Carlo is here, in living color, with a brand new video essay on Shaw Brothers’ The Vengeful Beauty (1978), a proto-girls with guns movie.

Based on a manga? Check. Strong, silent protagonist? Check. Prisons? Check. Rage against The Man? Check. Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky and the Female Prisoner Scorpion movies complement each other perfectly as showcases of Japanese and Hong Kong cinema at the zenith of their age.

Two-and-a-half decades before the stars of Charlize Theron and Uma Thurman had risen, there was a little girl from Delaware who, with a little perseverance and a whole lot of talent, took Hong Kong by storm.