The Swordswoman of Huangjiang

There have been female warriors in Chinese martial arts films right from their very inception. The Swordswoman of Huangjiang was originally a popular novel, opening with the heroine’s decision to avenge her father’s death, leaving her hometown to roam around fighting in the name of justice. It was adapted into a series of thirteen films, although only the sixth episode survives today. Even in the earliest Chinese martial arts films, it is possible to see the assimilation of other cultures into the genre – there are traces of American cinema, for example, in the fighting techniques and the way the male lead uses a sword in The Swordswoman of Huangjiang. That said, in the ‘Strange Bird’ special effects – the camera pans out to a subjective, bird’s eye shot of the action – and the fight scene between the swordswoman and her female opponent, the intrinsically Chinese qualities of the film come very much to the fore.

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