Mai Ling (The Spy Who Loved Flowers)

Mai Ling (Yoko Tani) is the main villainess in the 1966 Italian eurospy film “The Spy Who Loved Flowers”.  The original title was “Le Spie Amano I Fiori”.  This is the second film of the Superseven adventures following the 1965 film “Super Seven Calling Cairo”.

The film begins with British secret agent Martin Stephens (Roger Browne) watching a bullfight from the stands.  He poisons a pretty female agent (Giovanna Lenzi) who is sitting next to him while the crowd is preoccupied with the action.  Martin leaves her for dead in the crowd while lifting the blueprints from her bag that she had stolen.  The prints show a device called a gammaelectrascantrometer, that has the ability to shut off the power of entire cities.  Steven’s chief determines that there are three others who know of these blueprints and they must all be eliminated.  He is given his itinerary and photographs of those he needs to eliminate by Janet (Pilar Clemens) who works in the office.

Agent Stephens begins eliminating those with knowledge beginning with a man in his hotel room in Paris.

Mai Ling’s first appearance is in Geneva, Switzerland, where she spots Agent Stephens in a parking lot while he is looking for his next mark.  Meil Ling warns the target by an electronic device from a watchful perch from her hotel room.  When the mark suddenly has the jump on Stephens it is Genevieve Laffont (Emma Danieli) who warns him.  Genevieve is a pretty blonde magazine photographer who had spilled a drink on him at a Paris nightclub earlier in the week.  In order to assure that she won’t warn his next victim he tells her he can either eliminate her or go with him.  She agrees to team up with him and the two head off to Athens.

In Athens his mark is the Turkish born flower loving bad guy Ahmed Murad (Fernando Cebrian), who is known as the Great Dragon.  Ahmed has started up a business as a flower shop keeper at a shop named Fotis Fleurs, located near the Acropolis in Athens, Greece.  His partner, Mai Ling is a Red Chinese agent.  Ahmed is working on crossbreeding different flowers.  His latest creation is called “Orient Sunrise”.

Mai Ling conducts the intelligence report on Stephens as long as a slide show for her boss and his army of henchmen.  She tells them to monitor nightclubs and bars and then shows them a picture of woman who plans to pass on information to Stephens.  This leads to the Ninis club where dancers perform a Greek dance. Stephens makes contact with the woman, but she is killed with a knife as she informs him about a flower shop.

Stephens goes snooping in the flower shop.  Mai Ling introduces her to Ahmed and Stephens tells him he is looking for a rare blue flower which they don’t carry in the shop.  After leaving, Ahmed follows him by car, which is exactly what Stephens wanted.  Stephens fakes his death in order to be able to continue to snoop around on Ahmed’s business.

Genevieve tails Ahmed and watches an exchange of some kind of device between him and Mai Ling.  She follows Mai Ling back to the flower shop where the two engage in a nice catfight.  Mai Ling pulls out a knife and is about to stab Genevieve, but she is stopped by Stephens.  At gunpoint, she tells him that she only knows her boss by the name of the Great Dragon and they have limited contact.  They force her to use the transmitting device to arrange a meeting, which is set for the next day at the Acropolis.

Mai Ling uses facial expressions and hand signs to tip off her contact.  Genevieve is tasked with holding her at gunpoint later, but her gun is kicked out of her hand and the catfight ensues.

Stephens arrives for a meeting with his chief, Stan Harriman (Daniele Vargas) who tells him the assignment is completed.  Stephens is confused, but Harriman tells him that the third man is him.  Just then Ahmed comes in with a gun and it is obvious that Stephens has been set up.  Harriman had organized the theft personally and used Stephens to eliminate the competition.  Stephens was able to escape with Ahmed’s men hot on his tail.  Unfortunately for Stephens a car arrived with Mai Ling driving to capture him.  Stephens was returned to Harriman and was about to eliminate him, when he informed him that he had prepared a statement including photographs before leaving London that outlined who he suspected Harriman of being a traitor.  Mai Ling backed up the claims and was beginning to see what kind of people she was working for.

Mai Ling had captured Genevieve and she was tied up in the cellar of the flower shop.  She was able to escape, but now Stephens was in his own cell.

Genevieve went to the Athens police and led them to the flower shop.  However, when they arrived, the business had been converted into an antique store and the owner claimed to have been in business for over 35 years.

When Genevieve left, she hailed a taxi to go to the British Embassy, but she was intercepted by Ahmed’s men once again.  This time she was in an adjoining cell with Stephens.

One of Stephens’ agent buddies Dick Stance (Marino Mase) from MI6 arrived and pretended to bust him out of his cell.  He even had Mai Ling in custody.  However, the Harriman told him that Stance was his second in command and he was in on it.  Mai Ling and the rest of the henchmen were all pointing guns at Stephens.

To control Genevieve, Mai Ling turned on an infrared sound weapon inside her cell that knocked her out.

Mai Ling overheard Stance and Harriman talking about keeping the gammaelectrascantrometer for themselves and look for another bidder.  Stance questioned whether Mai Ling would go along with this altered plan, and Harriman said they would eliminate her the same time they did Stephens.

When Mai Ling took food into Stephens’ cell, he mocked her about being a “robot” and kissed her on the lips.  She was even more confused than before and slapped his face before leaving.  Stephens said that the moment was like kissing the Statue of Liberty, meaning it lacked passion.

Mai Ling came to Harriman and Stance with an alternative plan to eliminate Stephens and make it look like an automobile accident.  She then used the sound weapon to jam the video monitoring system and enter Stephens’ cell where she injected him with a hypodermic needle.  By the time the signal was restored, Mai Ling had finished her injection and was leaving the cell.

Mai Ling had Ahmed’s men load up the drugged bodies of both Stephens and Genevieve in the back of a car. They parked near the edge of a cliff.  However, when Stance went to get out of the car, Stephens pulled a gun on him.  Mai Ling did the same to Ahmed the driver.  She explained that it was her that caused the malfunction with the surveillance equipment.  If they wanted to double cross her, she would do the same to them.

The plan was foiled when Ahmed backed up knocking Stephens backward.  Mai Ling shot Ahmed and got out of the car only to be shot by another henchman.  Stephens was able to kill the remaining men and came to a dying Mai Ling thanking her for helping him.  He also apologized for calling her a robot, and that everyone has something good inside them.  Mai Ling responded that she did it only because she wanted revenge.  She continued that women like her don’t know how to act and the right words don’t come to us.  She then asked if he would kiss her, but before he could she took her last breath.  He kissed her on her cheek and gently laid her down to the ground.

Stephens then went after Harriman who was the last remaining man standing.  Harriman made his escape to his car, but it blew up when he turned on the ignition.  A tape recorder was nearby on a bird bath.  When Stephens played the message, it was from Mai Ling who acknowledged that she would probably not escape with her life.  However, she trusts that our mutual friend Harriman has learned that the Chinese people have a sense of humor.  In other words, she rigged the car to explode to seek revenge on him.

Trivia

• Yoko Tani appeared as the henchwoman Mercedes in the 1964 spy film "The Death Ray of Dr. Mabuse".

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