Just to be clear about Bridgette Lin's character (Spoiler)

Just to be clear about Bridgette Lin's character - 東方不敗 - is really male who has undergone "extreme kungfu" and sex changed to female.

The Cantonese/Mandarin/Japanese track has Lin's character alternate from a dubbed male voice (speaking Japanese in some scenes, and Mandarin for the ventriloquism scene with Jet Li's character in the lake) but transitions to a female voice after Lin's character does her make-up (right before Lin's character sics the ninjas on the rest of the good guys).

Reis' character ('Kiddo' but more precisely, 'Sonny Boy') is female but dresses like a boy for purposes of the kwong-woo (jiangwu). Besides the obvious advantage of passing as male in those times (less rape), it's in line with the rough and tumble world of kwong-woo.

Extra Trivia: Brigitte Lin plays a parody of 東方不敗 (not the same character but a less powerful rip-off) in Stephen Chow's "Royal Tramp 2" - www.imdb.com/title/tt0104771/?ref_=fn_al_tt_8