The Rangers (1974)

"If she was a boy she could help your papa get out of this"

Polly Shang Kuan Ling Feng donned a wig, cross-dressing as a man in order to bring down the people who had her father arrested on trumped up charges. She’ll have her hands full taking on two different salt smuggling gangs with her little brother in tow.

Smuggler Chiang Piao uses his connections with corrupt government officials to have a policeman framed when the officer tries to bring him in for salt smuggling. Lin Kin tells his young son that it’s too bad his daughter wasn’t a boy, because then she could help him get out of the mess he was in. Lin Jo Nan decides to prove her father wrong and dresses as a man to infiltrate one of the salt smuggling gangs so that she can find a way to exonerate him. She has her little brother dress as a girl and with her kung fu skills soon finds a job with a rival gang.

Polly might not have been as fierce as Angela Mao or as competent as Michelle Yeoh, but on the lower rung of female kung fu stars, she held her own. Perennial bad guy, Kurata Yasuaki, is always fun to watch with his fast fists and even faster kicks. The best fight was between Kurata and the powerful Chin Kang. Addy Sung and Cheng Fu Hung were Piao’s minions who knew their way around fight choreography in fire and mud. Jacky Chen played a salt smuggler henchman with shady loyalties but quick moves both with his fists and in the bedroom. Martial arts directors Leung Siu Chung and Gam Ming created fights that suited Polly’s abilities and also showcased the more talented Kurata and Chin. They even helped little eight-year-old Yeh Hsiao Yee have some good moves.

If the movie hadn’t bogged down badly in the middle, I might have rated it slightly higher as the action was decent and the story adequate. Being a low budget film shot in Taiwan, most of the fights took place outdoors or in a warehouse. The only version I could find was dubbed in English. I don’t take off points for it, but I do dislike the dubbing aspect. While the film is fading at least it wasn’t badly cropped with almost imperceptible subtitles. I have no idea where they came up with the title The Rangers given it was a young woman and a little boy taking on salt smugglers to save their dad but looking for logic in these films is often a futile task. As always, graded on a curve for these films and only for fans of the genre.

18 March 2025

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