As a Taiwanese action film, Golden Queen’s Commando (1983) aka Seven Black Heroines is an explosion at the cliche factory, producing a very entertaining smash-up of World War II mission movies and spaghetti westerns. This was such a fun time, that I could forgive the pan and scan VHS rip version available on Tubi (I think there’s a YouTube copy you can find that is at least in wide screen format). Even without pristine digital remastering, Golden Queen’s Commando barrels along at a clip. Opening text establishes that we’re in 1944 but one of our heroines is sporting David Bowie hair and lots of glam make-up, so fidelity to historical accuracy is not a priority for what follows.
We meet seven women who are sentenced to the same prison, and it’s up to the master criminal Black Fox (Brigette Lin, rocking an eye-patch) to get all the pieces on the board for a plan she wants to execute. Each of the women have a different skill and back story, including the desperate alcoholic (shades of Dean Martin in Rio Bravo) who becomes a formidable ninja after downing a bottle of wine. You’ve got a safe-cracking thief, the muscle, the Dolly Parton type seductress, an explosives expert, and the Lee Van Cleef crack-shot. Golden Queen’s Commando beats Quentin Tarantino by lifting Ennio Morricone scores wholesale (without copyright I assume) and the sounds of A Fistful of Dynamite, My Name Is Nobody and ‘The Ecstasy Of Gold’ all get used to gift the shenanigans with operatic myth-making swagger.
Made on the cheap but packed with explosions, stunts, outfits and cool character moments. I’m now more than ever inclined to track down more Brigette Lin and Sally Yeh movies after this and Peking Opera Blues. Directed by Chu Yen-ping and I also hear one of his other films, Fantasy Mission Force, is great.
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