Lady of Steel is a 1970 wuxia film directed by Ho Meng-hua, and is one of the numerous Shaw Brothers martial arts film starring Cheng Pei-Pei and Yueh Hua as an ass-kicking Battle Couple, released in the peak of their fame.
Fang Ying-qi (Cheng) is an orphan who lost her family due to a betrayal twenty years ago. Adopted by a monk who is a retired martial arts master and trained to be an elite swordswoman to someday avenge her family, Fang sets off to Da Kun Mountain, a wretched hive filled with criminals, where her family's killers are expected to be there. Along the way, she will be assisted by a beggar that turns out to be another master swordsman, Shang Yi (Yueh), who had his own reasons for assisting Fang.
This movie contains examples of:
- Action Girl: Fang Ying-qi, another classic Cheng Pei-pei role.
- Age Cut: To depict Fang Ying-qi growing up during the opening credits montage.
- Battle Couple: Fang Ying-qi and Chin Shang-Yi, respectively played by Cheng Pei-pei and Yueh Hua, two actors who frequently get to kick ass side-by-side in oh so many films of this genre.
- Contrived Coincidence: Fang Ying-qi and Chin Shang-Yi first meet each other and get into a fight, and it just so happens that it occurs in an inn owned by legions of bandit mooks that are waiting to get the drop on them both.
- Expy: Chin Shang-Yi is a seemingly buffoonish beggar played by Yueh Hua who turns out to be a hidden kung-fu master, and inevitably helps a heroine played by Cheng Pei-pei to take down a common enemy. Just like Drunken Knight four years ago.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: An enemy mook suffers this fate when Fang Ying-qi caused him to fall into a pointed bamboo rod, with gory results.
- Master Swordsman: The two heroes, Fang Ying-qi and Chin Shang-Yi are both experts when it comes to sword-fighting, and can take down legions and legions of mooks in fight scenes.
- A Minor Kidroduction: Fang Ying-qi in her first scenes is depicted as a child. After her family's death and subsequent adoption by Priest Xuan Zhen before the opening credits, she is then an adult played by Cheng Pei-pei.
- The Mole: Han Shi Xiong, appearing to be a member of the security bureau, turns out to be working for the bandits to lure them into ambushes for their precious cargo.
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: The main villain, Han Shi Xiong, wears black robes and a blood-red coat. But on the other hand...
- Red Is Heroic: Played straight with Fang Ying-qi wearing red in her most heroic moments, such as avenging her family's massacre.
- Retirony: Security Chief Fang Ning, in the opening scene, is stated to be completing one last escort mission for delivering silver for the refugees before he gets to leave the business together, which is why he brought along his wife and his young daughter along for the trip. How ironic is it that this happens to be the same mission where he gets double-crossed and having his whole crew, including himself (save for his young daughter), getting killed.
- Sole Survivor: In the opening ambush, Fang Ying-qi is the only survivor after her family gets wiped out in a bandit ambush. She gets adopted by Priest Xuan Zhen, raised to be a swordswoman, and will seek her revenge twenty years later.
- Wuxia
- You Killed My Father: Fang Ying-qi's main quest in the film is to avenge her father's death by finding out who arranged for her family's massacre.
