Lady Whirlwind (1972)

Lady Whirlwind (1972). 1h 28m | R

“Raymond Chowu0026#39;s upstart company sure played it smart with this movie. He used Chang Yi as the male lead. Chang Yi was an established Shaw Brothers actor doing martial arts films since about King Cat in 1967 but was shelved due to new talent such as David Chiang and Ti Lung. Next add Pai Ying for the bad guy. Heu0026#39;s another Shaw Brothers actor who did a fine job as an evil eunuch in the 1971 u0026quot;The Eunuchu0026quot;. Sammo Hung was the martial arts choreographer and with some side burns (quite stylish in 1972 but ridiculous otherwise) he got good screen time as a co-villain. Bruce Lee had just done u0026quot;Fist of Furyu0026quot; so add the theme of evil Japanese to the mix. (Actually the movie still works fine without the subplot, but why not?) With all that foundation, the only risky element was casting Angela Mao as the hot kung fu chick female lead. That was really no risk at all. Angela was fabulous despite the otherwise impression that the entire movie was done in one take. Yes, the whole movie seems to have been made with a budget for the price of the rolls of film with just a few dollars left over to pay the crew. Nevertheless, here I am 40 years later and watching it for the second time and enjoying every minute of it. Certainly recommended for all fans of the genre and my rating here is 7.0”