Top Fighter 2: Deadly China Dolls (1996) | (VHS) | Super Clean

Title: Top Fighter 2: Deadly China Dolls (1996)

Alternate Title: Top Fighter II: Deadly China Dolls

Genre: Documentary

Plot Synopsis
A historical dive into women’s roles within martial arts cinema, this film stitches together decades of interviews and film clips to trace how female fighters transformed from side characters to stars in their own right. Icons of the genre speak candidly of their careers, and the montage of fight scenes underscores how the on-screen power and visibility of women evolved.

Cast and Crew

• Director: Toby Russell

• Writers: George Tan, Tanya Lemani

• Cast:

  • Shenagh Cameron as Narrator

  • Jackie Chan as Himself

  • Ling Chang as Herself

  • Pei-Pei Cheng as Herself

  • Sophia Crawford as Herself

IMDb Link: Top Fighter 2 (1996)

Reviews from Letterboxd

1. Marco Weischenberg – ★★½☆☆
   “Well-intentioned documentary, but basically just a slightly better clip show with occasional interview snippets thrown in. I also would’ve preferred better narrators — it doesn’t sound particularly professional, neither in the original English version nor on the German dub.”

2. Joe – ★★½☆☆
   “I haven’t seen the first Top Fighter, focused on the men, so maybe that’s better – but the women in Top Fighter 2 definitely deserve a better documentary than this one focusing on the history of women in martial arts films. With that said – the various movie clips pulled are fantastic (and surprisingly long) and I only wish I knew what they were from so I could add a couple dozen more flicks to my watch pile. The interviews and narration? Not fantastic.”

3. intruder2k – ★★★½☆
   “Just a poor quality clip compilation…but the clips chosen are fantastic.”

4. Todd – ★★★☆☆
   “Fun! Just to hear some of these awesome women talk about what they do is so cool. It’s a bit old, but the Michelle Yeoh stuff is great. It relies a bit too heavily on film clips though, so it feels like it drags a lot.”

5. se13an – ★★★☆☆
   “Clip show of famous Girls with Guns and Female Martial Artists with a few interviews to give it the feel of a documentary. This one doesn’t do a great job of telling what movies they are taking the clips from but has enough to wet the appetite. The interviews are done with live sound so you get a lot of background noise so sometimes it isn’t easy to hear.”

Meta Description:
Documentary spotlighting the rise of women in martial arts cinema, featuring interviews and archival clips of stars like Angela Mao, Michelle Yeoh, and Cynthia Rothrock.