Lady Whirlwind

"Miss Tien, thank you for saving me." "Forget it. I just didn't want somebody else to kill you!"

This film was directed by Huang Feng (who made 18 films in the 1970s alone), and stars Angela Mao. Not sure if Mao is well known outside of martial arts circles (probably not), but she probably should be -- why let Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee get all the credit?

Although I know very little about the martial arts film genre, I feel like this might be one worth seeing. If for no other reason than the fact that literally everyone is kung fu fighting -- there are hardly any scenes without a dozen guys trying to defeat Lady Whirlwind (and losing).

"Lady Whirlwind" AKA "Deep Thrust" is a little better than another Angela Mao film released by the same company that I saw recently, "Deadly China Doll", because Angela is indeed one of the two main characters here and has several fight scenes. The bad news is, her and everybody else's fight scenes are generally mediocre, often spoiled by poor editing and ludicrous wirework. The good news is, Angela brings a relentless aggression to them that few other female stars can match. More good news: her character is a little more complex than usual for this genre - she begins as a revenge-obsessed woman but gradually becomes more compassionate. More bad news: it's exactly this compassion that doesn't allow her to have a climactic fight scene. A watchable but forgettable film on the whole. Gotta love the stolen score notes from "Diamonds Are Forever", though! (**)

A man named Ling Shi Hao is left beaten by a mob of Japanese ner~do~wells. But rather than dying face down in the dirt, he is rescued by a woman, and nursed back to health..Years later, a mystery woman ( Angela Mao) comes to town and starts beating the living daylights out of the same Japanese mob who had beaten Ling, in order to get information as to his whereabouts. They know nothing, believing him to be dead these last few years, but just who is this mystery woman? Why is she looking for Ling? Soon enough, it transpires that she too is looking for Ling, in order to kill him! And when she eventually tracks him down on the remote farm she goes in for the kill..!

After a bit of conflict, Ling manages to convince his would be executioner to lay off him until he has had 24hrs to take revenge on the evil gang of Japanese mobsters that originally left him for dead.

Reluctantly she agrees, but is left ruing her decision, after he is once again bested and disappears into hiding before reappearing again, only this time with skills that might just help him win.. The final question of course being just who will side with who when the kick hits the fan?

Compared to Hapkido and When Taekwondo strikes, the fights here isn't as intense, but it's still good, especially when Angela Mao, in revenge mode, kicks and punches her opponents with abandonment. She acts quite well as the one-tracked minded lady who wants to kill Ling. What's interesting is that Ling is a hero, a guy who had made a mistake in the past. But Mao is too obstinate and filled with hate to forgive. After all, he was the cause of her sister's death. This is a rather sombre-toned tale that has some characterisation and some depth in its portrayal of honour and compassion.

Raymond Chow's upstart company sure played it smart with this movie. He used Chang Yi as the male lead. Chang Yi was an established Shaw Brothers actor doing martial arts films since about King Cat in 1967 but was shelved due to new talent such as David Chiang and Ti Lung. Next add Pai Ying for the bad guy. He's another Shaw Brothers actor who did a fine job as an evil eunuch in the 1971 "The Eunuch". Sammo Hung was the martial arts choreographer and with some side burns (quite stylish in 1972 but ridiculous otherwise) he got good screen time as a co-villain. Bruce Lee had just done "Fist of Fury" so add the theme of evil Japanese to the mix. (Actually the movie still works fine without the subplot, but why not?) With all that foundation, the only risky element was casting Angela Mao as the hot kung fu chick female lead. That was really no risk at all. Angela was fabulous despite the otherwise impression that the entire movie was done in one take. Yes, the whole movie seems to have been made with a budget for the price of the rolls of film with just a few dollars left over to pay the crew. Nevertheless, here I am 40 years later and watching it for the second time and enjoying every minute of it. Certainly recommended for all fans of the genre and my rating here is 7.0

When Angela Mao is off-screen, this movie is mediocre to a fault. Not bad, but of little interest to anyone but a serious Hong Kong movie geek. But when Mao is on screen, she's electrifying.

It's not just her charisma, although she's got buckets of that. She has a magnificent gift for selling a move that transforms what would be at best a serviceable fight scene into something riveting and dramatic. In the build up to her first fight in the casino, Mao flashes an ironically contemptuous sneer that sends icy chills down your spine. At the end of the fight she beats the crooked casino boss with a cold fury that's thrilling and appalling in its savagery.

What's really unusual is how the movie doesn't do anything to soften her character. Often the girl in these movies is there to be raped and killed so the hero can take revenge. Sometimes she's sifu's daughter, who fights pretty good for a girl but is ultimately there to be rescued from the boss. None of that for Miss Tien. She is Nemesis, come to punish the hero for his past misdeeds. The question is: will she let him live long enough to redeem himself by fighting the boss of his old gang?

This curious twist transforms a run-of-the-mill early 70s Kung Fu flick into something compelling and different.