Hapkido (1972)
(AKA: "Lady Kung Fu")
Director: Feng Huang
Cast:
Plot: Three Chinese martial arts students, Big Brother (Carter Wong), Fan Wei (Sammo Hung) and Yu Ying (Angela Mao), are studying the art of Hapkido in Korea during the early 1930’s. Japan has great power over Korea and treats its citizens with complete disrespect. After Fan Wei gets into a fight with some Japanese the three are told by their teacher (Ji Han Jae) that they must leave Korea and go back to China and start a Hapkido school there. He advises them to be respectful of other schools and to teach the art well in readiness to fight back against the Japanese. When they get back to China they find a strong Japanese influence has developed there too while they had been away, and all of their efforts to be friendly and polite are accepted by everyone except the leader (Teruo Yamane) of the Japanese Black Bear School. When hot headed Fan Wei reacts against a dreadful case of bullying at the market place the three Hapkido students find they must not only fight to keep their school open, but they must fight for their lives.
Review: This film falls firmly into a sub genre that existed in Hong Kong martial arts films during the early seventies. The honourable Chinese martial arts school versus the evil Japanese martial arts school was a common plot that was frequently used during this period. The same year that this was released we had what is probably the most famous film of this genre when Bruce Lee broke all box office records with “Fist Of Fury”. In fact, so much attention was payed to Bruce Lee's classic that ”Hapkido” was largely overlooked at the time, but in my opinion this stands as one of the best films of this type, and it gives Bruce Lee’s classic a run for its money on the pure strength of the entertainment value of the film as a whole.
Angela Mao made a series of films during this period that not only displayed some incredible martial arts skills, but also showed she could play some emotional depth. This is one of her more action packed roles, and unlike many female kung fu stars from the early seventies who fought with flowing feminine movements, Angela always looked convincing, even when going up against a group of men like she does more than once in this film. Carter Wong made his screen debut here. Carter Wong was never one of the stronger actors in these films and he spends most of this one with the same emotionless stone faced expression on his face, but when it came to screen fighting it was all together another story. Always reliable when it came to physical movement he is impressive here getting plenty of opportunities to show his abilities. Sammo Hung, looking so young here, gets the most meaty role as the hot headed Fan Wei. Already an experienced fighter in front of the camera due to working as an action director, fight choreographer and stunt man for a few years, here he gets a chance to not only prove himself as a quality screen fighter but he also gets to show his experience has already given him a high level of acting ability. Sammo was also responsible for the fight choreography on this film, though I don’t think his name actually appears in the films credits for doing so.
There is a strong support cast to help the story along. Hapkido expert Whang In-sik, who would later fight Jackie Chan in “The Young Master” plays one of the top Hapkido students who comes to the help fight the Japanese in the finale. Whang In-sik demonstrates some great kicking techniques and is brilliantly agile in his screen fights. Bruce Leung is impressive too as the main fighting Japanese student, with Paul Wei Ping Ao playing an almost typecast role as the sneaky advisor to the Japanese school. Similar in fact to the one he played in “Fist Of Fury” the same year. Teruo Yamane is the leader of the Black Bear School and he plays him with just the right amount of detestability to make him a human villain and not just a Japanese monster. He does get to show some sword skills at the end of the film during the violent finale fight where he faces up against Whang In-sik and later Angela Mao, but most of his acrobatic reactions and flips were doubled by Sammo Hung. The highlight for me though has to be the rare appearance of Ji Han Jae in a film. (His other most famous role was in Bruce Lee’s “Game Of Death”.) Generally regarded as a founder member of the Korean martial art we get a wonderful display of Hapkido from him during the first fifteen minutes that is simply breathtaking as he demonstrates the art in its purest form with subtle arm movements to deflect his opponents force and some great examples of joint manipulation to subdue his attackers. There are even some wonderful jump kicks that are a real pleasure to watch and I would almost say it is worth seeing the film just for him, but there is so much more on offer.
Famously this film also features Jackie Chan as a stunt man and support player, and he appears at several times throughout the film as different characters. Look even closer and you will also see Yuen Biao and Yuen Wah. Lam Ching Ying and Billy Chan also appear in the background during the market place sequence where Sammo’s character Fan Wei first loses his temper with the Japanese bullies. I think I also spotted Corey Yuen as one of the Japanese students during the big finale.
Some of the fights do get a bit brutal and I would have to say that some may find the final fifteen minutes a bit violent and bloody, but for me the story warranted the direction the film goes in at the end, and the quality of the action actually seems to improve as the film progresses. For Sammo fans this is one of his best early roles where he gets quite a lot of screen time. An almost forgotten classic from the early seventies, this is recommended viewing. I read a review of this once that stated that this film simply rocks. I have to agree with that sentiment and say that this is a must see for anyone who wants to remember how good the seventies era was for quality kung fu action films.
Rating: 4.5/5
Director: Feng Huang
Cast:
Plot: Three Chinese martial arts students, Big Brother (Carter Wong), Fan Wei (Sammo Hung) and Yu Ying (Angela Mao), are studying the art of Hapkido in Korea during the early 1930’s. Japan has great power over Korea and treats its citizens with complete disrespect. After Fan Wei gets into a fight with some Japanese the three are told by their teacher (Ji Han Jae) that they must leave Korea and go back to China and start a Hapkido school there. He advises them to be respectful of other schools and to teach the art well in readiness to fight back against the Japanese. When they get back to China they find a strong Japanese influence has developed there too while they had been away, and all of their efforts to be friendly and polite are accepted by everyone except the leader (Teruo Yamane) of the Japanese Black Bear School. When hot headed Fan Wei reacts against a dreadful case of bullying at the market place the three Hapkido students find they must not only fight to keep their school open, but they must fight for their lives.
Review: This film falls firmly into a sub genre that existed in Hong Kong martial arts films during the early seventies. The honourable Chinese martial arts school versus the evil Japanese martial arts school was a common plot that was frequently used during this period. The same year that this was released we had what is probably the most famous film of this genre when Bruce Lee broke all box office records with “Fist Of Fury”. In fact, so much attention was payed to Bruce Lee's classic that ”Hapkido” was largely overlooked at the time, but in my opinion this stands as one of the best films of this type, and it gives Bruce Lee’s classic a run for its money on the pure strength of the entertainment value of the film as a whole.
Angela Mao made a series of films during this period that not only displayed some incredible martial arts skills, but also showed she could play some emotional depth. This is one of her more action packed roles, and unlike many female kung fu stars from the early seventies who fought with flowing feminine movements, Angela always looked convincing, even when going up against a group of men like she does more than once in this film. Carter Wong made his screen debut here. Carter Wong was never one of the stronger actors in these films and he spends most of this one with the same emotionless stone faced expression on his face, but when it came to screen fighting it was all together another story. Always reliable when it came to physical movement he is impressive here getting plenty of opportunities to show his abilities. Sammo Hung, looking so young here, gets the most meaty role as the hot headed Fan Wei. Already an experienced fighter in front of the camera due to working as an action director, fight choreographer and stunt man for a few years, here he gets a chance to not only prove himself as a quality screen fighter but he also gets to show his experience has already given him a high level of acting ability. Sammo was also responsible for the fight choreography on this film, though I don’t think his name actually appears in the films credits for doing so.
There is a strong support cast to help the story along. Hapkido expert Whang In-sik, who would later fight Jackie Chan in “The Young Master” plays one of the top Hapkido students who comes to the help fight the Japanese in the finale. Whang In-sik demonstrates some great kicking techniques and is brilliantly agile in his screen fights. Bruce Leung is impressive too as the main fighting Japanese student, with Paul Wei Ping Ao playing an almost typecast role as the sneaky advisor to the Japanese school. Similar in fact to the one he played in “Fist Of Fury” the same year. Teruo Yamane is the leader of the Black Bear School and he plays him with just the right amount of detestability to make him a human villain and not just a Japanese monster. He does get to show some sword skills at the end of the film during the violent finale fight where he faces up against Whang In-sik and later Angela Mao, but most of his acrobatic reactions and flips were doubled by Sammo Hung. The highlight for me though has to be the rare appearance of Ji Han Jae in a film. (His other most famous role was in Bruce Lee’s “Game Of Death”.) Generally regarded as a founder member of the Korean martial art we get a wonderful display of Hapkido from him during the first fifteen minutes that is simply breathtaking as he demonstrates the art in its purest form with subtle arm movements to deflect his opponents force and some great examples of joint manipulation to subdue his attackers. There are even some wonderful jump kicks that are a real pleasure to watch and I would almost say it is worth seeing the film just for him, but there is so much more on offer.
Famously this film also features Jackie Chan as a stunt man and support player, and he appears at several times throughout the film as different characters. Look even closer and you will also see Yuen Biao and Yuen Wah. Lam Ching Ying and Billy Chan also appear in the background during the market place sequence where Sammo’s character Fan Wei first loses his temper with the Japanese bullies. I think I also spotted Corey Yuen as one of the Japanese students during the big finale.
Some of the fights do get a bit brutal and I would have to say that some may find the final fifteen minutes a bit violent and bloody, but for me the story warranted the direction the film goes in at the end, and the quality of the action actually seems to improve as the film progresses. For Sammo fans this is one of his best early roles where he gets quite a lot of screen time. An almost forgotten classic from the early seventies, this is recommended viewing. I read a review of this once that stated that this film simply rocks. I have to agree with that sentiment and say that this is a must see for anyone who wants to remember how good the seventies era was for quality kung fu action films.
Rating: 4.5/5
Review by D. M.
Photos by Klara
Photos by Klara
For bigger photos please click on thumbnails
For more pictures visit the Hapkido Photo Album