Like spaghetti Westerns starring Clint Eastwood, an amoral drifter leads cast of Deaf and Mute Heroine
- In a break with martial arts film convention of the time, Helen Ma’s character is a tough, independent heroine and just as ruthless as her male adversaries
- Wu Ma, best known for acting in A Chinese Ghost Story, directed many wuxia and kung fu films, and his action scenes here are filled with energy and imagination
An unusual entry in the swordplay genre, 1971 Hong Kong martial arts film Deaf and Mute Heroine has all the makings of a cult classic. Directed by the late Wu Ma, it features a tough, independent-minded heroine played by Helen Ma Hoi-lun, who takes on two gangs and a vengeful swordsman as she tries to hang on to a big bundle of stolen pearls.
The big twist is that, as the title bluntly suggests, our heroine is a deaf and mute swordswoman whose mirrored wristbands enable her to see, rather than hear, what’s going on behind her when she is in combat.
Although Deaf and Mute Heroine’s production values are low – the movie was shot outside the Hong Kong studio system – the characters deviate from the usual genre types in an interesting fashion, and the action scenes brim with energy and imagination. The plot is serviceable, and even features some credible character development, although the movie generally focuses on frequent and lengthy swordfighting scenes.
As in the Clint Eastwood/Sergio Leone spaghetti Westerns which served as one of its influences, the film’s main character is a nameless and amoral drifter whose past is unknown. The tale begins when she decimates a robber gang and relieves them of some big bundles of pearls. Holed up in an inn with her loot, she comes to the attention of another gang led by the vicious Mistress Liu (Shirley Wong Sa-lee).
During one of the many fight scenes, Liu poisons the heroine with a flying dart, and she is rescued and nursed by an earnest cloth dyer (Tang Ching, who played the hero in Wu’s 1970 directorial debut Wrath of the Sword). In one of the film’s most unexpected developments, she falls in love with the cloth dyer, puts away her reflective wristbands, and welcomes a life of quiet domesticity.