It opens with a child is born. The mother wants a son but it seems another daughter is born. In the next seen the daughter stands among monks listening to the abbot's lesson. She alone understands the scriptures. In the third scene she is grown up Chia Ling. She receives a wordless book from a spiritual messenger. This book will enable her to save the world. A magician shows her how to read the invisible words. This gives her healing ability. She goes to the mountain to get medicine but must defeat two beasts first. They have a "hearing and seeing" contest. Our girl wins but cheated. A few fight scenes follow. I will be kind and describe the fights as cartoonish.
I have two copies of this movie. One is a digital file that plays on a HDTV in 4:3 format and resolution typical of an old Ocean Shores VHS release. It has dual subtitles of Chinese and English plus larger Korean subtitles over writing everything. I can only read English and it was often obscured or blurry. My other copy is also a digital file but this plays in wide screen with better resolution. The dialog is Chinese and there are no subtitles. I could have added proper English subtitles to this better copy. That would have required an effort beyond the movie's worth.
I watched this movie only because of the lead, Chia Ling, also known as Judy Lee. I am watching and reviewing every movie of hers that I can obtain. This is because she was one of the top female leads in this genre in the early 1970s. This movie is a fantasy. Chinese fantasy movies at that time were similar to Saturday morning cartoons. This movie has the high production values when it comes to sets and costumes. When it comes to the fantasy part and the fighting it looks cheap. The special effects were just cartoon drawings of magic and the fighting was simple.
Fans of the genre can skip this one.
