None but the Brave

Cheng Pei-pei retired from the film industry after her marriage in 1970, returning to the screen three years later with None but the Brave (a.k.a. Kung Fu Girl and Attack of the Kung Fu Girls). This time, she worked with the newly established Golden Harvest, while reuniting with director Lo Wei, with whom she had worked closely during her years at Shaw Brothers. In just three years, Hong Kong’s action cinema had changed dramatically. Following Bruce Lee’s The Big Boss (1971) and Fist of Fury (1972), both directed by Lo Wei, swordplay had given way to more grounded hand-to-hand combat, with punches and kicks replacing the graceful, wire-assisted leaps of wuxia. Cheng therefore had to leave behind her elegant swordswoman roles and reinvent herself as a "kung fu girl".

Set in Republican-era China, the film stars Cheng as a young woman skilled in kung fu who pretends to be the long-lost sister of a security captain serving the Chinese president. Her aim is to rescue an imprisoned revolutionary, jailed for questioning the government’s signing of an unequal treaty with Japan. To save him, she must ultimately face the captain in a fierce duel. With kung fu expected to look increasingly realistic on screen, the role presented Cheng with a new physical challenge. Yet her dance training and determination enabled her to make a successful transition to this new type of action heroine.

Date	Time	Venue
20/11/2026 (Fri)	11:00am	Cinema, Hong Kong Film Archive

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