The Lady Assassin

The film turns on an intrigue inside the court of the Ching dynasty. The woman of the title is caught between princes fighting over the throne. The account starts one conspiracy before the last is finished, and the fight scenes follow one another. The director worked with three separate action choreographers and those scenes carry much of the film. Court intrigue here is not a telling of history but ground laid for action. Having a woman fighter at the centre is the defining feature of the account. Leanne Liu, Ku Feng and Norman Tsui Siu-Keung are in the cast. The director, Tony Lou Chun-Ku, turns up in the film himself. The eighty six minute Hong Kong film was completed in 1983.