|
|
|
The Lady is the Boss
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray A - America - 88 Films Review written by and copyright: Eric Cotenas (23rd March 2025). |
|
The Film
 When the Wang Chiang martial arts school is in the path of the wrecking ball for roadside expansion, Wang Hsieh Yun (The Spiritual Boxer's Lau Kar-Leung, also the film's writer/director/martial arts director) and his five pupils (The 36th Chamber of Shaolin's Gordon Liu, Dirty Ho's Wong Yu, To Kill a Mastermind's Robert Mak, The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter's Cheung Chin-Pang, and Heroes of the East's Hsiao Ho) are prepared to defend the building against the bulldozers and the police force until he receives a telegram from the school's grand master in America who oddly emphasizes the need to adapt and tells him to find another place to reestablish the school. They move the school from its own building to a multi-use urban building and await the arrival of their grand master to commemorate the opening only to be shocked when his daughter Mei Ling Chan (Legendary Weapons of China's Kara Hui) arrives in his place. The school's elders – including Shaw regular Ku Feng (One-Armed Swordsman) - quell some of the misgivings their colleagues have about Mei Ling by emphasizing that she will the school's manager while Wang remains the teacher, but soon Mei Ling is criticizing his old-fashioned style and approach which involves a year of learning the stances through repetition, an approach which the students admit has driven interested students to other schools. Mei Ling gives the students a makeover and rallies them into aggressive "Hollywood-style" promotion of the school which winds up getting all of them arrested for public obstruction, leading to a standoff between Mei Ling and Wang as to whether the quantity or the quality of students is more important. Mei Ling starts courting the local hoods, hostesses, and "ladyboys" as students and presses her five pupils into teaching and despite Wang's misgivings manages to stress the importance of their school's style while making it relatable and practical to their students. The big boss (Avenging Eagle's Johnny Wang) of the local Shiang triad at first sees his underlings picking up some martial arts skills as potentially beneficial until his club hostesses use their new moves against their handsier clients. When Mei Ling goes in search of her missing pupils and discovers they have all been beaten into submission by their pimp, she takes the law into her own hands. Wang tries to make peace between the school and the triad but Mei Ling can see no good in compromising with the unlawful. An unofficial, thematic follow-up to the wildly successful previous Lau Kar-Leung/Kara Hui vehicle My Young Auntie, The Lady is the Boss is funny, entertaining, and ultimately thrilling if a bit lopsided and uncertain. While there is plenty of opportunity for comedy in the first half of the film with the conflicts between old and new, young and old, the typically abrupt Hong Kong action film style of storytelling really does take its time introducing the outside conflict designed to make Mei Ling and Wang set aside their differences. Although the big boss suggests that they will take over the school, it really is Mei Ling's characterization as reckless and impulsive (or "scorned" as she is described) that escalates the conflict with a great construction site fight of shovels versus bicycles. Despite the title, the climax of the film actually gives Mei Ling very little to do; however, it makes up for that by foregrounding Wang, giving Lau Kar-Leung three successive fight set-pieces in which to demonstrate his abilities as fighter, arranger, and filmmaker with a particularly thrilling face-off against Johnny Wang that also gives Liu and Venom Mob member Sun Chien (The Kid with the Golden Arm) some extra fighting screen time over the other familiar faces. Compared to a similar sequence in the same year's The Champions from the Yuen group, the disco Kung Fu brawl sequence here is a lesser set-piece, running too short, underlit, and less dynamically shot and edited than Lau demonstrates elsewhere, and one wonders whether this is due to scheduling or the need to hide the abilities of some of the non-fighter actors and the doubling of performers as well as possible multiple roles for some of the stunt team. While not as winning as My Young Auntie the film is still fun and an interesting departure from Lau Kar-Leung's mostly period martial arts output up to this point as he too had to keep up with the trends despite his renowned martial arts expertise. 
Video
The Lady is the Boss was not originally distributed in English-speaking territories, first becoming widely available on Hong Kong DVD in a PAL-to-NTSC conversion with optional English subtitles followed by an Australian DVD from the same master. 88 Films' Region A/B dual-territory U.S./U.K. Blu-ray features a 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 2.35:1 widescreen transfer from an HD master of more recent vintage that looks spotless with great detail in close-ups and less so in wide shots thanks to the distortion and focus falloff of the older anamorphic lenses. Saturated wardrobe and décor colors pop and the blacks are deep in hair and objects but the blacks of the shadows and the dance club scenes are a little lighter than the letterbox matting presumably as much due to the grading as the scattering of light rays from the gel lighting and flare in what light sources there are in these bits. The end card may have been digitally recreated. 
Audio
The sole audio option is the original Cantonese LPCM 2.0 mono mix – although a Mandarin dub was created, according to the commentary, this is one of the first Shaw films that did not furnish that option theatrically in Hong Kong – in which everyone is dubbed, including Hui's character with her English ad libs, the foley track is obsessively detailed with regard to kicks, punches, crashes, and knife clashes while the score feels like another pull of library cues and unauthorized soundtrack lifts. Optional English subtitles are free of noticeable errors, although they translate the credits directly so viewers might not recognize credits for actors referred to by their Westernized names in popular references and the commentary like Gordon Liu or even Lau Kar-Leung is credited as "Lam Chia Liang" both in his translated actor billing and his bilingual director's credit. 
Extras
The film is accompanied by an audio commentary by Frank Djeng, New York Asian Film Festival who discusses the film in the context of Lau Kar-Leung's earlier period films and My Young Auntie as it continues to build up on his pet themes of old versus new, young versus old, and the need to adapt and understand without throwing out the wisdom of older ways, and how the modern setting here explores these themes in reference to the influx of immigration and rapid land development in anticipation of the 1997 handover. He also points out subtle references to Wong Fei Hung and the idea of Lau's character being a modern incarnation, Hui's dance-like martial arts and how it rubs off on the other performers, as well as comparing the film to the director's other subsequent films with a modern setting including Aces Go Places 5: The Terracotta Hit and Tiger on the Beat along with its inferior sequel. "Sam Ho on Lau Kar-leung" (13:56) is an interview by Fred Ambroisine which is heavily-illustrated with clips from the film but focuses entirely on Lau Kar-Leung, his religious belief in the martial arts, and his unique talent of blending choreography and filmmaking. The disc also includes the Hong Kong theatrical trailer (1:13) and a stills gallery (3:12). 
Packaging
The disc comes with a reversible sleeve featuring original Hong Kong art, while the first pressing includes a slipcover designed by Lucas Peverill and a double-sided foldout poster. 
Overall
While not as winning as My Young Auntie, The Lady is the Boss is still fun and an interesting departure from Lau Kar-Leung's mostly period martial arts output up to this point as he too had to keep up with the trends despite his renowned martial arts expertise.
|
|||||
|