MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *comedy*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *psychological*
I think I gave SHADOW GIRL a "fair" mythicity rating purely because it was so unusual to see someone attempt to mash up a swordplay-chopsocky with an "invisible person" comedy. It's not that SHADOW does anything especially outstanding, but I have to give it credit for trying something different.
We don't find out for a while what made Yin Chu (Lily Li) invisible, though only in daytime. She runs around playing pranks with her invisibility, convincing people that she's a ghost. But she interferes with a powerful gangster, and he sets assassins to kill the "spirit." The comedy-action scenes are okay, but I forgot most of them after one day, except for a climax in which Yin battles two old hermits, a blind one with acute hearing and a crippled one with telekinetic powers.
To build up the comedy even more, Yin has a meet-cute with a handsome doctor (An Ping), and this leads to a comic wedding scene. Lily Li brings an effervescent charm to this lightweight role. On some level I suppose SHADOW GIRL deserves its obscurity, but at least it's the most atypical Shaw Brothers chopsocky I've ever encountered.
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