The ‘missing’ female knight-errant in Hong Kong action cinema 1965–1971: back in critical action

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article seeks to assess those action films that have been ‘missing in action’, as it were, or hidden from view, in the critical literature on Hong Kong action cinema of the period 1965–1971. Specifically, the article focuses on the so-called ‘new wuxia (martial chivalry)' movement launched by the Shaw Brothers Studio in 1965, and on the films revolving around the figure of the female knight-errant (known in Chinese as the nüxia), although the movement itself became strongly identified with the male knight-errant figure. The works of the neglected director Luo Wei will be the main focus for the textual analyses of the female knight-errant films, in particular those that he made with the star Zheng Peipei. The nüxia films were an important corollary to the so-called yang gang films with their emphasis on male hardness and macho heroism.