Finger of Doom is a 1972 Shaw Brothers wuxia film starring Chin Han, Ivy Ling-po and Korean actress Park Ji-Hyeon as a villainess, being her only notable role she made with Shaw Brothers studios.
A powerful sorceress, Madam Kung Sun, serves as the film's unique and dangerous main villain: she is a rogue martial artist who had turned to evil after learning the skill of the Finger of Doom. Using her new powers, which can kill her victims with a single touch before reviving them into her zombie serfs, Madam Kung Sun is a threat to the martial world, and it's up to lawful swordsman Lu Tien-Bao - on his own quest for vengeance - to defeat the powerful Madam.
Finger of Doom contains examples of:
- Animate Dead: Madam Kung Sun, thanks to her necromatic powers. She usually does this to freshly-slain challengers to be used as her servants.
- Bad Powers, Bad People: Is it a surprise that the film's main villainess is a Necromancer who can kill her challengers in an instant, before raising them into becoming her zombified slaves? No.
- Barehanded Blade Block: In the middle of a swordfight, Lu Tien-Bao thrushes his sword at his nearest opponent, only for the opponent to grab the blade with his bare hands, without showing any form of expression whatsoever on his face, despite his bare hands being sliced to shreads while still holding the blade. It was at this point Lu realize his opponents are zombies.
- The Baroness: Madam Kung Sun, the film's Big Bad.
- The Dreaded: Every single time Madam Kung Sun's name is mentioned in the presence of any martial arts clan's warriors, expect plenty of shocked gasps and hushed silence in response.
- Ethereal White Dress: Madam Kung Sun's appearance, clad in her white robes, is meant to deliberately invoke this trope. She's not a ghost though, but a human with supernatural voodoo powers.
- Finger Poke of Doom: Justified by Madam Kung Sun's fingers being armed with a spiked gauntlet with voodoo powers.
- Genre Mashup: Horror Kung-fu wuxia fantasy film!
- Light Is Not Good: Madam Kung Sun spends most of the film clad entirely in white robes, and she's a sadistic murderess and voodoo practitioner who use her powers to turn her slain victims into her servants.
- Magic Knight: Madam Kung Sun is both a formidable fighter and a dangerous sorceror, although she relies more on her fighting prowess.
- Ominous Fog: Comes accompanied when Lu Tien-Bao fights several zombified swordsman while attempting to hunt down Madam Kung Sun.
- Our Vampires Are Different: Madam Kung Sun's appearance is meant to evoke the traditional vampire; her powers in sorcery has made her extremely vulnerable to sunlight and she needs to keep herself hidden to the sun during daytime, she travels around in a coffin carried by zombie serfs and her unusually pale skin, coupled with her light-colored robes, invokes plenty of Undeathly Pallor. She even gets killed via impalement throught her heart, much like the traditional vampire.
- Our Zombies Are Different: This movie has kung-fu fighting Chinese swordsmen zombies, warriors resurrected by Madame Kung Sun after she killed them. Despite being undead, they retain their sword-fighting skills well enough to provide a challenge.
- Pinned to the Wall: Madam Kung Sun dies in this way in the final battle, getting pinned to the back wall of her throne room via flung shortsword.
- Reforged into a Minion: Basically what Madam Kung Sun does to her slain enemies; turning them into zombified warriors doomed to serve her.
- The Renfield: Madam Kung Sun's unnamed hunchbacked servant, who is still alive and not a zombie unlike the rest of her minions.
- Step into the Blinding Fight: Practically ALL the Sword Fight and action scenes in the movie takes place either at night, in some darkened forest or valley, or in Madam Kong Sun's caverns. Then again, the main villainess is a voodoo-based sorceress whose powers are related to the darkness.
- Undeathly Pallor: Lu Tien-piao realized something was wrong when fighting a number of swordsmen near a forest, and realizing how pale their faces are. It turns out those are zombie swordsmen previously slain by Madam Kong Sun, and now serves as her bodyguards.
- Weapon Title: Yeah, the film's title? It refers to Madam Kung Sun's magical gauntlets worn on her fingertips, which allows her to slay her opponents with ease before resurrecting them as her zombified servants.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: The Four Heroes of Dragon Hill sworn to "rid the jiang hu of evil" challenges Madam Kung Sun in the film's opening scene. They all died in a rather one-sided Curb-Stomp Battle, before the Madam use her claws to resurrect them into her zombies. Cue opening credits.
- Wolverine Claws: Madame Kung Sun has the "extended from fingertips" variety, which are enchanted with voodoo as well, and can turn those slain by them into her zombies.
- Wuxia
