Polly Shang Kwan

[falkor]

No point holding back when I can share the lust with you guys, right?

 

[falkor]

[falkor]

[falkor]

[falkor]

[falkor]

[falkor]

You remind me of me with all my High Res scans of Lily Li, i must have 150 of those from various magazines in HK.

Nice avatar + sig! Always room for Lily Li pics inside any thread KFC...

[falkor]

Thank you mate! I look forward to it whenever you find time to complete. I know how hard it is dealing with images. You've got some great stuff there I can see... cheers for sharing the preview in advance of your website. Plus, I'm now able to check if I might have 1 or 2 spreads I can send ya; nothing scanned that you don't already have, though will check my unscanned mags sometime next week when I go hunting for that Ghost Hill article.

[The Dragon]

Man you guys are riddiculous!!

Great collection for both of you and falkor, two giant thumbs up my man!

[Guest Markgway]

It's amazing to see all that promotion for Polly as the new HK film queen and yet she was back in Taiwan shortly after. I wonder what happened?

[The Dragon]

... I wonder what happened?

Those articles clearly keep stating, she wasn't sleeping with anyone.

[The Dragon]

And she's Fine as Hell!!

[golden harvest greg]

This is by far the DOPEST thread I've ever seen. I pride myself on being an expert on the kung fu women. I'm truly happy to know that there are others whom believe that these martial women are absolutely astonishing. Peace !!!

P.S.watch out for my upcoming book on Asian Kung Fu Women !!!!

[MLee]

Thanks for posting up all these images Falkor. Most of the mags I've bought on asian movies have been either british or american so seeing these HK covers was a real eye opener for me.

[falkor]

You're welcome, but the credit goes to a chap named Steve Moore, who is the author of this book:

http://www.amazon.com/V-for-Vendetta-ebook/dp/B000FCKS0U?SubscriptionId=0TBPMRS0W3G0CB5F0902&tag=afncaie-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B000FCKS0U

Steve collected and scanned all those magazine articles (except the bottom few), and here's an unpublished article written by him, somebody whose more enthusiastic and passionate about Polly than even myself:

[Autumn 86?]

In my younger days, I was particularly fond of the Chinese movies made in Hong Kong and Taiwan. This may not seem an overly wise admission, considering the low esteem in which such films are generally held by westerners, but I loved them nonetheless. Indeed, I have to acknowledge that these movies played a very important part in my life, for it was with them that my interest in China began, and in all things Chinese.

Naturally, I can remember the title of the first film that I saw very well. It was called The Sword, and it starred Wang Yu, a gentleman almost as famous for his much-publicised public brawling as for his on-screen fighting roles. More surprising, perhaps, is the fact that I can still remember the precise date on which I first discovered the enticement of Oriental cinema. It was on the 15th January 1972, at one o’clock in the morning; a bitterly cold night in Birmingham, especially so when the performance ended at near three o’clock, with the snow lying thickly on the ground.

By the time the final titles rolled on The Sword, I had discovered a new world; one which I explored with all the fervour of a religious convert for several years ... one which continues to call to me, like a siren-song in the mist, to this very day. My passion was for historical sword-fighting films, although with the advent of Bruce Lee in that same year, I largely had to content myself with the unarmed combat of the ‘martial arts’ movie.

Not long after seeing The Sword, I was again in Birmingham when I saw the movie which is the acknowledged masterpiece of the sword-fighting genre. This was Dragon Inn, made in 1967 and directed by Hu Chin Chuan, or ‘King Hu’ as he’s usually known in English. If I lost my head over The Sword, I lost my heart during Dragon Inn. The leading role was taken by a young actress making her first screen

appearance at the age of seventeen. Her name was Shang-kuan Ling-feng.

To say that I fell in love with Ling-feng might not, perhaps, be literally true; but it would certainly be more than a mere figure of speech. In the years that followed I saw all her films as they appeared, often more than once. By any count, the number must be near twenty; I still have a dozen of her movie-posters, given to me by a kind Chinese friend, and off-hand I can think of three or four more titles besides. In between her films, I saw just about everything else that appeared as well; and I myself was constantly to be seen in basement cinema-clubs in London’s Chinatown.

Depending on one’s point of view, it could be said that I had a passion for popular Chinese culture, or simply that I had very low tastes. This is not a point I particularly care to argue. During that period I saw several hundred Chinese movies. Some were very good, some were very bad, and some starred Shang-kuan Ling-feng, which made any question of quality quite irrelevant as far as I was concerned.

Strangely enough, although I can remember with such precision when I started to see Chinese movies, I cannot remember when I stopped. I think it may have been around 1977, possibly 1978 ... certainly no later than 1979. Nor can I remember why I stopped, although I know that a lessening of my affection for Ling-feng was not one of the reasons. Nonetheless, eventually I saw her only in my memory, and not on the screen. One or two other girls, far closer to hand, began to attract my attention. To be frank though, the only real difference was that these ladies could be touched as well as seen. For the rest, even when I shared a house with them, they remained just as unapproachable as Ling-feng, several thousand miles away in Taiwan. Yet Ling-feng remained close in my memory. The comic-strip character I created in 1981, Mysta Mystralis, the Laser-Eraser, was largely based on Ling-feng herself.

Still, Ling-feng continued to recede in my memory, until quite recently. Then, a few weeks ago, my brother and I bought a video-recorder. Since then, from boot-sales and cheap video-shops, I have acquired a small collection of a dozen or so Chinese movies on tape. It is strange to watch them again after so many years, but my first two acquisitions proved so delightfully seductive that I was swiftly ensorcelled once more, overwhelmed both by nostalgia and renewed wonderment. Once again, my first encounter with Chinese movies was a historical tale of swordsmanship; and in many ways, indeed, it was stylistically similar to The Sword, despite the years that separated them. The second video, at least in its British packaging, was entitled Jade Killer.

If Chinese movies have been thought to be low taste productions, it has to be said that the British packaging for Jade Killer is a masterpiece of western vulgarity. The front cover illustration is little more than a female torso, wearing a bikini and draped in a cape. Two phallic cobras intrude into the picture. The lady’s head, arms and legs are not shown, obviously being considered unimportant. The accompanying text is as follows: “She is sexy, stealthy and sheer throbbing power. Her exquisite body pulses with energy and her sensuous hands are the deadliest Kung Fu weapons ever seen.”

I know not what market the producers were hoping to sell to with this stunning piece of misrepresentation, but they came very close to making me disregard their wares completely. It was only when I turned the box over and saw the stills from the movie that I realised exactly what it was that I held in my hand ... a historical, costumed martial arts drama. There was also someone that I recognised in those stills: Shang-kuan Ling-feng. How fast can a man get his wallet out of his pocket? All I know is that it was suddenly in my hand...

Needless to say, the only bare parts of Shang-kuan Ling-feng that I have seen in a movie are her head, neck and hands; nor is there any other female character in Jade Killer wearing a bikini and cape. As for ‘sex’, there is not even a kiss throughout the entire film. There is, however, an extremely beautiful heroine, even if her name does not appear on the packaging; and, of course, an extremely large number of people get killed before the final titles roll.

Within minutes of my return home, I was looking at Shang-kuan Ling-feng again, after a gap of perhaps eight years. Older heads are not necessarily wiser, for I was instantly enchanted once again.

Ling-feng is a small girl with a full, moon-like face that is a miracle of animation. The movement of her big sparkling eyes, the wrinkling of her nose, the pouting of her lips...all in all, the way that she overacts is quite sublime. She is sweet and innocent, childish and giggly, frightened and saucily flirtatious. In her fight scenes, however, the transformation is total. In everyday life she holds black belts in karate and taekwando; add this to her ‘more-is-better’ attitude to acting, and the result is a display of such fierce determination, dedication and skill as is rarely to be seen. I am utterly charmed by her, just as I was before, and have watched the video a dozen times in the few weeks since I bought it.

And yet...

More by instinct than anything else, I feel that Jade Killer was probably made sometime around 1978 or 1979, shortly after I stopped seeing Chinese movies. As such, it captures the Ling-feng that I knew then, the Ling-Feng of my past. I cannot help wondering what has become of her in the intervening years. Does she still make movies? Is she married? Is she still as beautiful? Even, is she still alive?

More ... to see her again, as she was, is like suddenly meeting an old girlfriend after a separation of ten years, and finding that she is every bit as young and sweet and beautiful as she was on the day I saw her last; while I myself have aged. She was a year younger than me, but where is the ‘I’ that was thirty when she was preserved? I linger on here becoming less and less what I was, but she has become an immortal, ever young, ever existent, never aging. It is a melancholy enchantment that she has me under, but all the sweeter for that, nonetheless ...

[One Armed Boxer]

Here's a pic of Polly Shang Kwan (alongside Joseph Kuo), in yellow, taken in November 2015 at the launch of the Joseph Kuo Special Exhibition launch in Taiwan - 

 

[DrNgor]

Thanks for the pic, OAB! I'm mainly familiar with her via her collaborations with Yasuaki Kurata, which are awesome movies. She also did credible work in Adventure at Shaolin and Green Dragon Inn. I do need to venture further into her filmography, but that said, you gotta love the woman. Both her and Michiko Nishiwaki's interviews in Top Fighter 2: Deadly China Dolls made me just want to give both them long, smooshy hugs. They were very charming women.

[GOLDEN DRAGON YIN-YANG]

 

GD Y-Y

[DrNgor]

So, what's the movie at 4:16 that shows her doing a hung gar form?

[DragonClaws]

 

Edited May 25, 2019 by DragonClaws

[DragonClaws]

 

 

 

Edited April 5, 2019 by DragonClaws

[DragonClaws]

 

Edited April 5, 2019 by DragonClaws

[DragonClaws]

 

 

[DragonClaws]

 

Edited May 25, 2019 by DragonClaws

[DragonClaws]

 

Source- https://lostmediaarchive.tumblr.com/page/7

 

Edited May 25, 2019 by DragonClaws