Pak Lung-Chu

Hong Kong fantasy film directed by Chiu Shu-San.

Fat Kau (Leung Sing-por) and his wife (Ma Siu-ying) are not on the best terms with their fierce daughter-in-law Tang (Tam Lan-hing). It is their secret wish that their grandson Kim-kwong (Yam Kim-fai) would marry an ill-tempered woman—it would be, Kau and Lee think, poetic justice for Tang to have a taste of her own medicine. But to their disappointment, the granddaughter-in-law Yu-chu (Law Yim-hing) turns out to be meek and understanding. Kau and his wife therefore tricks Yu-chu into starting a quarrel with Tang. Rich in intricate details of everyday life, the film depicts a witty battle between vivid characters, and is a comedic portrayal of the relationship between mother and daughter-in-law through three generations.

Centring on the legend of the four ancient Chinese heroines, the film was a novelty for audiences at the time, as the singing performance was in Cantonese and used huangmei operatic rhythms—a popular trend in the 1960s, yet it retained traditional flavours by using operatic luogu percussion in the battle scenes. ‘Movie-fan princess' Connie Chan Po-chu not only sings Cantonese song and huangmei tone solos in the film, she also wows the audience by taking up the doumadanrole for the first time as the Tang dynasty female general Fan Lei-fa, showing off her superb operatic martial skills, together with Shum Chi-wah, inherited from Peking opera master Fen Ju Hua. Yu Kai's weaponry prowess and renowned female comedian Tam Lan-hing cross-dressing as a male general are also brilliant in this gem.

Scholar Yuen Man-lung leads a double life as Vigilante Golden Cat. Yuen is separated from his lover Tso Oi-lan by her snobbish father who promises her to Tsui Tai-fei, son of the magistrate and incriminates him as the wanted burglar. Yuen sneaks out of prison and wreaks havoc in Golden Cat's name; the exasperated magistrate has to release him. Before leaving for the imperial exams with the runaway Oi-lan, Yuen stages one final heist for his friend's sake. The officials trail Golden Cat to his house where his nocturnal costume is retrieved. His father is arrested as the criminal. Drawing a plan up her sleeves, Oi-lan's sister Oi-ling whisks the elder out of the execution ground. Despite failing at the exams presided over by corrupt examiners, Yuen saves the emperor on his homecoming journey, and returns triumphant as a duke.

Fok Tats scheme to raid a convoy of government reserve is intercepted by 'Ghost Knight'. Chau Ping, an accomplice of a corrupt official, declares wars on Fok whom he believes has ties with the mysterious raider. A meeting was convened by Ghost Knight to settle the dispute. Tat's son Sze-chuen learnt that his maid Ma Yuk-lan is the daughter of a general of the ousted Ming court who has donned the mask of a knight-errant to protect the son of the Ming minister Sze Ho-fat, Sze-chuen himself. Back in Deadly Valley, an impostor of Ghost Knight was caught. Slashing at the father, Sze-chuen is disheartened to learn that the faker, Ma's mother, has been transferred to the enemy camp in a feigned surrender orchestrated by Sze while an uprising is gathering momentum funded with money robbed from the corrupt official. Ma teams up with the father and son to storm the Chau Fortress and rescue Ma's mother. The couple champions the restoration of the old empire with Sze's seal.