This review may contain spoilers
Flirty Kung Fu Fun!
Win Them All was directed by Kao Pao Shu, one of the very few female directors of kung fu films during this era. Though the main plot was a daughter's revenge, that plot was largely overshadowed by her con artist co-hart's antics which actually made for a campy, silly kung fu movie for three quarters of the screen time. Kurata Yasuaki, a real martial artist, gave the film some fight credibility as the gleeful iron finger killer.Hsu Feng plays the daughter whose father was murdered by the iron finger method. She's out for revenge and somewhere along the way hooked up with two scam artists, Hu Chin and Chen Hui Lou. Hu Chin fights, flirts and scams greedy men to keep Hsu's mission funded. Tien Feng is the Big Bad as he often was in these old kung fu films, well protected by Kurata's deadly fingers. When the women are confronted by Tien Feng's goons Hu Chin not only manages to beat them, and rob them, but leave them pantless as well! Flirty Fu style! They are soon joined by Wong Yuen San, a rather bland officer from the security bureau. For some reason he's accompanied by his annoying and jealous "sister". After numerous fights with the underlings, it all comes to a head with inevitable fight between Wong and Kurata. Disappointingly, the vengeful daughter has no hand in the final showdown.
Most of the fights were pretty good, especially with Kurata involved. Hu Chin, not a fighter, had tremendous help from the gifted stunt men and actors who flipped, flew, and bounced after taking her "hits". In the grand finale, her character somehow completely forgot how to fight and added nothing to the free for all. Wong had some martial arts skills but the character wasn't very charismatic. Kurata, on the other hand, was an accomplished martial artist and he brought speed and agility to the fights with a frightening malevolence. Some of the kicks obviously missed but I can forgive the missed kicks with these kind of faster fights in old budget films due to safety reasons and not always having the money to do many reshoots. The biggest problem I had was that Kurata's character was skillfully and ruthlessly pummeling Wong's and suddenly Wong defeats him. With all the ridiculous things that had gone on for nearly 90 minutes, that was the most unbelievable. No wonder Hsu wasn't allowed into the final fight, Wong was barely believable fighting Kurata.
As always, I grade these 1970's martial arts films on a curve. Win Them All was a fun, flirty, romp with a dark thread running through it. Kurata brought the danger and was an absolute joy to watch kick and move through the final fight. Hu Chin's character managed to not be completely annoying and brought a feminine energy to a very masculine genre. I wouldn't label it feminist, but for 1973 at least Kao Pao Shu made an attempt at putting competent female characters at the forefront.
3/4/23
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