‘Lady Reporter’ or — The Triumph of Likeability?
I’d heard ‘Lady Reporter’ (1989) aka ‘Blonde Fury’ had several flaws — strained comedy, obvious continuity errors, a muddled plot and a lack of action compared to other Hong Kong martial art flicks. Indeed, its main claim to fame appeared to be historical with it being the first, and only, Hong Kong action film with a Western female in the lead, namely the awesome Cynthia Rothrock. Yet whilst these criticisms are valid they’re neither the whole story nor hamper the film’s enjoyment factor because if you can click with ‘Lady Reporter’s particular vibe there’s a hell of a lot here to enjoy.
Rothrock plays Cindy, an American FBI agent, who travels to Hong Kong and poses as a newspaper reporter in order to investigate a counterfeiting ring. And that’s pretty much it with ‘Lady Reporter’ following Rothrock and her sidekicks — her friend Judy (Elizabeth Lee), undercover cop (Chin Siu-ho) and photojournalist (Mang Hoi) — investigating various locations which invariably end up in everyone kicking the shit out of a series of bad guys. This means, sure, the film might not have the most engaging of plots but it’s never dull and blasts along at a satisfyingly nimble pace with some very strong action sprinkled throughout.
There’s an excellent sequence when Rothrock and friends sneak into the baddies’ H.Q. which leads to a series of incredibly exciting one-on-one fight scenes (there’s a wonderful moment involving Rothrock and a step-ladder that had me squealing with joy), culminating in a particularly cool exchange where Rothrock demonstrates how to weaponise high-heels to brutal effect (and the way she uses them to tear her own skirt free is awesome).
Away from the action the film does suffer somewhat with the focus more on comedic moments than a rigourous narrative but the humour, unlike with much of Sammo Hung’s output for example, is never tasteless, crass or toe-curlingly embarrassing. In fact, it works somewhat better than the grating clowning about in ‘Yes, Madam’ (1985) with less emphasis on oafish slapstick and revolving more around a drugged judge who thinks he’s He-Man. Sure, the comedy here isn’t exactly hilarious but it’s never objectionable and that combined with a lack of any strong bloody violence means ‘Lady Reporter’ has a lightweight tone that’s genuinely appealing.
The film also frequently looks stunning, especially at night, with a bright, clear and colourful image that’s pleasing to watch, although Rothrock’s outfits and costumes don’t quite have the same neon-pastel glow she wears in her previous films.
One word of advice I would give is to watch the English dubbed international export cut as, for me, it’s more dynamic than the Cantonese theatrical release (although both are fun). The international cut is longer by a couple of minutes but it’s not so much that there are any additional scenes but that this extra time is used to include more action beats in the action sequences. A good example of this is during a great brawl on some bamboo scaffolding (it blows the one in Marvel’s ‘Shang-Chi’ out the water) with the international cut containing quite a number of extra impacts, kicks and blasts of flying fists, including a hilariously nasty moment (blink and you’ll miss it) when Rothrock crumples a guy almost in half with her foot. These extra punctuation marks give the international cut just a tad more oomph and pep.
‘Lady Reporter’ isn’t in the same league as ‘Righting Wrongs’ (1986) or in possession of a “you need to see this now!” set-piece that’s the climax of ‘Yes, Madam’ but this is still an incredibly fun film and what it might lack in certain departments it more than makes up for in energy, charm and sheer likeability.
And, of course, Cynthia Rothrock’s in it so if you’re a fan of hers, which I most certainly am, you’re going to love this movie anyway. I know I most certainly did… and then some.
