Rediscovering Singapore’s first action heroine

“Are you sexy, beautiful and fast?” An advertisement in a 1977 edition of Singaporean newspaper The Straits Times asked. ​“Beautiful, sexy and equally fast with hands and brains – if you think you fit this description, the title role in a spy thriller movie awaits you.” 

The promise of explosive action intrigued 17-year-old Doris Young, who answered the call and won the part ahead of hundreds of unknown hopefuls. Her first collaboration with Filipino filmmaker Bobby A. Suarez resulted in They Call Her… Cleopatra Wong (1978), with Young starring as the iconic secret agent, sent by Interpol on a special mission to bust an illicit counterfeit currency operation across Southeast Asia. 

The film launched a trilogy centring the Cleopatra Wong character, drawing from a range of influences and genres including the James Bond franchise, exploitation and blaxploitation heroines such as Cleopatra Jones (1973), and the Asian martial arts action films of Bruce Lee. The Hong Kong legend’s influence was so present that Suarez suggested a new stage name for Young in homage: Marrie Lee. Young performed her own stunts and became one of the first Asian female action leads featured in an internationally distributed film, with Quentin Tarantino citing it as a key influence for Kill Bill in a 2003 interview with The Straits Times. 

The character had an unlikely rise to international fame and cult status, with striking movie posters appearing for audiences across North America, the Middle East and Europe. However, They Call Her… Cleopatra Wong​’s preservation journey was fraught: over time, the original film elements deteriorated badly in the Philippines, where Suarez’s filmmaking company was based and where he and Young worked together on the films. Existing copies on DVD and Betacam tapes had been used for select screening events, but were low quality. 

Forty years on from the film’s production, efforts began on a restoration. The Asian Film Archive (AFA), a non-profit organisation based in Singapore dedicated to preserving and sharing Asia’s film heritage, shared an international callout for prints of the film in 2017. Two years later, the AFA completed a restored version using two different prints from archive collections in Austria and Denmark. Screenings have since taken place in Singapore, and recently in the UK for the first time as part of the Barbican’s Cinema Restored series. ​“It was a bit risky, but I think it’s also a reminder about the fragility of film itself,” says Chew Tee Pao, senior archivist at AFA, about the film’s restoration journey, given that the elements were not in Singapore. 

With Hong Kong-based producers, a Singaporean lead, and a Filipino filmmaker at the helm, the film was a truly transnational production. There is a strong combination of time and place not often seen on screen: the urban hubbub of Singapore with its motorbikes and proto-mega-shopping malls; the sweeping city skyline; spiralling highways and bustling shipyards of Hong Kong; and the shimmering nightlife and supposedly saintly convents of Manila. A soundtrack of kapows punctuates every kick and punch, and a groovy guitar riff locates us firmly within the spy and exploitation genre, propelling the action forward. 

“[The film] offers not just a glimpse into Cleopatra Wong, but I think also in that particular moment in Southeast Asian cinema of the 70s that’s bold, energetic and full of character,” says Chew. The restored version also offers a new opportunity to see the film in its full scope in the original 2.39:1 aspect ratio – it was previously only available in 4:3. Chew says that at screenings in Singapore, Young herself was surprised to see the action that was previously cut out of the cropped version. ​“It was such a privilege to be able to see the film again in such clarity,” says Chew. 

In some ways, Cleopatra Wong was pioneering – an independent, smart and ferocious hero who not only saves the day for Singapore but for Southeast Asia. She defeats dozens of men effortlessly with her high kicks and swift punches, emerging with her hair and makeup unscathed, her enviable jumpsuits unmarked. The film’s dialogue, dubbed into English, makes repeated references to the fate of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) being in her hands. Cleopatra Wong is the only one with the brains and talent who can complete this mission where all other – presumably male – agents have failed.