“Lady Whirlwind” Theatrical Poster
Director: Huang Feng
Producer: Raymond Chow
Cast: Chang Yi, Angela Mao Ying, Pai Ying, Oh Kyung-Ah, Liu Ah-Na, Chin Yuet-Sang, Sammo Hung Kam-Bo, Huang Feng, June Wu Ching Erh, Chin Nan Yi
Running Time: 84 min.
By Ian Whittle
Golden Harvest’s early years were devoted soley to martial arts films, and keeping up with their main rival, the Shaw Brothers. After a year of wu xia swordplay, 1971 saw Golden Harvest strike it lucky with the Bruce Lee/Lo Wei blockbuster The Big Boss, which beat Shaw’s similary Thailand set contemporary action flick Duel of Fists into submission.
Alongside the swordplay films, Shaws had started to branch out into what fans call “basher” flicks, focusing on empty-handed “Chinese boxing”, set either in the present day or an earlier circa 1920s era. Besides resulting in Golden Harvest’s 1972 collosus Fist of Fury (again Bruce Lee and Lo Wei), their satellite producer/director Huang Feng branched out into the sub-genre, with choreographer Sammo Hung and, in marked contrast to the new male-oriented box office domination of Chang Cheh, Jimmy Wang Yu and Bruce Lee; a female leading lady, Angela Mao Ying.
Having said that, Mao is not top-billed in this, and the Chinese title translates to “Iron Palm Whirlwind Leg”. Lady Whirlwind is actually primarily about Ling Shi-Hao (Chang Yi) and his feud with a gang led by Japanese villian Tung Ku (Pai Ying), a conflict marvellously summed up in the English dub’s hilarious opening lines:
Tung Ku: “Ling Shi-Hao, there’s no escape. You’re a dead duck!”
Ling Shi-Hao: “You dirty lowdown Japanese!”
However, Ling is also marked for death by the mysterious Tien Li-Chun (Angela Mao), who wants revenge for him abandoning her sister to suicide. She will, however, permit him to defeat Tung Ku first. Which isn’t easy, but then Ling rescues an old Korean man from a snake bite, and is taught a new Tai Chi style…
Lady Whirlwind is a interesting example of a kung fu film where the fighting is probably the weakest aspect. The atmosphere is very effective, with the whole film having a desolate Western feel to it that I find very appealing (it wouldn’t surprise me if the plot came from a Western too). And the canned music (John Barry’s fresh from the record-shop Diamonds Are Forever score turns up a lot) works well.
Chang Yi’s leading man roles were never as engaging as his later cackling villains, and for all his efforts here, he is one of the least interesting performers/characters. Mao, effectively playing a male character as Kim Newman once remarked in his excellent book Nightmare Movies, is a striking prescence and you can see why she caught on in the Western markets even more than in Hong Kong. The film also finds room for two other distinctive female characters: Oh Kyoung-Ah as Ling’s new love interest, and Liu Ah-Na as a marvellous “Dragon Lady” style whip-wielding chain-smoking villianess Tiao. Sammo Hung is a frequent punching bag for the rest of the cast, and Chin Yuet-Sang looks patently absurd pretending to be Japanese ronin Wen Tien: all exaggerated bowing and awkwardly fitting top-not.
Incidentally, this film contains one of my all time favourite bad dubbing exchanges
Tiao: “Go to the inn, you’re welcome to any of my birds.”
Wen Tien: “B..i..r..d…what is a…bird?”
Tung Ku: “Ha ha! It’s a woman, you dumb ass.”
Wen Tien: “Wooo…mannn…Ha Ha! I love em! I’ll take two of them! I’ll take two of them!!!”
Tung Ku: “Sure, sure, sure, sure…I’ll take you there myself!”
Tiao: “You what? The hell you will!”
The fights are many, but rather dated, even by the standards of what Hung turned out in the same year’s Hapkido. By that point, most of the Golden Harvest players had been for a crash course in Hapkido under Grandmaster Ji Han-Jae, and the difference is striking. Lady Whirlwind features a lot of Austin Powerish “Judo Chops!” with the extras milling around wondering where their swords are gone. Awkward trampoline jumps, reverse acrobatics… it’s all very stagey, but charming in itself.
Lady Whirlwind caught the wave of interest in kung fu in the USA, becoming a big hit under the not-to-be-confused-with-any-pornos title Deep Thrust. And it was caught for review by a young critic named Joe Dante.
Hmm, one day a man is reviewing an Angela Mao movie, the next he’s a blockbuster film director. There’s hope for me yet!
I liked it more than Joe did, though
Ian Whittle’s Rating: 8/10
I like Huang Feng’s films, especially the very psychedelic STONER. I can only imagine if Bruce Lee lived long enough to potentially work with this him (The Shrine of the Ultimate Bliss?). But unfortunately, I have yet to really get into any of Angela Mao Ying’s films. Believe it or not, I still haven’t seen this one. I may have to hunt it down. In fact, I have a lot of catching up with Golden Harvest’s early 70s classics.
For Mao, LADY WHIRLWIND, HAPKIDO, WHEN TAEKWONDO STRIKES, and BROKEN OATH are great fun.
Her only non-Golden Harvest film I’ve seen is THE LEGENDARY STRIKE, which is also directed by Huang Feng.
Ah, WTS, another one I haven’t seen in AGES. The one with your girl, Ann Winton. Interesting read about the tragic life of Ann.
Oh God, yeah I remember reading that.
I got this as a double feature with Hapkido. It’s a great companion piece to the Angela Mao Ying Collection by Shout Factory. I feel lucky to have my copies since it looks like they’re OOP.
Entertaining review. I’ve never seen this one, with my exposure to Angela Mao being limited to her Golden Harvest work with the Koreans – ‘Hapkido’, ‘When Taekwondo Strikes’, ‘Stoner’, and ‘The Association’ (in which she clocks in just a couple of mins screentime, but makes the most of them far more than in ‘Enter the Dragon’!). I’ve always been curious to see her choreographed by Jackie Chan in 1979’s ‘Dance of Death’, with what I assume would be the more rhythmic style of kung-fu rather than the strong Hapkido strikes.
I wouldn’t say the action looks particularly dated but it looks much more shoddily and less carefully made than Hapkido and When Taekwondo Strikes by the same team. The whole movie is worse than those two classics.
Gotta love that good ol’ post-bruce, wavy hand sloppiness.