Fridae

In 1907, the revolutionary Qiu Jin was arrested, tortured, then executed for her part in the assassination of Anhui governor En Ming (no relation to our co-reviewer Hee En Ming!) and a failed uprising that followed. Styling herself as the Swordswoman of Mirror Lake, the historical character nonetheless was a failure destined to the dusty footnotes of history, except for an accident. The writer, martial arts expert, radical cross-dressing feminist, nationalist, Japanophile, and anti-Manchu Qiu Jin was re-purposed as a martyr of the revolution when Dr Sun Yat-Sen finally succeeded in his bid to overthrow the Qing dynasty.

Woman Knight of Mirror Lake is ostensibly a biopic of Qiu Jin. Yet over the passage of time, the subject of this film has accrued as much mythological quality as Ip Man (though not as much as the southern Chinese folk hero Fong Sai-yuk). Understandably, this biopic stands midway between a respectful account of the life of a historical personage, a fanciful souped-up wuxia (complete with over the top physics-defying action sequences!) whose heroine happens to be Qiu Jin, and a sometimes simplistic whitewashing of a complex historical figure whose beliefs and stands were too myriad and incompatible to make complete sense.

The film runs on two parallel tracks, recounting the final days of Qiu Jin after her arrest and the life journey she took to get to this point. Due to the strain of the competing approaches in the film, you may be left guessing at every moment what has been recounted faithfully, whitewashed, passed over in silence or otherwise distorted, or just plain made up. I’ll grant that it’s still very entertaining, though. And I guarantee it’s even more entertaining if you do your post-film research!

But if all you need to have a biopic made about you is to be a social rebel, literary figure, nationalist, sucker for self-strengthening movements, head a militia movement, and foment a failed revolution, then surely the great Yukio Mishima deserves his very own wuxia/chambara biopic!