A 1968 Hong Kong spy thriller written and directed by Umetsugu Inoue that has the head of an international spy ring trying to get a formula that causes plants to rapidly grow to conquer the world.
The movie stars Lily Ho, Peter Chen Hou, Feng Chin, Betty Ting Pei, and Chih Yung Lin.
It was released on December 21, 1968.
Tropes for the film:
- Acid Pool: Prof. Zero's lair contains a pool of acid under a mechanized trapdoor which dissolves victims to the bones within seconds. Firstly used to dispose of a henchwoman who disobeyed his orders, and later in the final battle Zero's henchman, Peter, ends up in the same pool while struggling against the heroes.
- Animal Assassin: The movie has the heroine Chiu-Lan being caught in her hotel room with a poisonous adder a henchwoman hid under the bedsheets. Her partner arrives in the nick of time and fires a dart impaling the snake head-first from the bed to a nearby dresser.
- Brain Theft: Via a mind-swopping device rather than the physical kind.
- Death Faked for You: Dr Li is seemingly killed by an assassin halfway into the film. But as his daughter, Li Chiu-Lan, prepares to mourn over him, she uncovers the cloth covering his corpse and realizes that isn't her father underneath. Turns out Li was merely tranquilized and was taken to Tokyo by the villains.
- Eiffel Tower Effect: The movie has an action scene in Tokyo, set on Tokyo Tower's midsection (appropriately enough, the Tokyo Tower is based on the Eiffel Tower). Li Chiu-Lan manages to hurl a mook off the Tower's side, before getting pushed off herself and ends up Hanging by the Fingers until her partner saves her.
- Eyepatch of Power: Prof. Zero wears an eyepatch and is the leader of a powerful SPECTRE-like criminal organization who commands plenty of mooks, and have minions who failed him disposed in an Acid Pool. Turns out to be a subversion when the film's ending reveals Prof. Zero to be Chiu-Lan's former partner - the eyepatch, scar and cap is just a disguise.
- Faux Action Girl: Li Chiu-Lan is shown holding a pistol on the film poster, introduced beating up a bunch of karateka during the opening credits and... pretty much does squat for the rest of her screentime. When a henchwoman tries to kill her via an adder under her bedsheets, Li is reduced to screaming hysterically until her partner Jia-wen arrives to her rescue. Her fight in the Tokyo Tower had her dangling over the towers railings while a mook tried to Hand Stomp her, until Jia-wen saves her again by knocking the mook out and grabbing her hand. She managed to beat up the imposter, Peter, who is posing as her brother, but that's because of Peter's own incompetence, and in the final battle she pretty much gets pushed around by mooks and gets thrown into a cell, which she only escapes because of an Enemy Civil War suddenly happening between the villians.
- Not My Driver: Li Yuan-Ming was abducted in this manner when he boarded a cab back to his hotel... and sped past his destination, much to Li's protest. Then the passenger seat starts discharging knockout gas. Turns out Li is being abducted by minions working for the main villain, Professor Zero, to have his mind swapped with one of Zero's minions in order to infiltrate his father's laboratory.
- A Sinister Clue: Inverted. An imposter infiltrating the Li's household (posing as the brother, after a "Freaky Friday" Flip) starts using his right hand, even though the righteous brother is left-handed. This tips off the sister that something's amiss.
