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Released by: Shout! Factory
Released on: April 22nd, 2014.
Director: Feng Huang
Cast: Angela Mao, Sammo Hung, Carter Wong, Yi Chang
Year: 1972/1972
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The Movie:
What do we have here? Two of Angela Mao's finest Golden Harvest films, paired up on a double feature DVD release from Shout! Factory. Here's a peek…
Lady Whirlwind:
When the first feature begins, a Chinese man named Ling Shih-hua (Chang Yi) gets seriously beaten by the Japanese men who used to employ him. So serious are his injuries that his assailants leave him limp on the beach, presuming he is dead. He's nursed back to health by a young woman who finds him, and once he's better, he swears revenge on those who tried to kill him.
Meanwhile, a young woman named Tien Li-Chun (Angela Mao) has a score of her own to settle Ling, the man who left her sister during a dark period in her life which ultimately led to her suicide. Tien blames Ling for her sister's death and is hell bent on paying him back in kind. When she finds him in town, however, she decides that she will give him a few days to track down his Japanese assailants before she kills him herself. He heads out to give them what for but is once again defeated though this time Tien comes to his rescue and saves his life. Even having done that, however, Tien still thirsts for vengeance. Will she be able to forgive Ling for what he did and help him take down the Japanese or will her steely determination get the best of her and land Ling six feet under?
Re-titled Deep Thrust for its US release (definitely one of the weirdest movies to ever try cash in on the success of Damiano's Deep Throat!), Lady Whirlwind is a fast paced and violent picture that showcases some pretty solid fight scenes and frequently impressive choreography. Mao obviously gets the spotlight here, she's top billed and her skills are on display throughout the picture, but Shaw Brothers stalwart Chang Yi gets a lot of screen time too and he handles himself well in front of the camera. Sammo Hung shows up here too and while his is more of a supporting role it's fun to see him in the movie. Again, however, this is primarily Mao's show. As beautiful as she is deadly, her character works well as an instrument of vengeance. We don't get a ton of character development but there's enough to propel the story along nicely.
A period film, the movie showcases some decent looking sets but there are spots where the low budget does shine through. Though this isn't necessarily to the picture's detriment it's not quite as glossy as what the Shaw's were pumping out around this time. Feng Huang's direction is quite efficient, however, and this hard hitting picture remains a solid early seventies slice of martial arts entertainment.
Hapkido:
The second feature (released in the US as Lady Kung-Fu), made the same year and also directed by Feng Huang, follows three martial arts students - Yu Ying (Angela Mao), Kao Chang (Carter Wong) and Fan Wei (Sammo Hung) - who are studying at a school in the Korea of 1934. With the Japanese occupation in full effect, the students are hoping to head back home and bring with them the art of Hapkido so that they can open their own school and teach martial arts to others. Of course, this doesn't sit well with a competing Japanese school called The Black Bear Gang.
When Fan Wei gets into a scrap with a few of the Japanese gang members at a restaurant the authorities come looking for him and he goes into heading. Kao Chang, however, feels he can go to the Japanese and hopefully talk things over - no dice! They beat the Holy Hell out of him leaving Yu Ying alone to contend with all of this. She goes to her Hapkido teacher (Ing-Sik Whang) for help taking on the Japanese and setting things right for her comrades.
As with this first movie on the disc, there's a strong anti-Japanese sentiment running throughout the picture (common in Chinese martial arts movies of the time). The film paints the Japanese as heartless, evil stereotypes and the Chinese as nothing but noble, and as such, it deals pretty much exclusively in blacks and whites but it makes for good entertainment if you can look past the fairly thin characterization in the picture. It's a blast seeing Angela Mao, Carter Wong and Sammo Hung all fighting on the same team, each one bringing their own distinct screen presence and fighting style to the picture. Again, Mao is top billed and gets more screen time than her compatriots but Hung really steals the show when he goes up against the two Japanese at the bar, definitely the stand out scene in the movie.
The production values are a little better this time around and the film shows off some nice costumes and sets. The fights are frequent and often thrilling and the movie goes at a good pace. Like the first feature, it might not be deep, but it is a lot of fun.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Both films on this DVD are presented in their proper 2.35.1 anamorphic widescreen aspect ratios. Lady Whirlwind is the rougher looking of the two, there is some mild blurring in some scenes and minor print damage throughout. Colors are nicely reproduced, however, as they are on Hapkido, which looks quite a bit cleaner and shows better definition than the first feature. These transfers won't blow you away but they're perfectly watchable.
Lady Whirlwind gets audio options in English and Mandarin Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo while Hapkido gets audio options in English and Mandarin Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, optional English subtitles are provided for both features. There are some spots where it's hard to ignore the background hiss and a few spots where the levels bounce around a little bit but all in all the audio here is fine.
The extras for Lady Whirlwind include the American trailer (using the alternate Deep Thrust title!), the alternate English opening title sequence and trailers for other martial arts titles that Shout! Factory has released recently (all either Jackie Chan or Bruce Lee titles).
More interesting are the extras affiliated with Hapkido. We get the original Chinese trailer, two different US trailers, a Lady Kung-Fu TV spot and the alternate US opening credits sequence for the feature. Additionally Angela Mao herself shows up for a seventeen minute on camera interview in which she talks about working with the likes of Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan, the films that she made for Golden Harvest, how she got into making martial arts films in the first place and more. Also appearing on camera for an interview is Carter Wong, who speaks for seventeen minutes about who he broke into martial arts movies, what it was like working with both police forces and with Sylvester Stallone and his work with Mao on Hapkido. There's also a nine minute interview with Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao in which they discuss a few of the films they've collaborated on over the years, working with their friend Jackie Chan and a fair bit more. The interviews are all tape sourced and fullframe but they are a very nice addition to the disc.
Both features get their own menus and chapter selections as well as language set up options and extras.
The Final Word:
Shout! Factory's release of Lady Whirlwind / Hapkido isn't going to blow you away with amazing audio and video quality but it does offer up both the original and English language options as well as a few cool extras too. As to the movies themselves? They both hold up well, offering up plenty of action and suspense and some impressive fight choreography. Mao's fans should really enjoy this.
