The Traitorous (1976)

The Traitorous (1976)
Aka: Shaolin Traitorous
Chinese Title: 大太監
Translation: Great Eunuch

 

Starring: Carter Wong, Polly Shang-Kuan Ling-Feng, Chang Yi, Sammo Hung, Huang Feilong, Hou Po-Wei, Lin Hsiao-Hu, Li Ying, Hsieh Hsing
Director: Sung Ting-Mei
Producer: Yen Wu-Tong
Writer: Chang Hsin-Yi
Action Director: Chan Chuen, Ko Pao

 

The Traitorous is one of not two, not three, but a whopping fourteen movies that Carter Wong made in 1976. That definitely should set some sort of a record for a leading man. Carter Wong is a beloved figure among genre fans, and American moviegoers may recognize him as the Elemental who famously inflates himself to death in John Carpenter’s Big Trouble in Little China. But before he took that role, he had been a fixture in kung fu films since the early 1970s.

Some martial arts movies fans like to talk about “who is the real deal?” Carter Wong definitely fit that description. He started studying Southern Shaolin kung fu both Wudan Qigong when he was kid. He also practiced Karate, Hapkido, and Muay Thai. That last one was notable because he was a champion kickboxer is Asia during from the late 1960s up through the mid-1980s. He also served as a martial instructor for the police in Hong Kong, New York, and São Paulo, Brazil. He founded his own kung fu style, Chung Hop Kuen, which is a synthesis of all the different styles he studied over the years.

Carter got his start in film in 1972 with Golden Harvest. His first film was opposite Angela Mao and Sammo Hung in Hap Ki Do, where he plays one of the three main protagonists. He would also star with Angela Mao in both The Tournament; When Tae Kwon Do Strikes; and Deadly China Doll. He worked with Golden Harvest until 1975, at which point he became a free agent. From that point on, Carter mainly worked out of Taiwan, although he did have a notable supporting role in Chang Cheh’s Marco Polo. Wong remained a regular presence in Taiwanese martial arts films until the early 1980s, at which point his career slowed down and he started focusing on teaching kung fu. His most beloved films to this day include Joseph Kuo’s Born Invincible; the 18 Bronzemen movies; and Hap Ki Do (although that’s more for Angela Mao’s performance than Wong’s).

The Traitorous is set during the Ming Dynasty and purports to be based on real events. The crux of the story is that there is a eunuch, Wei Zhongxian (a real-life historical personage), who has accumulated quite a lot of power thanks to the Emperor’s tendency to delegate too much of his job to in favor of worldly pleasures. Wei has given a lot of power to his second-in-command, Tin Erh-Kang (Chang Yi). When we meet Tin, he and his entourage (including Sammo Hung as a captain) are visiting a little shack in the country inhabited by the exiled General Shang. Tin and his men slaughter Shang, his daughter, and his son. The only survivor is Shang Yung, the general’s grandson, who goes to Shaolin. After a powerful demonstration of stoic devotion, Shang Yung is accepted at the temple as a pupil.

Ten years or so later, Shang Yung has finished his training and is allowed to leave the temple. He heads into the town where Tin Ehr-Kang is established and makes an unholy nuisance of himself, beating up officials wherever he can. His first victim is Tin’s third-in-command (Huang Feilong). This catches the attention of Tin’s adopted daughter, Tso Yun-Lan (Polly Shang-Kwan), who is just the kung fu bad ass that Shang has become. The two have a few showdowns together until it becomes clear that Tso’s allegiances are questionable. We later learn that her parents were unjustly murdered by Tin (at Wei’s request), so she has blood debt to pay. The two eventually team up to defeat the wicked eunuch.

Storywise, The Traitorous is a very simple film. It does resemble movies like The 18 Bronzemen in terms of its story, but is a lot more streamlined. The training portions only take up the first act or so, after which the film is non-stop fighting up through the protracted finale between our heroes and the evil Tin Ehr-Kang. Unlike some of those contemporary Joseph Kuo films, like the Bronzemen movies and Shaolin Kids, this film makes expert use of both Carter Wong and Polly Shang-Kwan, giving both performers ample opportunity to demonstrate their skills.

Carter’s focus in this film is Shaolin kung fu, which was part of his original training in real life. He performs a lot of animal styles in his fights, especially the panther style, which is refreshing. Carter gets flack from some fans because, despite his off-the-screen fighting pedigree, he did not always look great on film. His larger and more muscular physique made him look stiff in a lot of his fights. I personally found that less of a problem in this film, and choreographers Chan Chuen (who’d worked with Carter during his Golden Harvest days) and Ko Pao (who choreographed Carter in The Rebel of Shaolin and Dragon Gate) get a good performance out of Wong.

As usual, Polly Shang-Kwan puts in a great fighting demonstration in her role as the feisty Tso Lun-Yan. She plays down her Taekwondo skills, which had been the focus of her fighting in her earlier basher films, and focuses on handwork, no doubt taken from her Karate training. She punches the living hell out of everyone in her path and threatens to steal the show from the Carter, as she was wont to do at the time.

Joining them are two more genre favorites: Sammo Hung and Chang Yi. The latter plays the second-in-command to the main villain. Sammo uses the praying mantis style in his fights, with low stances and his index fingers extended. In a memorable scene, he kills Carter Wong’s mother by gouging her eyes out with his mantis skills, despite the fact that she was a defenseless woman. When Carter faces off with Sammo near the end, the latter does get to fight briefly with the 3-section staff. Chang Yi, now entering the villain phase of his career, uses what appears to be a mixture of different animal styles, including the praying mantis and the dragon style. He would return to the mantis style for a few more of his films, including The Secret of the Shaolin Poles and Eagle’s Claw.

The Traitorous also appears to be one of the earlier films of this vintage to have people fight in formations. In this case, it is not the Shaolin monks, but the guards of the Eastern Depot—sort of like the Ming Dynasty NSA or FBI—who have a special attack formation set to the beating of drums. The fighters circle their opponents and sometimes form a human wall with the fighters standing on each other’s shoulders. Once in a while, the men at the top will attack with a net to ensnare their opponents. While certainly making for some visually interesting fights, the idea of characters fighting in formation doesn’t make a lot of sense outside the Shaolin Temple. If you’re trying to capture rebels and traitors, you don’t want to have to set up a drum set to get your men fighting: your targets can just run away!

All things considered, I think The Traitorous can easily hold its own with anything Joseph Kuo was making at the same time, or even with Chang Cheh’s concurrent Shaolin films—at least on a pure choreography level. And unlike Chang Cheh’s The Shaolin Temple (made the same year), this film doesn’t waste the talents of its female protagonists. It embraces and amplifies them; it reminds us that Polly Shang-Kwan was one of the fighting divas of the 1970s. Add that to Carter Wong’s Southern Shaolin showcase and some strong villains and you got an indie fu film that deserves more attention.

Story of the Dragon (1976)

Story of the Dragon (1976)
aka: Bruce Lee’s Secret; Bruce Lee’s Deadly Kung Fu; A Dragon Story; Bruce Lee’s Jeet Kune Do
Chinese Title: 詠春截拳
Translation: Wing Chun Jeet Kune (“Intercepting Fist”)

 

Starring: Ho Tsung-Tao, Carter Huang Chia-Ta, Hwang Jang-Lee, Dan Schwarz, Roy Horan, Chin Chi-Min, Wu Yen, Lin Hsiao-Hu, Lin Chong, Su Hsiang, Wei Ping-Ao, Chang Kuei, Tsang Ming-Cheong
Director: Chan Wa, William Cheung Kei
Action Director: Huang Fei-Long

 

1976 was an important year for Brucesploitation. First of all, Burmese actor Huang Kin-Lung found his calling as Bruce Le, which would define the vast bulk of his movies up through the end of the 1980s. It also saw the start of the acting career of Korean actor Chang Yi-Tao, who would work on a handful of Brucesploitation films under the moniker Bruce Lai. Above all, it was when James Ho Tsung-Tao, best known as Bruce Li, was at the top of his output and success. For starters, his movie Exit the Dragon, Enter the Tiger was an international hit. Moreover, he made no fewer than four unofficial biopics about the life of Bruce Lee, including Young Bruce Lee and Bruce Lee – The Man, the Myth.

Story of the Dragon is fascinating in that it is obviously based on Bruce Lee, even if the dubbing suggests that it’s really about some guy named Bob[1]. The movie is an amalgamation of events from Lee’s life from 1959 to 1967: Lee did indeed live in California’s Bay Area—more specifically, Oakland in 1964—but his initial job as a waiter was from five years earlier 1959 when he arrived in Seattle from Hong Kong. The last act of the movie focuses on the creation of jeet kune do, but that wouldn’t happen until 1967 when he was living in Southern California.

The movie opens with Bob Lee working as a waiter at a Chinese restaurant run by Ruby Chow (Wu Yen, who played a brothel madam in Green Dragon Inn; The Incredible Kung Fu Mission; and The Great Chinese Boxer—the same personage was played by Flower Drum Song’s Nancy Kwan in Dragon, the Bruce Lee Story). Bob and his friend, played by Chang Kuei, get fired after Bob fights with a couple of aggressive customers, including Robert Kerver (of Snuff Bottle Connection). The two try to find work elsewhere, but Robert and his band show up at every interview to make sure they don’t get the job.

Bob and his friend eventually find work at the docks, working for a wealthy Chinese businessman (Su Hsiang, who played director Lo Wei in He’s a Legend; He’s a Hero). Coincidentally, the dock is ground zero for a territory war between the Chinese laborers and the local karate school (!), including the aforementioned Robert Kerver and friends. Bob eventually proves his mettle by beating the crap out of the karate fighters during one of their brawls. The laborers are so impressed by Lee’s skill that they encourage him to open a school. Bob does just that, and even invites non-Chinese people to study Jun Fan Wing Chun (as he calls it), too.

This angers his boss’s nephew—I’ll point out here that the subplot of Bob working at the docks is largely forgotten at this point—played by cult favorite Carter Wong (Hap Ki Do and Fatal Flying Guillotines). He’s against white people and black people learning Chinese martial arts, so he challenges Bob to a duel. He loses, but agrees to become an assistant instructor of sorts at the new school. Bob also continues to unload truckloads of whoop-ass on the thugs whenever they show their faces, which is surprisingly often. Finally, their boss, Mr. Grace (Dan Schwarz of Fists of Bruce Lee and Tower of Death) and his Yes-Man (Wei Ping-Ao, playing the same role he did in Fist of Fury and Way of the Dragon), decide to hire a top Chinese fighter to deal with Bob: Jin Yong-Ji (played by Legendary Superkicker Hwang Jang Lee). Jin defeats Bob in their initial scuffle, causing Bob to determine that traditional wing chun isn’t enough: he’ll need a new style…a style that isn’t a style…perhaps one that he could refer to as jeet kune do.

Fudging historical details is nothing new to biographical movies, nor is it unheard of to compact several years worth of events into a smaller timeframe to maintain a sense of pacing and build-up to the proceedings. Story of the Dragon does just that, and compounds that by completely ignoring the character of Linda Lee, whom Lee would’ve already been married to (or at least engaged to) by 1964. That might have had a little bit to do with the fact that some Chinese people never accepted that the greatest martial arts star of all time was married to a gwailo girl.

And while it’s common for a character in a biopic to be a composite of several real-life personages, Story of the Dragon goes in the opposite direction by splitting the personage Wong Jack-Man into two characters. Wong Jack-Man was an expert at the arts of hsing-I and Northern Shaolin kung fu, who was called in by the local Chinese teachers to fight Bruce Lee when the latter refused to stop teaching kung fu to non-Chinese people. Accounts of the fight vary depending on who you’re talking to, but it’s generally accepted that this bout was a huge influence on Lee’s decision to develop jeet kune do. In this film, it’s Carter Wong’s charater who disagrees with Lee’s teaching kung fu to anyone, regardless of race. On the same token, it’s Hwang Jang Lee’s character who ultimately pushes Lee to develop his new style.

On the subject of fights and duels, the action here is helmed by Huang Fei-Lung, a Taiwanese choreographer who had almost two dozen credits to his name throughout the seventies. He worked with a lot of the well-known actors of the day, usually on their middle-of-the-road films. His collaborations include Jimmy Wang Yu (in Wang Yu, King of Boxers); Roc Tien Peng (The Champion of the Boxers); Dorian Tan Tao-Liang (Shaolin Deadly Kicks); Carter Wong (The 18 Bronzemen); and Don Wong Tao (Eunuch of the Western Palace). For the most part, Huang’s work could be characterized as being “solid” and “competent,” although for this film, Huang reaches the heights of “quite good.”

The action mainly consists of Ho Tsung-Tao beating up endless Caucasian karate thugs with his wing chun[2] skills. Only in the last fights does Ho really get into the whole Bruce imitation thing, complete with shuffling feet, nose rubbing, and loud caterwalling. This is one of Ho’s better fight movies, certainly surpassing his earlier work in New Game of Death and Bruce Lee: A Dragon Story. As wing chun was one of Ho’s main styles, he’s certainly at home with the choreography and acquits himself well to everything Huang Fei-Lung has him perform. Bruce Li can’t help but look goofy when he unleashes the Brucesploitation skills at the end, but the truth is, Bruce Lee’s onscreen style does sound silly when you think about it. The real Bruce simply overcame it by his charisma, physical prowess, and channel of pure emotion into his moves. As a good a fighter as Ho Tsung-Tao is, he lacks that same natural charisma and emotion and thus can’t sell the totality of his impression.

Matching Ho Tsung-Tao in the fighting department is Carter Wong, who gets three four fight scenes over the course of the film, including one against Legendary Super Kicker Hwang Jang Lee. Despite being a champion kickboxer, Wong spent the latter half of the 1970s using hung gar in his movies, which he does here. But playing a traditionalist master here, using a classical Southern style makes sense. Surpassing both actors is Hwang Jang Lee, who shows up in a goofy wig, biker gloves and a cape…a cape!!! Hwang had just achieved stardom that same year after playing the villain Silver Fox in Secret Rivals, and further cemented his status as one of the great movie villains here. He kicks like a mad man, although Huang Fei-Lung didn’t see the full potential in his bootwork, or didn’t want him to completely show up the star. As a result, some of Hwang’s most famous aerial kicks aren’t on display here.

A lot of fans point this out as being one of the better Brucesploitation films, but simultaneously one of the most hysterical. A lot of that has to do with the dubbing, although even then you can tell that the surplus of maniacal laughter and scoffing from the (mostly) Caucasian villains showed up in the original Chinese version. And speaking of Caucasians, the white people the filmmakers found for this are some of the ugliest people on record—I understand that most of them were hired on account of the filmmakers picking up everybody they could find, but man! And what’s the deal with the goofy perm wigs the characters wear? Was that long 70s hair not enough for the director? I’m pretty sure the real Ruby Chow would have had an aneurism had she saw herself portrayed as a portly woman who’d allow anybody and everybody to mistreat her employees in the name of “not causing any trouble.” Oh, and watching Wei Ping-Ao get his ass handed to him by an eight-year-old girl? Comedy gold!

Oh, and one more thing: if this is set in 1964, two years before Bruce Lee played Kato on “The Green Hornet”,  how does Bob Lee have a Bruce Lee poster on his wall?

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[1] - The Hong Kong Database states that Bruce Li is, in fact, playing Bruce Lee. We also note that at there’s one scene in the dubbed version in which a character flat-out calls him “Bruce.”

[2] - Speaking of Wing Chun, there’s a brief Ip Man cameo in which Lee’s now-legendary teacher is played by Lo Man-Kam, Ip’s real-life nephew.

Ming Patriots (1976)

Ming Patriots (1976)
aka: Revenge of the Patriots
Chinese Title: 中原鏢局
Translation: Central Plains Escort

Starring: Jimmy Ho Chung-Tao (Bruce Li), Chia Ling (Judy Lee), Chang Yi, Carter Wong, Michael Chan Wai-Man, Cheung Kam, Lung Fong, Gam Tiu, Joh Yim-Yung
Director: Ulysses Au
Action Directors: Lau Kar-Leung, Lau Kar-Wing

Following the passing of Lau Kar-Leung, I've decided to do a two-part review session, tackling two of his most obscure 70s films, a pair of mercenary jobs he did in Taiwan between '76 and '77. To be honest, he worked on at least three independent films as action director during that period, but one of them is so famous today that there's nothing new I could possibly add to the dozens of reviews floating around on the internet. That film, my friends, is none other than Master of the Flying Guillotine. But since that film gets enough attention as it is, I thought I'd look into two movies he did with prolific kung fu director Ulysses Au.

Ming Patriots is a fairly standard entry in the Ming Patriot (natch) vs. Manchu dogs sub-genre, which had already gotten overstuffed with entries by 1976, despite having really taken off only two years earlier. The movie opens with the Qing Prince (Chang Yi of The Victim) ordering his men to seal off the city so that his forces can capture the last living Ming Princess (Cheung Kam, an adorable actress who showed up in The Snake Woman's Marriage), her father's will, and the crown jewels. The princess is in the custody of her teacher, Wu (Ma Chi), and a loyal general (Big Trouble in Little China's Carter Wong). The three try to escape via disguising themselves as peasants, but the Princess doesn't disguise herself thoroughly enough and the whole ruse is ruined. Cue a big kung fu fight. Exit the General.

Enter Ti Lung (the name of the character, not the actor, who'll be played by Jimmy Ho Chung-Tao, better known by B-movie fans as Bruce Li), a retired escort. Wu and the Princess show up at his house and ask him to accompany them to the west. He's initially reluctant, but decides to go when he remembers that Wu and his late father were close friends. Ti Lung and his partner (Lung Fong of The Rebellious Reign) escort the two, but are quickly cornered by the Qing soldiers. A fight breaks out (of course) and our heroes escape.

Ti Lung figures that the Qing forces are too much for just two men to handle and he's right; Partner Boy is sort of a martial pushover and Ti Lung is bereft of the mad fighting skills that come with being played by a Bruce Lee imitator. Ti decides to to enlist the help of his sister (Judy Lee, one of the original kung fu divas), who's working at a cook at an inn. Unfortunately, the inn is being run by an old romantic and professional rival of Ti Lung's (Michael Chan Wai-Man, a real-life Triad who used to smoke weed with Bruce Lee back in the day). Rival Dude initially thinks that Ti Lung is there to hit on his wife, but quickly figures out that he's carrying some especially valuable cargo. His wife (Joh Yim-Yung, who showed up in films like The Beggar and the Pretty Prostitute) despite having loved Ti Lung at some point, likes the idea of getting rich quick and has no moral objections to joining forces with the Qing in exchange for the jewels. Cue fight scene at the inn. Exit Teacher Wu, who gets beaten to death during the scuffle.

Since both the will and the jewels are of the utmost of value to our heroes, they decide that they need to protect them somehow. In a scene that would make Ruggero Deodato proud, the heroes buy a pig, kill it, gut it (onscreen), and stuff it with the jewels. They then float it downstream and resolve to pick it up at another point along the way. When the bad guys, including Rival and his wife, capture our heroes, the latter simply tell them that they're waiting for their contact, a fellow named Porky. My sides hurt. Anyways, there are several more fights, a few more deaths, and a final showdown between the good guys and the Prince, who's so powerful that four people need to gang up on him in order to kill him.

I'm going to guess that Lau Kar-Leung was hired to direct the action and not much else. That would technically make him the film's choreographer, as opposed to action director. Choreographers simply arrange the fights. Action directors play a more integral role in deciding what direction the film will go in, working closely with the real director and supplying ideas on how to do certain scenes. None of Lau's ideas and cinematic martial philosophies show up in this movie. There is no deconstruction different kung fu styles or meditations on the strengths and weaknesses of each. There's no illuminating moments in which the actors come to the conclusion that killing isn't the ultimate goal of fighting. There's no character development in the form the characters learning to adapt their fighting styles in order to overcome an external obstacle. It's just people killing the Manchus for 90 minutes.

Of course, there's nothing wrong with that in and of itself. The problem is that there's nothing to show that Lau Kar-Leung really worked on the choreography. While made a year before Lau would settle into his groove of making a genre masterpiece every two movies, he had made Challenge of the Masters and Master of the Flying Guillotine that same year and those had superior fight scenes, even if the former wasn't that great as a whole. The weapons fights are rather standard and the styles on display aren't all that impressive, save some brief hung gar from Carter Wong and Chang Yi's mantis style, which he has done better in other films. Judy Lee looks great, but she was more impressive in films like Iron Swallow and The Crane Fighters. In fact, Judy's energetic fighting and bad-ass persona are what make the movie watchable during most of its running time. Nonetheless, the fighting here is nothing that the likes of Taiwanese regulars like Chan Siu-Pang or Chan Muk-Chuen could pull off.

What's really strange is just how much of a loss Lau Kar-Leung and his brother, Kar-Wing, are at dealing with Ho Chung-Tao/Bruce Li. Jimmy Ho had lots of training in the wing chun style, plus a few others so that he could kick decently. However, the cheap films he showed up in often had subpar fight choreography and failed to show off his skills adequately. You'd think that Lau Kar-Leung, a master of Southern styles, could milk Ho's skills for all they were worth and come out with something impressive. Unfortunately, that's not the case and Ho's fighting is the most bland on display in the film. He uses no definitive styles and doesn't show off any impressive moves. Viewers should check out Dynamo and the kung fu-slasher film The Black Dragon Strikes Again for better showcases from Jimmy Ho.

The only moments of creativity in the action come in the form of a drunken master, two years before Jackie Chan and the Yuens made those characters famous; and the fact that the villain is a snuff addict, which the heroes end up using to their advantage during the final fight. Everything else is pretty paint-by-numbers and when all is said and done, Ming Patriots is one of the least impressive films on Lau Kar-Leung's résumé, especially by the standards of 1976.

Hong Kong Superman (1975)

Hong Kong Superman (1975)
aka Bruce, Hong Kong Master ; Hong Kong Strongman
Chinese Title: 香港超人大破摧花黨
Translation: Hong Kong Superhuman Destruction Flower Party

 

Starring: Bruce Leung Siu-Lung, Sylvia Chang Ai-Chia, Stanley Fung Sui-Fan, Dean Shek Tin, Carter Huang Chia-Ta, Gam Chuen, Ou-Yang Sha-Fei, Helen Poon Bing-Seung, Sammo Hung Kam-Bo, Bolo Yeung
Director: Ting Shan-Hsi
Action Director: Bruce Leung Siu-Lung

 

I caught this obsure film on Youtube, being dubbed by one Russian guy talking over the English dub. Thankfully, he was always a second off, so I was able to get most of the dialog and know what was going on the whole film. This basically a kung fu version of Death Wish. Hong Kong, 1975: The economy is bad and lots of people are out of work. That has turned Hong Kong into cesspool of muggings and sexual assault, by young men who have nothing better to do, or by drug addicts needing money to buy drugs. Bruce Liang plays the top student at his martial arts school (whose instructor is played by Carter Wong in a brief cameo), who is hired to be the chauffeur and bodyguard of a famous politician, who simultaneously helps the poor and tries to bring back the death penalty. Both men suffer tragedies in their lives when the politician's wife is raped and little son is violently beaten by drunken revelers on Christmas Eve. Then, Bruce's future brother-in-law (Dean Shek) and his wife are assaulted. The wife is kidnapped, repeatedly raped and eventually dies. Dean Shek goes crazy and tries to go all Paul Kersey on the culprits, but is arrested for unlawful possession of a firearm. Bruce reaches his breaking point and decides to take out the trash, kung fu style. Or to quote Cobra: "Crime is the disease, and Bruce Liang is the cure."

While the early scenes of muggers running rampant around Hong Kong have the "kung fu fodder" feel to them, the film becomes surprisingly somber in the second half. The first rape sequence, while not explicit, is extremely suspenseful because it feels like Bruce's employer's wife will successfully get away from the hooligans at some point. And even when they catch up to her, Bruce is already on his way to help out. So you keep on rooting for her to hold out for a few more seconds until Liang can dish out the kung fu goodness. He does, but by then, it's too late. The second rape sequence is less suspenseful and just flat-out disturbing, because you know that there's nothing the woman or her husband can do to stop it. Watching Dean Shek lose his marbles and then get arrested and threatened with 10 years in prison for trying to right the wrong committed against him is even more nerve-racking. By then, you want to see those rapists DIE!

The last 25 minutes or so is just pure action. Bruce Liangs fights his way from one band of hooligans, thugs, ruffians and hoodlums to the next. As a calling card, he leaves an Ultraman toy in the mouth of one of his targets, thus gaining the nickname "Superman" by the media. The fights aren't anything we haven't seen from Bruce Liang in other films: just a barrage of spin kicks, roundhouse kicks, reverse punches and machine gun punches. Sometimes we even get a jumping hook kick. He even does a Van Damme spinning jump kick in one fight.  There's no doubt that the man knew his bootwork, although people wanting less serious fare could get much of the same thing somewhere else. The climax has him finally facing off with the rapists, who are part of a gang of drug dealers led by: Bolo Yeung and Sammo Hung. If you want to see Sammo Hung as a slimy villain pulling the shirt off of a woman strung out on heroin, this is the film for you!

It's not a bad film and if you like Bruce Liang's fighting, you'll enjoy his work here. But there are other, less disturbing films to get a dose of his brilliant bootwork out there.

Hap Ki Do (1972)

Hap Ki Do (1972)
Aka: Lady Kung Fu; Hapkido
Chinese Title: 合氣道
Translation: Aikido[1]

 

Starring: Angela Mao Ying, Sammo Hung Kam-Bo, Carter Wong, Pai Ying, Whang In-Shik, Ji Han-Jae, Yamane Teruo, Chin Ti, Nancy Sit Ka-Yin, Wei Ping-Ao, Sun Lan, Lee Ka-Ting, Bruce Leung Siu-Lung, Yeung Wai, Hsu Hsia
Director: Huang Feng
Action Director: Sammo Hung

There was a four-month difference in between the release of Lady Whirlwind and Hap Ki Do in Hong Kong theaters. What is particularly fascinating is just how much fight choreographer Sammo Hung had grown in that period. Perhaps he finished his hapkido training alongside Angela Mao and was just more prepared for a fighting point of view. Perhaps he had sat down at some private theater at Golden Harvest and watched Fist of Fury on repeat until something just clicked. Whatever the case, his work on Hap Ki Do represented some of the best fight action committed to screen up to that point.

The movie opens in 1934 with three Chinese patriots in Korea learning martial arts…hapkido to be specific. They are Yu Ying (Angela Mao Ying); Kao Chung (Carter Wong, in his first screen role); and Fan Wei (Sammo Hung, in his first role as a leading protagonist). The three beat up some Japanese miscreants in the first scene. Unfortunately, as Korea is Japanese territory at that point, such an act of defiance will not be taken lightly by the authorities. Their teacher (Ji Han-Jae of Fist of Unicorn and Game of Death) gives them their black belts and tells them to go back to China and spread knowledge of the art to others. He also urges them to exercise patience with the Japanese, both for their sakes and for the art.

Some time later, the three have set up a school somewhere in China. They are urged to visit the local kung fu schools and befriend the local masters. Unfortunately, one of the local schools is the Black Bear Judo School, run by the Japanese master Toyoda (Teruo Yamane, of Hanzo the Razor: Who’s Got the Gold? and Zatoichi’s Conspiracy). Before Yu Ying and her colleagues can pay their respects to the Black Bear School, Fan Wei makes the (righteous) mistake of beating up some their students (including a young Leung Siu-Lung) after they try to molest a girl.

This starts an unending cycle of violence between the two schools. While Yu Ying tries to keep her cool, Kao Chung heads over to the Black Bear school to seek peace. Meanwhile, Fan Wei picks another fight with the Black Bear bullies in the market, which ends with two of them dead (including a young Lam Ching-Ying).  The Black Bear students retaliate by attacking and nearly crippling Kao Chung, while pressuring Yu Ying to turn in Fan Wei, who has now gone into hiding. When the Black Bear school discovers the whereabouts of Fan Wei, they send in their top instructor (Pai Ying, of Lady Whirlwind and The Angry River) to deal with him, whom Fan Wei is ill-equipped to fight. Once Yu Ying stumbles across her friend’s body, she decides that “patience” is no longer a virtue and takes the fight into her own hands.

Most viewers will notice that despite being an Angela Mao vehicle first and foremost, she does not get to fight a lot in the movie. After the short opening fight and a hapkido demonstration in the following scene, she drifts into the background as Sammo Hung’s impulsive Fan Wei takes center stage. It is only when the Black Bear School results to outright murder that Angela Mao steps in, which is nearly an hour into the movie. Nonetheless, there are a number of great fights up until then, including several great showcases for Sammo Hung and Carter Wong.

Carter Wong makes his acting debut in this movie. He would show up in several other Golden Harvest productions, including the Angela Mao films When Tae Kwon Do Strikes and The Tournament, before heading over to Taiwan to make movies there. Carter Wong trained in several martial arts, including karate, muay thai, Shaolin kung fu, and Wudan Qigong. He was the first karate instructor to open a studio in the Portuguese territory of Macau and had a successful career as a professional muay thai fighter as well. He even had stints as both a karate instructor for the Hong Kong Police and a muay thai instructor for the US Marine Corps.

Wong is given a chance to shine in his own Dojo Fight™ against the Black Bear School. Wong had also studied a bit of hapkido, which he incorporated along with the other fighting forms he studied into his own kung fu style. Wong tended to look better in fights like these rather than the technique-based “shapes” fights that became popular once the Shaw Brothers started their “Shaolin Cycle.” But that also may have a bit to do with the fact that Taiwanese choreographers were generally not as good as their Hong Kong counterparts and tended to have even tighter shooting schedules as well. Nonetheless, Carter Wong’s big fight is one of the best moments of his film career.

Most viewers will pick up this movie because of Angela Mao and will come away satisfied with her fights that take up the entire third act of the movie. She starts off with a dust-up against a katana-wielding Korean turncoat of the Black Bear school, whom she ultimately disarms and defeats wielding an umbrella—19 years before Once Upon a Time in China made umbrella fights cool again. She also gets her own Dojo Fight™, where she destroys everyone who opposes her with her throws, takedowns and head kicks, including the assistant instructor, played by Kickboxer’s Lee Ka-Ting. Later on, she savagely kills several of the Black Bear students as they wait at her school to ambush her.

The big climax is broken into four parts. Angela Mao is joined at one point by her school’s top student, played by real-life hapkido master Whang In-Sik. Whang was hired by Bruce Lee to be one of the karate villains in Way of the Dragon, but had little chance to strut his stuff. Not here. His kicking is one of the film’s highlights as he gets his own Dojo Fight™ and demonstrates why Jackie Chan would want to hire him years later for both The Young Master and Dragon Lord. After Whang mops the floor with the lesser fighters, Angela Mao takes on Pai Ying in retribution for her friends’ murders. Finally, Whang In-Sik and Angela Mao take turns fighting main baddie Teruo Yamana, who challenges them with his judo skills, and then with his kenjutsu abilities. Throughout all of this, you can see just how far Sammo had come in how he choreographs the fights against multiple opponents, how crisp his players’ moves are—watch how Angela’s kicks have improved in both height and power—and just how intense the fighting is compared to the fun, if crude, Lady Whirlwind.

Most viewers will ignore that the film is largely a reworking of Fist of Fury, right down to Paul Wei Ping-Ao’s role as the Black Bear School secretary. They will ignore that Angela is almost a background character throughout the second act. They will even ignore the standard anti-Japanese sentiment that defined so many Chinese kung fu movies of that period. Instead, they will remember this film for Angela’s legendary beatdowns and some of the best fight choreography of the early 1970s…and they will be right for it.

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[1] - The characters read in Mandarin as “He Qi Dao”. We may assume then that the Chinese term for the Korean martial art hapkido and the Japanese martial art aikido are one and the same.