Lady Kung Fu

I first saw this in the late 80s on a rented vhs.

Revisited it recently.

This movie has tons n tons of fights but the best treat is Angela Mao.

We have a very young n slim but chubby face Sammo Hung.

We also have Jackie who appears in 6 scenes as an extra but all are blink n miss. He is visible after 72nd min but disappears within few seconds kinda u blink u miss.

Much before Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee, Scott Adkins, Van Damme, Michael Jai White, etc we get to see the lead actress Angela Mao do the front double kick in an awesome way.

She played the sister of Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon.

This movie has a sadistic scene where a man throws hot water on an old lady.

It is a bit vulgar when a guy ogles at a woman's back n suddenly the guy imagines the woman to be nude in a blink n miss scene. These two things were totally uncalled for.

Sammo Hung goes shirtless without being muscular.

This is female empowerment stuff n that too in the early 70s.

Korea, 1934. During the Japanese occupation, there is open warfare between rival martial arts schools. There is a fight in the marketplace, and three Chinese students cannot stand the unfair way of students that side up with the invaders, when they gang assault one of the fighting men. Between the three, they send the aggressors away. Retaliation is heavy: their school is destroyed, and they are banished.

This film may be best known for an uncredited cameo from Jackie Chan before he became an international star, but it is a decent film in its own right. While not quite as action-packed as "Lady Whirlwind" (which came out the same year from the same director), there is a better plot here, and the production value from Golden Harvest is noticeably higher.

A decent copy has been released from Shout Factory. While it is not pristine (this may not even be possible) and does not have much for special features, this is a film worth checking out.

Jackie can be seen briefly in at least two scenes. I first noticed him near the end of the film in the scene where Angela visits the Japanese school and is prevented from leaving. Jackie, dressed in black, stands in the doorway and gets flipped to the floor by Angela. In another scene, he's also standing on the left side of a doorway, but he's wearing white.

I THINK I also saw Yuen Biao (in white) a couple of times, but unfortunately, I can't tell you where to look for him.

What surprised me was how prominently featured Lam Ching-Ying is in this movie. He's all over the fight scene that takes place in the street market, ultimately taking punches from Sammo Hung, who probably has more screen time than anyone else in the film.. certainly screen time spent fighting.

Finally, I was surprised to discover that the attractive young woman who gets ogled and nearly groped near the start is none other than Nancy Sit!

I've seen this movie first time as "Lady Kung Fu" (a.k.a. Anjera Mao no Onna Kassatsu Ken) in a movie theater in Asia, and was impressed with Angela Mao's skills.

The movie is bit like the "The Chinese Connection" in that Japanese oppression is part of the topic. Korean Hapkido school goes against the Japanese Karate school. The bad guys are of course the Japanese.

This movie came out 6 month after the sensational success of "The Chinese Connection", both by Golden Harvest, so similarity is not surprising. Angela Mao was hot commodity for Golden Harvest at the time, and she takes the lead in this movie. She has this unique school girlish looks that makes her stand out in any movie she's in. Very young Sammo Hung also stars in this movie. It seems that he hasn't gotten a hair cut between this movie, and the time he stared in the "Enter the Dragon" the following year. He's also gained lot of weight between this and the "Enter the Dragon".

This movie looks better now than when I first saw it. It has aged pretty well over 40 years.

Still a great kung fu action movie, and recommended for viewing.

A good martial arts film in the mold of Fist of Fury that presents the art of Hapkido and has some great action scenes and features smaller roles for the likes of Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao and Jackie Chan. Angela Mao is awesome!

Recommended for fans of kung fu cinema.