Hong Kong Cowgirl: Connie Chan

The one and only, pistol-twirling Chan Po Chu!

Josephine Siao: Cantopop Gunslinger

I was a little surprised at the enthusiastic response to my recent post about Josephine Siao, but I really shouldn't — after all, Fong Fong is pretty cool, isn't she!

Here's the soundtrack EP for her 1967 film The Lady Killer (玉面女殺星), also known as Bat Girl. It's a real shame that this and Fong Fong's other "Jane Bond" films — the title given to Hong Kong's female action movies of the late 60s by critic Sam Ho — are not available on DVD. To give you a taste of what we're missing, check out this awesome flyer (front, back).

Well, at least we can listen to the soundtrack and imagine what the movie is like. First up is the killer B-side, followed by Cantonese variations of "The Wedding (La Novia)" and another well-known Western pop song, the name of which escapes me at the moment (help me out folks!). The English titles are my own unqualified translations. If I got them wrong, please let me know.

Finally, the gentleman singing with Fong Fong is supposedly Lui Kei, who stars with her in the film, but I can't say for sure that it's really him who is singing.

Happy listening!

夜總會之歌 ("Song of the Nightclub") (play song)

我愛蝙蝠女 ("I Love Batgirl") (play song)

蝙蝠俠影 ("Batgirl's Shadow") (play song)

*Here's the back cover of the EP with Chinese lyrics

Hong Kong Cowgirl: Josephine Siao

I'm very excited to announce that — thanks to my buddy Ral — I can start sharing some of my vintage Hong Kong vinyl here at Soft Film. First up is the soundtrack EP for Josephine Siao's 1967 "Jane Bond" thriller Lady in Pink (紅粉金剛), also known as The Female Agents.

Hope you like it!

"Gold Finger" (脂粉神鎗) (play song)

"For a Few Dollars More" (歡舞今宵) (play song)

*Here's the back cover of the EP with Chinese lyrics

Hong Kong Cowgirl: Yu So Chow

Here's Yu So Chow, Hong Kong's Queen of Martial Arts, decked out as a cowgirl in Bloodbath at Golden Sand Bay (1952), a Western flavored kung fu film that I'm dying to see. It wasn't the only time that Miss Yu donned a cowboy hat and packed a pair of pistols. Her very fist film, shot in Suzhou in 1949, was called Double Pistol Heroine.


Yu So Chow as the "Double Pistol Heroine"

And while we're on the subject of the lovely Miss Yu, here are some pics I've been meaning to post for quite some time. The first comes from Oldflames: a lovely shot of Yu So Chow looking very much like a pirate queen. Can't you picture her armed with a cutlass in each hand?


Finally, here's a recent photo that SpyMonkey kindly sent me, showing Yu So Chow elegantly, yet funkily, dressed during her trip to Hong Kong last November for the 50th anniversary of the Hong Kong–China Opera Institute, the training school founded by her father Master Yu Jim-yuen. (You might have heard of some of its students ... like Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, and Yuen Biao.)


Anyway, it's pretty remarkable seeing these last two photos side by side. Despite the passage of nearly 60 years, Yu So Chow still has the same cool style. I especially love her matching green nail polish!

Hong Kong Cowgirl: Betty Loh Tih

Since I got such a good response for the photos of Li Lihua decked out in her cowgirl duds, I've decided to feature some other Hong Kong cowgirls. Starting things off is Miss Betty Loh Tih, best known as a "Classical Beauty". But as you can see in this pinup from Southern Screen No. 8 (July 1958), she makes quite a fetching — and formidable looking — gunslinger.

Betty sported this outfit in Li Han-hsiang's The Magic Touch (1958) in a sequence where she appears in the dream of suitor King Hu (back in the days before he became a wuxia auteur). In another one of his dreams, she appears as sexy senorita!

Li Lihua: Hong Kong Cowgirl

Here's some cool Hong Kong Americana from Oldflames and myself (top and bottom respectively). These photos were probably taken sometime in late 1957, when Li Lihua was in the U.S. shooting her first and last Hollywood film, China Doll (1958). The Empress of Hong Kong cinema certainly makes a plucky cowgirl. Too bad her American debut was a World War II film and not a Western!