Hell’z Windstaff”, “Dragon Lord”, “Yes Madam”, “Millionaires Express”, “Pedicab Driver”, “Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain”, and many more.
Director of films such as “Postman Strikes Back”, “Legacy of Rage”, “The Bride with White Hair”, “Warriors of Virtue”, “Bride of Chucky”, “51st State”, “Freddy vs Jason” and “Fearless”, Ronny Yu Yan-Tai has great fun as the villain “Boss Huang Te”.
Real life kickboxing champion Billy Chow Bei-Lei brings his hard-hitting skills as a tough henchman. He has plied his trademark kickboxing style in a number of roles in films including “Fist of Legend”, “Dragons Forever”, “Eastern Condors”, “Pedicab Driver”, “Miracles”, and “Tai Chi Boxer”.
Western martial artists Jeff Falcon and Vincent Lyn appear as a couple of highly-skilled, high-kicking henchmen. Falcon trained in wushu in China going on to appear in action films such as “The Inspector Wears Skirts”, “Prince of the Sun”, “Burning Ambition”, “The Outlaw Brothers”, and “Six String Samurai”.
An accomplished martial artist, Lyn appeared in several acclaimed movies from the genre including “Tiger Cage”, “The King of the Kickboxers“, “The Outlaw Brothers”, and “Armour of God II: Operation Condor“.
There are cameo appearances from some very familiar faces in the world of Hong Kong cinema, including Roy Chiao, Chung Fat, Wu Ma, James Tien and Melvin Wong to name just a few.
Plot
Cindy is sent to Hong Kong to crack a counterfeiting ring. Going undercover as a reporter, her investigations entangle with those of rival reporter Hai, and Chin Siu-Ho’s CID officer.
Things become even more complicated when her best friend Yu’s father, a prosecuting lawyer in the counterfeiting case, is kidnapped by the bad guys.
LADY REPORTER! Original 1989 English Trailer
Action
Cynthia’s first taste of action is actually a high fall stunt when she has to leap from a burning building. It’s relatively straightforward (although it terrified Rothrock in real life!), but a nice way to demonstrate that the female Western lead will be performing a lot of the trademark, high stakes Hong Kong action herself.
A superb fight on some bamboo scaffolding with Cynthia taking on dozens of thugs absolutely establishes this.
The nature of her surroundings allows for lots of climbing and swinging on the bamboo structure to be incorporated into the fight choreography, as well as some pretty hard-looking high falls. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that this scene probably had quite an influence on a similar sequence in Marvel’s “Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings“.
LADY REPORTER “Fight scene on the scaffolding” Clip
Hong Kong films of a certain age often have questionable animal welfare issues. In this one, veteran Hong Kong star Chung Fat has a brief slapstick scene involving a live rat that ends up in his mouth!
Kickboxing, and film legend Billy Chow features in a typically hard-hitting fight in an apartment.
Furniture and glass is smashed to smithereens as Chow and Rothrock go toe-to-toe in a fast and furious fight. Later Mang Hoi and Chin Siu Ho get to feel Chow’s power when they take him on in a factory while Cynthia fights various thugs on the rooftop.
LADY REPORTER “We’re about to square off. Get out!” Clip
A genuine Muay Thai champion (who no one on the production can remember the name of!) was not only a tough opponent in character, but also in real life!
Having never worked on a movie before, he didn’t hold back on his fighting techniques. Although this might have been a bruising experience for Cynthia and the stunt team, it really pays off giving the scene an authentic energy and a real sense of peril for our heroine.
The real showpiece action scene in this movie is a spectacular battle on a suspended cargo net. It comes as no surprise that several stunt performers were seriously injured from getting limbs trapped in the ropes or falling from height. It makes for a truly unique, and exciting fight scene.
This paves the way for a finale against two Western martial arts actors, Jeff Falcon and Vincent Lynn.
They were both accomplished martial artists who became well established in Hong Kong movies in the late eighties and early nineties.
The high kicking acrobatic action takes place in, on and around various shipping containers. With Rothrock and Falcon both being students of wushu, they get to show off their gunshu (pole/staff) skills in a weapons duel with some neat twists in the use of a long, flexible weapon.
Summary
Making her debut as a solo leading lady, Cynthia Rothrock absolutely stakes her claim as one of the standout martial arts action stars of the eighties.
Key to this is her ability to perform the vast majority of the high octane action that is particular to Hong Kong films of the era.
Making his debut as a director, Mang Hoi delivers a well-shot, slickly edited piece of classic Hong Kong movie stunts and fights, albeit with input from acclaimed action director Corey Yuen for the big set pieces in the finale.
As well as bringing these restored classics to fans, Eureka are increasingly producing some excellent brand new extra features.
This release has great new interviews with Cynthia Rothrock and Mang Hoi both giving some fascinating background information on the production.
Rothrock also provides commentary over selected fight scenes giving real insight into the hard, and often painful, work that went into creating the action.
The always entertaining double act of Mike Leeder and Arne Venema deliver a fun commentary over the International version of the movie, with Frank Djeng and actor Vincent Lynn providing some interesting behind-the-scenes information over the Hong Kong cut.
Lady Reporter is a breezy, fast-moving action classic, featuring top tier screen fighting from Cynthia Rothrock’s impressive CV.
Trivia
- Cynthia Rothrock and Billy Chow wore metal guards under their costumes as protection because of the full-contact nature of their fight scene.
- Initially the factory fight with Billy Chow was to be the finale. Golden Harvest decided this vehicle for rising star Cynthia Rothrock had the potential to be a bigger hit and brought in Corey Yuen to film some bigger set pieces.
- The factory set was also used in Dragons Forever.
- In some territories the film was marketed as a semi-sequel to “Righting Wrongs/Above the Law”. Titles for the movie include “The Blonde Fury”, “Righting Wrongs 2”, “Lady Reporter”, “Female Reporter” and “Shi jie da shai (Senior Sister Blazed/Fury)”.
LADY REPORTER – Order NOW on Blu-ray! – KUNG FU KINGDOM
