5 Star

Brilliant 70s Martial Arts

The Lightning Hands and Feet of Mao.

Once more, Eureka Entertainment brings us a cracking pair of Martial Arts films, this time featuring the amazing talents of Angela Mao (Enter The Dragon, Thunderbolt) Where we see her as a woman out for vengeance, and the other as she defends her Martial Arts School. Also, they have packed a plethora of special features (See Below). These two films fight right in with the resurgence of the martial arts in China at the start of the 1970s. This is how it is done.

Lady Whirlwind

Shaung-Shaung (Kyung-Ah Oh, Outlaw on a Donkey, Finger of Doom) walks through a forest, when she hears a commotion she quietly investigates. She sees a gang beating up Ling Shih-hua (Yi Chang, Stormy Sun, 10 Brothers of Shaolin), the leader of the gang wants Ling to smuggle drugs, but he wants nothing to do with it, so he is severely beaten, and left for dead.

We see a litter pull up outside a casino, a woman gets out and heads straight in, she places a large bet, she wins and wins again, then they change the dice and when she isn’t looking they check the numbers, she goes big again, even though she is warned, she taps the cover and wins again.

Three years have passed since Ling was left for dead, but it has taken this woman, Miss Tien Li-Chun (Angela Mao) to track down his last known location, and she believes that this casino is run by the people that were after him and they have him captive. The owner Tiao Ta Niang (Liu Ah-Na) isn’t there, but her brother is Tiao Hung (Sammo Kam-Bo Hung, Three Films With Sammo Hung (Eureka Classics), THE LUCKY STARS 3-Film Collection), Encounter of the Spooky Kind [GUI DA GUI] (Eureka Classics), Wheels on Meals [Eureka Classics]), is. Tien wants revenge on Ling as he caused the death of her sister, when he left her, and she committed suicide.

Tung Ku (Pai Ying, A Touch of Zen, Fists of Shaolin) turns up from Japan to help Madam Tiao Ta Niang (An-na Liu) with this troublesome Tien. Will Tien get her revenge on Ling, watch as her hands and feet do all her talking, in this martial arts thriller.

 

Hapkido

This time, Angela Mao is defending her martial arts school against those that think the Korean martial art is not good enough to be in China.

Teacher Shih Kung-chan teaches in Korea and Kao Yu Ying (Mao), Kao Chang (Carter Wong, Big Trouble in Little China, Shaolin Brothers) and Fan Wei (Sammo Kam-Bo Hung) are his students. Whilst out, their picnic is interrupted by Japanese soldiers and although Ying and Chang are calm and don’t interfere,  Wei is a hot head and punishes the Japanese soldiers. His actions get them discharged from the school. Teacher send them back to China to open their own school.

This is where the trouble starts, as Ying and Chang visit the other martial art schools to pay their respects, Wei ends up in a fight with some Black Bear School students, thus starting a deadly war between the two schools.

This is another classic fight film with Angela Mao showing off her amazing skills.

A must own for the Martial Arts fan.

Angela Mao: Hapkido & Lady Whirlwind is available on Blu-ray

SPECIAL EDITION TWO-DISC BLU-RAY FEATURES

Limited Edition O-Card slipcase featuring new artwork by Darren Wheeling (First run of 2000 copies only) | 1080p presentations of both films across two Blu-ray discs, from new 2K restorations | Limited Edition Reversible Poster featuring original theatrical poster artwork (First run of 2000 copies only) | Hapkido – Original mono Mandarin and English audio options, including two variations of the classic English dub | Hapkido – DTS-HD MA 5.1 English dub (newer dub originally created for the film’s original DVD release) | Lady Whirlwind – Original mono Mandarin and English audio options | Optional English Subtitles, newly translated for this release | Hapkido – New feature length audio commentary with Asian film experts Frank Djeng (NY Asian Film Festival) & Michael Worth | Hapkido – New feature length audio commentary with Frank Djeng & martial artist / actor Robert “Bobby” Samuels | Lady Whirlwind – New feature length audio commentary with Asian film experts Frank Djeng (NY Asian Film Festival) & Michael Worth | Lady Whirlwind – New feature length audio commentary with Frank Djeng & martial artist / actor Robert “Bobby” Samuels | Lady Whirlwind – New feature length audio commentary by film journalist and author Samm Deighan | Brand-new interview with Angela Mao, filmed in 2022 | Archival interview with Angela Mao | Archival interview with Carter Wong | Archival interview with Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao | Hapkido – Alternate opening credits | Selection of trailers and TV spots | Stills Galleries | Reversible sleeve featuring original Hong Kong poster artwork | PLUS: A Limited-Edition collector’s booklet featuring new writing by James Oliver (First run of 2000 copies only) |  *All extras subject to change