Bullet Points: The Lady Hermit

There is going to be a time when everyone looks back and remembers that year everyone had to stay inside and avoid people as much as possible. There is no doubt of the sadness and struggle that everyone has dealt with, but there is one group that looked on from their hovels with glee. They, of course, are the hermits for in a time of social isolation, the hermit is a superstar. I don’t know if full time hermit status is good or not but I do know they make an enjoyable action film. I happen to have some Bullet Points for the 1971 film The Lady Hermit to help prove my point. 

• Hermit Superstar – The Lady Hermit stars the first lady of martial arts films, Cheng Pei-Pei in the titular role. If you know anything about Cheng Pei-Pei you know that you are in for some top notch martial arts with outstanding swordplay. The Lady Hermit is also a Shaw Brothers production which should put to bed any doubt of its action pedigree.

• That Is What You Are – When a movie opens with a man pretending to be crazy while wearing a necklace and crown made of hot peppers in order to steal silver only for a female bystander to break up the fight, you know you are in for a treat. Normally, a sentence like the previous would seem strange, but in a Hong Kong film it is quite normal and the fighting to go with it makes it stand out. Turns out the bystander is Cui Ping (Shih Szu) and she is in town looking for the infamous Lady Hermit to become her master.
• Coming From Afar – Cui Ping wants to train under the Lady Hermit (although she is already proficient with a whip) in order to stop the ruthless kung fu master Black Demon (Wang Hsieh). I have no idea if Black Demon got his name before or after he became a ruthless kung fu master, but if it was before he had no hope of becoming anything but with a name like that. There are not too many good demons running about. Cui Ping looks to Chief Wang (Fang Mien) for help and befriends the reserved Leng Yu Shuang (Cheng Pei-Pei). Much to the surprise of no one, Leng Yu Shuang turns out to be the Lady Hermit, not that she wants anyone to know. 

• Reaching For the Stars – Black Demon is also an enemy of Lady Hermit, and he is the one who put her into hiding. He has the entire town under his thumb, selling worthless charms to the townsfolk in order to ward off ghosts. Of course, the ghosts are just Black Demon acolytes who kill anyone without a charm on their door. It is not a bad racket if you can look past the fraud and murder, which I can’t and neither can Cui Ping or the Lady Hermit. When Cui Ping tries to stop the ghosts, the whole Black Demon crew comes after her and… enter the Lady Hermit. Finally, after much pestering, the Lady Hermit agrees to train Cui Ping.
• Run Away With Me To Another Place – The Lady Hermit and Cui Ping go to an abandoned house, as is the wont of a hermit, to train. We learn that Black Demon hit the Lady Hermit with the shadowless claw which nearly killed the Lady Hermit and left her with a serious back injury. Luckily, the flying tiger move can stop shadowless claw and Lady Hermit can teach it to Cui Ping. What better way to show Cui Ping flying tiger than by literally throwing a cat in the air.

• We Can Rely On Each Other – The training is going pretty smoothly, until Chang Chun (Lo Lieh) joins the party. Chang Chun has the hots for Lady Hermit, although she is too single minded in stopping Black Demon to care. Cui Ping has the hots for Chang Chun and becomes very jealous of her master. The love triangle bogs down the action during the middle of The Lady Hermit, but there are enough one or two versus everyone fights to make up for any downtime.
• From One Corner To Another – The jealousy eats away at Cui Ping and she decides to take on Black Dragon all by herself. Will she kill Black Dragon? Will Lady Hermit show up to help? I don’t want to spoil too much, but you know Lady Hermit is going to show up and holy crap the action has picked up for the finale.

Movies like The Lady Hermit can make you look forward to staying at home and being totally entertained for an hour and forty-five minutes. With Cheng Pei-Pei in the title role you really don’t need me to tell you that the swordplay is second to none, but I will and it is. There is a variety of action and a fairly deep story for those that are into that aspect of movies. Best of all, you can enjoy The Lady Hermit at your own distance. Scratch that, the best part is that there are some The Lady Hermit Bonus Bullet Points.

• That Old Chestnut – If you ever wanted to see a chestnut used as a deadly weapon than The Lady Hermit is for you.
• Check Out – If you enjoyed Ho Meng-Hua’s direction in The Lady Hermit, you will probably also enjoy his direction in The Mighty Peking Man.
• Role Reversal – The Lady Hermit was way ahead of its time by showing two strong female leads with the weaker male fighter. Cui Ping goes a step further and attempts to attract Chang Chun by giving him a pink purse.
• Who Goes There – That owl jump scare gets me every time.
• Only the Penitent Woman Shall Pass – There is a large Indiana Jones connection to The Lady Hermit with Cui Ping favoring the bullwhip. The three trials to get to Black Demon and my favorite fight scene…
• Best Fight – The fight on the rope bridge is the standout fight scene and there is always the fear of one end being cut. Dig that use of miniatures.