Lady Hermit, The (Blu-ray Review)
Director
Ho Meng-HuaRelease Date(s)
1971 (July 30, 2025)Studio(s)
Shaw Brothers Studio/Celestial Pictures (Imprint Asia/Via Vision Entertainment)- Film/Program Grade: B-
- Video Grade: C
- Audio Grade: C+
- Extras Grade: C+
Review
[Editor’s Note: This is a Region-Free Australian Blu-ray import.]
The Lady Hermit (aka Zhong kui niang zi and Female Zhong Kui) was released in Hong Kong in 1971. It was never officially released in the US but it did play with subtitles in Honolulu that same year, and in San Francisco the following year. Hiding out in a village as nothing more than a cook, Leng Tushuang (Cheng Pei-Pei) becomes the focal point for Jin Cuiping (Shih Szu), a young female martial artist seeking out the legendary “Lady Hermit” for training. Leng has reserved her feelings for Wu Changchun (Lo Lieh), a knight in the Wan An protection order, but kept them at bay. Jin has meanwhile fallen in love with Wu, but when the minions of the evil Black Demon (Wang Hseih) seek Leng out, she dons her Lady Hermit persona once again. Soon, Jin comes under her tutelage and her feelings for Wu become more apparent, much to Jin’s dismay, but all must put aside their differences if they are to defeat Black Demon and his fighters.
Having already established herself as a force of nature in Come Drink With Me, The Monkey Goes West, and The Golden Swallow, Cheng Pei-Pei is the powerhouse nucleus of The Lady Hermit, fully capable of dispensing with the villains, despite the pain her character is feeling from a previous encounter with Black Demon. Shih Szu portrays an ambitious but naive young woman who often does things for the wrong reasons, including her jealous fit to defeat Black Demon once she discovers Wu’s feelings for Leng. Solid as always, Lo Lieh brings a supportive energy to our two female leads, never giving into the temptation of sexist disregard. Director Ho Meng-Hua, mostly known for Shaw Brothers horror extravaganzas like the Black Magic films and The Oily Maniac, as well as The Flying Guillotine and The Might Peking Man, keeps things fairly grounded here, focusing on the relationships between the characters before allowing them to explode in the action scenes. The love triangle melodrama is thankfully limited, giving us more of what we’ve come to expect from a Shaw Brothers film. There’s also a blink-and-you’ll-miss-him appearance by future superstar Sammo Hung as one of Black Demon’s henchman.
The Lady Hermit was shot by directors of photography Lam Kwok-Cheung, Danny Lee Yau-Tong, and Cho Wai-Kei on 35mm film with anamorphic lenses, finished photochemically, and presented in the aspect ratio of 2.35:1. Imprint Films presents what appears to be the Celestial Pictures digital restoration of the film, which was also used for Funimation’s 2011 Blu-ray release, and not the 2024 4K restoration from Arrow Video’s Shawscope: Volume 3 Blu-ray boxed set. Unfortunately, this master falls victim to the process of frame cutting. Not only that, but it’s been scrubbed clean of grain and fine detail, giving it a soft, waxy appearance. The bitrate is consistently high, in the 30 to 40Mbps range, and the color palette offers a fine range of hues, but its inorganic appearance makes it visually unappealing. The opening and closing titles have also been re-created digitally. It’s not unwatchable, but it’s a far cry from Arrow’s 4K restoration.
Audio is included in Mandarin or English 2.0 mono LPCM with optional English subtitles. These tracks also seem to be heavily cleaned up, though the Mandarin track fares much better as the English dub has more of a canned quality that’s distorted with some obvious sibilance. The English track also features different and re-adjusted music cues, the latter sometimes coming in earlier or later in scenes. Neither track is perfect, but you’re better off sticking with the original Mandarin. It’s worth noting that there’s also some “borrowing” from John Barry’s score for On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
The Imprint Films Region-Free Blu-ray release of The Lady Hermit, as part of their Imprint Asia line, sits in a clear Amaray case with what appears to be new artwork on the front and a still from the film on the inner sleeve. Everything is housed in a slipcase featuring the original Hong Kong poster, but with English text. The following extras are included in HD:
- Audio Commentary by Samm Deighan
- The Greatest Swordsman: Ho Meng-Hua vs. King Hu (15:58)
- Digital Reissue Trailer (1:10)
Author and film historian Samm Deighan provides an audio commentary, delving into the style of the film, exploring the influence and shifting approaches of wuxia, making comparisons to other works by Ho Meng-Hua, highlighting the careers of key cast and crew, and examining story elements. The Greatest Swordsman features a discourse about The Lady Hermit and filmmakers Ho Meng-Hua and King Hu with Dr. Wayne Wong, film scholar and assistant professor at the School of East Asian Studies at The University of Sheffield in England. Last is the film’s digital reissue trailer.
Some of the bonus materials from other releases have not carried over. The Arrow Video Shawscope: Volume 3 Blu-ray boxed set features an audio commentary with producer and writer for the website easternKicks.com, James Mudge, as well as the original theatrical trailer in both Mandarin and English. The Region 2 DVD from HK Video features a documentary about Ho Meng-Hua and a still gallery.
Going into this release, it was clear that Arrow’s 2024 restoration of The Lady Hermit would not be included, but Imprint only having access to a substandard HD master is a shame. The bonus materials don’t really make up for it, but they do provide some historical context and information, which is important. However, I can’t say I’d recommended this unless you’re a die-hard Shaw Brothers fan and you need to own every last extra for the film that’s available.
- Tim Salmons
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