When the martial arts cinematic revolution hit America in the early ’70s, theaters were eager to book the hottest films from Hong Kong. After a serious drop in box office during the ’60s, people were coming to rundown theaters to see flying fists and feet on the big screen. Theater owners were thrilled to find a paying audience that would regularly return when they’d swap out the titles on the marquee. The audience wanted to see more than Bruce Lee movies which was good since the iconic actor died a month before Enter the Dragon opened in August of 1973. The first major post-Bruce Lee star turned out to be Angela Mao who played Bruce’s sister in Enter the Dragon. She became his box office succesor when Hapkido topped Enter The Dragon on the charts although in America the film was called Lady Kung Fu.
You might imagine that Angela Mao was discovered in her small role as Bruce’s sister and Golden Harvest cranked out films starring her. Turns out Angela Mao was one of Golden Harvest’s early stars. She had made a few films by the time Bruce asked her to be in Enter The Dragon. Unlike Hollywood studios that were reluctant into making an actress an action hero, Golden Harvest wanted Angela Mao to display her acrobatic attacks on the big screen. This meant that her starring movies were ready for export in the summer of 1973. Lady Whirlwind and Hapkido is a Blu-ray double feature of two movies she made before the release of Enter The Dragon that came out afterward to help Kung Fu fighting dominate the US movie screens.
Lady Whirlwind (1972 – 89 minutes) opens with Ling Shih-hua (Chang Yi) getting beaten up by Japanese mobsters. They dump his body near water and would probably be dead and picked apart by wild animals if a woman didn’t find him and nurse him to health. Ling swears revenge on the mobsters. What he doesn’t know is that Tien Li-Chun has shown up in town and she’s sworn revenge on him. Why? Because he dumped Tien’s sister and she didn’t take it well. Her revenge should be taken seriously since her arrival in town is marked by her tearing apart the local gambling parlor and beating down the patrons including Sammo Hung (Hapkido). Things get a little bit complicated because she’s willing to let Ling get his revenge first and she’ll kill him afterward. This also means she has to fight the Japanese mobsters since she won’t let them take away her satisfaction of punishing Ling. It’s a bit of a twist since normally a woman wanting revenge would have to hire goons instead of taking care of business herself. While the film wasn’t a success in Hong Kong, it made millions in America with the title Deep Thrust. The film has musical cues taken from James Bond soundtracks to add to the intrigue of Angela Mao’s mission.
Hapkido (1972 – 97 minutes) has Yu Ying (Angela Mao), Kao Chang (Big Trouble In Little China’s Carter Wong) and Fan Wei’s (Millionaire’s Express’s Sammo Hung) are Chinese students studying Hapkido in Korea under teacher Shih Kung-chan (Game of Death’s Ji Han Jae). The trio get in trouble while hanging out in the park when a nasty Japanese guy gets creepy with Yu Ying. He has plans to make her his when Japan takes control of China. Fan Wei doesn’t like his friend being treated this way and takes a few chops at the Japanese creepy. This turns into an all-out brawl. This leads to Shih Kung-chan having to send his three prize pupils back to China to escape the Japanese authorities with Hapkido black belts and the promise to open up their own schools. They must spread the word about the superiority of Hapkido. Things back in China don’t get easy since establishing their school gets tough since the Japanese are already menacing the area. The Black Bear Gang has united with the Japanese so they can become the most dominate school. Their members are acting like they own the town. This leads to Fan Wei once more stepping up and getting everyone in trouble. Can they really deal with the Black Bear Gang seeing how its members include Jackie Chan, Yuen Biao and Corey Yuen? The film’s best scene is when Angela Mao shows up at the Black Bear Dojo and takes on everyone at once. She dishes up the kicks with the best. Hapkido makes Hapkido look like the ultimate fighting style when Angela Mao delivers the hits. The film also is noted for opening up with Emerson Lake and Palmer’s “Eruption” instrumental. Prog rock goes great with marital arts action.
These two films showed Angela Mao as a powerful force in action cinema. She is not a typical female character. She’s more about action than emotion. She doesn’t seduce her opponents with feminine charms. She fights them on their own level. She is relentless in Lady Whirlwind when she blows into town looking to kill the man who broke her sister’s heart. While it looks like Sammo Hung and Carter Wong would be the serious fighters in Hapkido, Angela Mao proves to be the highlight real with her barrage of strikes against the Black Bears. Angela Mao knows how to dish out the pain and serve up a beating. After watching this double feature, you’ll be eager to drop by Angela Mao’s Chinese restaurant in New York City. The name and address are part of the bonus features. Lady Whirlwind & Hapkido lets us know that Angela Mao was more than Bruce Lee’s on-screen sister.
The Video is 2.35:1 anamorphic. Both transfers look so much better than the previous DVD release from nearly a decade ago. The audio for Lady Whirlwind includes the Mandarin DTS-HD MA mono and the English dub in DTS-HD MA mono. Hapkido also has the Mandarin DTS-HD MA mono along with three options for the English soundtrack: vintage “kung fu” and “hapkido” dubs in DTS-HD MA mono and a DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround dub that was made in 2006 for a DVD release. There are so many ways to listen to the films although most of the time you’ll be hearing screams and chops. Both movies have English subtitles.
Audio Commentaries include Frank Djeng & Robert “Bobby” Samuels teaming up. Frank Djeng returns for a second track with Michael Worth. They go into the background of the film including how it did better internationally than in Hong Kong where it only played a week in theater. Samm Deighan does a solo track that talks about the importance of the film for Angela Mao, Golde Harvest and others.
Lady Whirlwind Speaks (13:19) is the first part of a interview with Angela Mao shot in 2022. She talks of growing up in Tawain and entering an Opera School. It was a tough time. She ended up meeting director Huang Feng through a family friend who brough him to an opera show. She talks about changing from Opera school to acting in movies. Since Golden Harvest was just starting up, Feng had a free hand in finding his talent. She goes deep into her early years at the studio. She had no idea that her films were popular in America.
Kung Fu Cooking (31:49) is a newly filmed conversation with Mao’s son Thomas King with Frank Djeng. The best story is how Thomas was so laid back about mom’s movie career that he didn’t realize she was a big deal until a weekend afternoon TV screening of Enter The Dragon with friends and they realized his mom was playing Bruce Lee’s sister. He speaks of the respectful fans that drop by the restaurant. She’s pretty laid back because her Chinese restaurant doesn’t feature her movie years on the wall. I’ve been told that she enjoys signing stuff if you order a meal.
Alternate English credits (1:34) has the film still called Lady Whirlwind.
Trailer Gallery includes Hong Kong theatrical trailer (3:23), US theatrical trailer (1:55) and radio spot (1:01) The US trailer calls the film Deep Thrust although they call Angela Mao “Lady Whirlwind.” They swear the fighting here will make many styles look like child’s play. The radio spot keeps saying “naked.”
Image gallery contains 24 press photos, posters and lobby cards.
Disc Two:
Two Commentary Tracks have Frank Djeng on both. The first has him joined by Robert “Bobby” Samuels. The second brings back Michael Worth. They give a bit of background on the Japanese occupation of Korea. Samuels tells a great story about bringing Ji Han Jae to Angela Mao’s restaurant. She was beyond thrilled to see him. Worth goes into the Golden Harvest logo on the film. There is talk about how the film was actually shot in South Korea.
Lady Kung Fu Speaks (18:01) the second part of a newly filmed interview with Angela Mao. She says that she was halfway through making Hapkido when Bruce Lee asked her to play his sister in Enter The Dragon. She was only supposed to be in one scene that would shoot for two days. But after the first day, director Robert Clouse began adding more scenes with her so ended up on the film for a week. She earned a third-degree black belt in Hapkido while training for the film. She also had to do 52 takes of her big dojo fight scene.
Archive interviews with Angela Mao (16:59), Carter Wong (17:01) and Sammo Hung & Yuen Biao (9:21) are standard resolution video interviews from a while back. They talk about Hapkido and other elements of their careers.
Original vintage featurette (6:40) showing Ji Hanjae teaching the lead actors hapkido. They want to make sure people know that the actors aren’t just doing a couple moves for the camera. They are trained fully. This is a great bonus feature for people taking Hapkido classes.
Three alternate opening credits sequences includes Textless (1:32), English version as Hapkido (1:44) and English version as Lady Kung Fu (1:44). All have Emerson Lake and Palmer’s “Eruption” from Tarkus. Sammo is a monster matching blows to Keith Emerson’s organ solo.
Trailer Gallery includes Hong Kong theatrical trailer in Mandarin (4:21) & English (4:03) plus US theatrical trailer (1:33) for Lady Kung Fu and TV spot (0:58). There’s all action in these trailers.
Image gallery has over 60 press photos, lobby cards, posters and a press kit with Hapkido instrucations. Best is a poster that says, “Don’t Let Your Girlfriend See This Film!”
FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collectors’ booklet featuring new writing on the films by critic James Oliver
Arrow Video present Lady Whirlwind & Hapkido. Directed by Huang Feng. Screenplays by Huang Feng & Ho Jen. Starring Angela Mao, Sammo Hung, Chang Yu, Carter Wong & Ji Han Jae. Boxset Contents: 2 movies on 2 Blu-ray discs. Rating: Unrated. Release Date: January 17, 2023.
