Feng Fei-fei the titular heroine. Not to be confused with Feng Fei-fei the singer, that is a Lady With A Hat instead.
Lady with a Sword is a 1971 Wuxia martial arts movie directed by Kao Pao-Shu, produced by Shaw Brothers, starring Lily Ho as the titular heroine.
Feng Fei-fei is a swordswoman and warrior who found out from her nephew, that her beloved older sister has been murdered and left dead in the wilderness. With her nephew, Hu Tou, tagging along, Fei-fei travels to the big city to bring the killers to justice, but then she discover the murderer responsible turns out to be her childhood friend which she was betrothed to a decade ago.
This is the last Shaw movie featuring Lily Ho where she plays the protagonist, during her somewhat short career with the Shaws.
Lady with a Sword provides examples of:
- Action Girl: Feng Fei-fei, the titular lady, as well as her elder sister Feng Hai Hong.
- Action Mom:
- Feng Hai Hong, Fei-fei's sister and Hu-Tou's mother, who puts up a valiant fight against Jin Lian-Bai and his team of cutthroats.
- Madam Jin, the mother of the main villain, who challenged Fei-fei to a duel in order to prevent her from delivering her son - a rapist, murderer and pervert - to the authorities.
- Alliterative Name: Feng Fei-fei. Three Fs.
- An Arm and a Leg: Chief Liang, before his death, lose an arm to the Feng family patriarch.
- Apologetic Attacker: When Feng Fei-fei is forced to duel the vengeful Madam Jin, who wanted Fei-fei dead over her son's death. Despite her son being a rapist, murderer, and absolute scumbag.
- Arranged Marriage: Feng Fei-fei, as a child, was betrothed to the only son of the Jin family... who turns out to be Jin Lian Bai, the same villain who killed her sister. In fact, Fei-fei was this close to killing him... until she noticed the jade amulet he's wearing and recognizes him to be her long-lost childhood friend, now an irredeemable, unspeakably evil piece of filth.
- Avenging the Villain: After Feng Fei-fei had killed Jin Lian Bai, she's down to one last enemy - Madam Jin, the villain's mother, who wants Fei-fei dead in turn.
- Band of Brothels: The villain, Jin Lian Bai, frequents brothels on a regular basis, given his nature as a rapist and pervert. It's here where he confronts the heroine, Feng Fei-fei, for the first time.
- Big Damn Heroes: When the Feng family patriarch - the Big Good of the picture - arrives in the finale, just as Feng Fei-fei is struggling against Xiao Bao and Chief Liang, the two lead enforcers of the Jin family.
- Blood from the Mouth: Most named characters, notably Feng Hai Hong, Fei-fei's elder sister, after being choked to death by Jin Lian Bai who is attempting to rape her (throwing up entire liter of red in the process).
- Colossus Climb: Hu Tou often clings on his opponent's backs to drag them down, since he's just a kid fighting against adult enemies.
- Cool Uncle: Feng Fei-fei is the Cool Aunt to her nephew, Hu Tou, after she promised the boy to avenge his mother's death.
- Death of a Child: Hu-Tou, Fei-fei's young nephew; the boy survives the opening slaughter where his mother gets murdered by Jin Lian-Bai and his underlings, and gets into numerous life-threatening situations from being pursued by Jin's bandits and minions, but the boy ends up being chucked off a cliff by Jin in the finale.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The titular heroine is an expert swordswoman, and uses her trusty sword in all her fight scenes..
- Eyedscreen: Used in the final duel, when Feng Fei-fei and Madam Jin stares down each other, after Fei-fei had killed Jin Lian Bai.
- Food Slap: When Hu Tou gets pursued by one of Jin's minions while at a roadside stall, the boy throws his bowl of noodles into the mook's face.
- Hate Sink: Jin Lian Bai starts his very first scene killing and raping Feng Hai Hong, and had no qualms ordering his men to flog and attempt to kill Hai Hong's young son, Hu Tou. When the boy escaped, Jin orders the boy to be hunted down, and barely shows any remorse as he enjoys himself in a whorehouse, merely days later after the murder. When Hai Hong's sister, Fei-fei, tries to avenge her death, Jin only taunts Fei-fei over "how much he enjoyed raping that bitch" and simply throws his underlings at her while he retreats like a coward. When his crimes ends up being exposed to his family, he breaks down like a coward and begs for mercy, only to repeatedly attempt escape from being taken to the authorities culminating in him throwing Hai Hong's son and Fei-fei's nephew, Hu Tou, off a cliff in an act of spite.
- Hoist Hero over Head: In the finale, when Jin Lian Bai holds Hu Tou, just a little boy - whose mother he had murdered days ago - above him, threatening to throw the child off a cliff. And he did exactly that.
- In a Single Bound: Feng Fei-fei flips, summersaults, and jumps all over the place, in the typical manner befitting a wuxia heroine. But as it turns out, Madam Jin, the villain's mother, can do this as well.
- Kung-Fu Kid: Hu Tou.
- Left Stuck After Attack: When one of Jin's sword-wielding underling tried to attack Hu Tou who is eating at a roadside stall, the boy dodges the underling's sword, who ends up embedding into the table's edge. As said underling struggles to free his sword, the boy flips the table on him.
- Match Cut: The scene in the outdoor stall with Hu Tou rolling backwards while pursued by a sword-wielding mook match cuts to the interior of the brothel battle, when Fei-fei is trying to cut down Jin who attempts to evade her by rolling backwards.
- Moral Myopia: Madam Jin is hell-bent on preventing Feng Fei-fei from delivering her son, Jin Lian Bai, to the authorities, despite knowing full well that her son is a murderer, rapist, pervert, and is working with a bandit gang. And she later tries to kill Feng Fei-fei, for killing Jin Lian Bai, nevermind that Jin had just murdered Hu-Tou, Fei-fei's young nephew (barely 10 years of age) and tried to kill Fei-fei numerous times.
- One-Woman Army: Feng Fei-fei is a killing machine with that sword of hers. The brothel fight has her surrounded by a seemingly neverending horde of mooks, which she slice a bloody chunk out of, taking at least 40 names in one big fight scene.
- Parental Substitute: Feng Fei-fei, to Hu Tou, her nephew, after Hu Tou's mother - Fei-fei's elder sister - gets killed by Jin and his minions.
- Psycho for Hire: The Jin's personal mooks, Chief Liang and Xiao Bao, are formerly bandits and murderers, whom are hired by the Jins as personal guards, giving their service in exchange for avoiding the authorities. They have absolutely no loyalty to their employers at all, and in the final battle they didn't even hesitate to kill Madam Jin, their boss' mother, after their boss is dead and they realized they're screwed out of their jobs.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: The plot is kicked off when Jin Lian Bai and his underlings, not content with robbing Feng Hai Hong, decide to rape her as well, leading to her Accidental Murder.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Feng Fei-fei, upon finding the corpse of Feng Hai Hong, her older sister, swore vengeance to have the killer brought to justice. And she follows her promise to the T, killing at least 60 people to reach the villains responsible.
- Spoiled Brat: Jin Lian Bai, ultimately, who is the only son of the prestigious Jin family. His mother spoils the snot out of him and allows him to do literally anything he wants, bailing him out of any mess he had gotten into. By the time he reached adulthood, he's a cruel and ruthless rapist and psychopath, and even after he's arrested and is to be taken to the authorities, his mother is even willing to kill the heroine transporting him to the magistrate.
- Step into the Blinding Fight: Feng Fei-fei, who gets ambushed by Chief Liang and Xiao Bao, the two underlings which are sent by Jin to kill her, while in a dimly-lit tavern.
- Sweet Polly Oliver: Feng Fei-fei travels the land while posing as a male, with her niece Hu Tou playing her little brother.
- Sword Fight: Tons and tons of it, mostly from the titular heroine.
- Tag Along Kid: Hu Tou, the young nephew to Feng Fei-fei who insists on following his aunt everywhere.
- Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Defied, subverted, and then played straight: In the finale, after Jin Lian Bai threw Fei-fei's nephew off a cliff to his death, a furious Fei-fei hurls her sword at the fleeing villain. Jin Lian Bai's mother, Madam Jin, throws her sword as well, deflecting Fei-fei's flung weapon, causing it to be embedded into a tree, but Fei-fei then throws a shorter sword which un-embeds her stuck weapon, which ends up skewering Jin Lian Bai to his death.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: If the flashbacks scenes are any indication, Jin Lian Bai, during his youth, was a friendly, pleasant, if somewhat mischievous urchin, who is still overtly nice to his childhood bestie Feng Fei-fei. Unfortunately his mother spoiled him a little too much until he started becoming an arrogant scumbag and complete asshole as an adult.
- Villainous Rescue: Feng Fei-fei, unable to fight the elderly Madam Jin who is hell-bent on avenging her evil rapist murderer son, was nearly killed... until a flung knife hits Madam Jin through her guts, killing the deranged old crone. Said knife is flung by Xiao Bao, one of the Jin family's henchmen, who wanted Fei-fei for himself.
- Villains Want Mercy: Jin Lian Bai, who raped and murdered Feng Fei-fei's sister / Hu Tou's mother, Ain't Too Proud to Beg when Fei-fei is about to have him carted off to the authorities.
- Villainous BSoD: How Madam Jin reacts to her son's death.
- Weapon Specialization: Xiao Bao, one of Jin's personal underlings, use a whip as his main weapon, and nearly kills Feng Fei-fei in the final duel by strangling her. Until the Feng family patriarch intervenes.
- When Elders Attack: Feng Fei-fei's final opponent, after killing Jin Lian Bai... turns out to be Madam Jin, the villain's mother, a Retired Badass of the martial world herself.
- Would Hurt a Child: Jin Lian Bai's underlings have no qualms trying to kill Hu-Tou, the little boy, after killing Hu-Tou's mother. Jin himself is the worst offender when he hurled Hu-Tou off a cliff to death at the climax.
- You Killed My Father: You Killed My Elder Sister, and Later My Nephew, but the trope still applies to Feng Fei-fei the titular lady.
