VENGEANCE OF THE PHOENIX SISTERS (1968)
New York Premiere of the Digital Restoration!
Directed by: Chen Hung-min
Starring: Yang Li-hua, Liu Ching, Chin Mei
Where has this movie been all our lives? A black-and-white tornado that sometimes feels like the French New Wave doing wuxia, its opening half-hour will leave you breathless as it beats your eyeballs into submission with its muscular handheld camerawork, savage swish pans, and kinetic editing. Its score, on the other hand, feels like Ennio Morricone and Bernard Herrman weaving a tapestry of Chinese opera music. It’s all the work of firsttime director Chen Hung-min, who had already edited a host of other movies including King Hu’s Dragon Inn.
Stars of Chinese opera and the silver screen, Yang Li-hua, Liu Ching, and Chin Mei play the titular Phoenix Sisters, separated as children in a brutal massacre. 15 years later, they cross paths again: oldest sister Xiufeng (Yang) an accomplished swordswoman who lives disguised as a man; middle sister, Qingfeng (Liu) doling out justice wearing a mask; and spunky youngest sister, Zhifeng (Chin) who loses her adoptive family in yet another massacre. These three separated siblings ultimately reunite to remind audiences that the greatest wuxia family value of them all is revenge.
