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Come Drink With Me (1966)
One of the great early entries of martial arts cinema, this movie stars -- to the bafflement of its villains and possibly its audience -- one of the most legendary female kung fu stars of all time in her breakout role.
Executioners from Shaolin (1977)
Groins as strong as steel, kung fu stances that keep women's legs closed, androgynous martial arts masters -- this seminal action movie has a lot to say about the sexes, but not what you'd expect.
My Young Auntie (1981)
What happens when you mix a screwball comedy, a fish-out-of-water story, and a hysterically overpowered martial arts heroine? My Young Auntie, my favorite Shaw Brothers movie.
This month's sponsor: CELESTIAL PICTURES
For the next month, you'll be getting twice-weekly illustrations from RP. Half of those will be pioneering butt-kicking ladies of the early martial arts movies of the Shaw Brothers.
The 14 Amazons (1972)
When virtually all their family's male heirs were wiped out, the 14 widows of the Yang clan did not mourn. They did not hide. They got revenge.
Random Princesses
Anne Farquharson-Mackintosh
When the true king of the Scots came to reclaim the throne, this spirited woman went up against her husband to back her chosen sovereign.
Sor Juana Inés de La Cruz
This brilliant poet rose from illegitimacy and poverty to become one of the luminaries of her age - until she flew too close to the sun.
La Llorona
Mexico's infamous "weeping ghost" has many incarnations: a jilted widow, a slave princess, a milk addict, a coffee bag, and a pair of panties.
Juana Azurduy de Padilla
This revolutionary (and mother of five) should have been the namesake of Bolivia - and that's the opinion of Simon Bolivar, the actual namesake of Bolivia!
Florence Nightingale
One half of the odd couple of Crimean nursing - the by-the-book Victorian rebel who revolutionized the field of medicine who stood in stark to Mary Seacole's jolly reliance on folk remedies and home comforts.
Riina
When flying cannibal ghosts kidnapped two women, there was no man that could save them. But there was a woman.
Marjana
The actual hero of the Ali Baba myth, this slave girl saves the titular character by singlehandedly dispatching the forty thieves - without him even knowing.
Yael
Saved the Jewish people by hammering a tent spike through an unsuspecting house guest's head.
Banu Goshasp
This superhero of early Iranian mythology starred in her own stories, and plenty of them.
Moll Cutpurse
Cross-dressing Queen of Thieves who flouted social norms and had plays written about her.