Queen Of Kung Fu
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Ever since she joined Golden Harvest studios, she has brought them nothing but excellent films and a better chance to rival kung-fu's #1 studio - Shaw Brothers. Her style and grace (along with that sexy face and those tantalizing eyes) have made her an International superstar and given her legions of fans the world over.
Knowing that Shaw Bros' had the talented and charismatic Cheng Pei-Pei, Golden Harvest knew how equally important a female star could be. Since Pei-Pei was known for her Swordplay Films, they sought a way to rival Shaw studios in this area as well. Though she started out in swordplay films, she would take a different path and capitalize on the new craze of unarmed combat - Kung Fu.
She would later take the art of fighting to another level, as women were never seen as fighters battling men "Hand-to-hand" during that time. They were considered docile and meek, thus fighting back was against their nature. Her kicks earned her the moniker - the Female Bruce Lee, in that her movements and her intensity reminded fans of Lee (but in the female form).
Her movies had fans cramming theaters all over the world, just so they could get a glimpse of this truly gifted woman. She was so talented, that in her (5) years with Golden Harvest, she made people forget that Shaw Bros' had female fighting stars at all. She left the industry to get married, but before she left, she gave us kung-fu fanatics more than enough to keep us satisfied for a long time. But, such is life, she eventually saw her marriage dissolve, and she returned to the screen.
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During this time she seemed to work constantly (and with more dedication), perhaps feeling that she had lost some of her star-power. Of course, this wasn't true, but she would appear in various roles to compensate for her absence. In Bandits, Prostitutes, and Silver, she was on the other side of the law, showing a somewhat vicious side, which was quite different than her fans were used to.
Return Of The Tiger, saw her in her first Modern role since, Golden Harvest's The Tournament (one of her better films). She, along with Chen Sing, and director Huang Feng, would become partners in a film company (Grafon Films). Their first film was The Legendary Strike. It was during the filming of this movie, that she would sustain a severe leg injury, caused by actor Cassanova Wong - who misjudged a kick and struck her in the leg. Many have been called the next Queen of Kung Fu, but, just like all the Bruce Lee-imitators, no one has been able to capture what, she brought to the screen.
Stars like Etsuko Shiomi, Yukari Oshima, and even Michelle Yeoh -- all seem pale in comparison to her. She was everything a female action star could be, at a time when it was more acceptable for men, to dominate the screen. She would go on to give us a number of exciting perfomances, including the film Dance Of Death, where she even she'd her knack for Comedy. Throughout her career, she was one of the genre's most exciting (action) actresses. It would be extremely hard, to come up with a list of the best females in the kung-fu genre, and not have her name appear on it. Actually, it would be impossible.