The title of the first female action star is hotly contested, but the Hong Kong actor Cheng Pei-pei is often cited as one of the contenders, for her role in 1966 martial arts epic Come Drink With Me. Cheng, who has died aged 78 of a rare neurodegenerative condition, indisputably opened doors for women in martial arts cinema.
In practice, this meant opening windows, as on Golden Swallow, the 1968 sequel to Come Drink With Me. “[The director Chang Cheh] asked [the male actors] to jump out of a window, and me to walk through a door,” Cheng told the South China Morning Post. “I refused – I said I wanted to do the same thing. But he said: ‘You’re a lady, and ladies should be more refined.’ I insisted that I jump out of the window, or I would leave. Then I went to [the executive] Raymond Chow and cried. Finally, he allowed me to do it, because, after all, I was a swordswoman.”
