Polly Shang-Kuan
(Shang Kuan Ling-Feng)
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Biography
Discovered by King Hu, she landed a starring role in his classic Dragon Gate Inn. As long as I've watched her, she has always been a scrapper, who can take as much as you can dish out. A lot of her roles usually had her portraying a man in disguise and she even won an Oscar (Golden Horse) for her role in the Golden Harvest film Back Alley Princess, in such a portrayal.
Has played in so many movies with Carter Wong, I started thinking that they had a thing for each other, but it was she who introduced him to his future wife in the 70's. The only thing they had in common was ace director Joseph Kuo, who helped them both become even bigger stars with 18 Bronzemen and it's sequel (the superior) Return Of The 18 Bronzemen. Before she knew it, she was becoming a much bigger star than even she anticipated.
She tried hard to compete with the Top Female stars of the early 70's, and yet, when it came to fighting, they couldn't compete with her. She fought like she could beat some of the male stars that pranced around in movies, instead of fighting. At one time, she went to school for a while here in the States, wanted to quit making kung-fu films to become a Singer (which didn't work out).
But, regardless what she does, she can rest well knowing that she still has a fan-base to this day, who watch her movies every night and who are still in awe of her talents. She made so many films (though a lot were "hit-and-miss"), that they were some pretty good showcases for her talents. Such films as A Girl Fighter, the excellent The Traitorious (thanks to super-villain Chang Yi), Mysterious Heroes, and the obscure film The Ghostly Face - all had her own personal stamp on them.