Broken Oath, Lady Whirlwind and When Taekwondo Strikes - opinions required

[Grimmjow]

Ni Hao

I have been meaning to see these 3 titles for years, ever since they appeared on 'The Best of Martial Arts' documentary yet I've never tracked them down and since forgotten about them, but browsing Yes Asia.com recently I see they've been released on Dvd by Joy Sales at a decent price. I'm consider ordering them but would like to hear from people who have seen them if they're any good or not, classics or just ok? Thoughts, opinions and reviews much appreciated.

Thanks

[TibetanWhiteCrane]

Three bonafide Golden Harvest classics. Get them now.

Here are my reviews:

LADY WHIRLWIND

Classic Golden Harvest basher, sporting a great cast, cool characters, and groundbreaking choreo by Sammo. In my mind, an underrated gem from the early days of Golden Harvest. It has everything a good kung fu movie needs: a decent story, righteous heroes, despicable villains, and good action. The story might be typical Chinese melodrama, but there are some twists and turns to keep it involving. And what also makes it worthwhile is the great characters. The ever lovely Angela Mao tears up the screen with her piercing eyes and cool demeanor as the titular Lady Whirlwind. Sultry as ever, she beats the crapola out of any man that steps to her and shows these sorry bastards who's boss. The great Chang Yi, who spent a good deal of his later career playing white-haired villains, is great as the male protagonist here. He could and should have played more good guys. He's a good emotive actor, but admittedly, his rugged features lend themselves more to bad guy parts. Throw in the likes of Pai Ying, Chin Yuet Sang, and Sammo himself as the villains and you have yourself a well rounded cast more than capable of delivering the goods in the action department. And speaking of the action, it might be in the early 70's basher style, swingy arms and all, but if you look closer, you will see more refined movements, techniques and other intricacies in terms of choreography and editing that differs significantly from what else was coming out at this time. Look at Angie's first casino fight, and Chang Yi's first fight, when he and his Tai Chi master are attacked. Sammo and the gang at GH were changing HK action choreo forever here. Most people were just too busy marveling at Bruce Lee to notice. Classic Golden Harvest stuff. And especially interesting for those who like to study the progression of HK fight choreo. Well recommended.

WHEN TAEKWONDO STRIKES

I think this movie is a good example of how far ahead of the pack Golden Harvest was, in terms of action choreography. When everyone else was still doing swingy arm basher style, Sammo and the guys at GH were taking it to the next level with every movie they made. You can actually see how they upped the ante, choreo-wise, from LADY WHIRLWIND '71 to HAPKIDO '72, to this film in '73. There is a rapid and noticeable progression there, and you can probably chalk a fair amount of that up to Sammo. The man's contribution should not be underestimated. The cast is an eclectic bunch. Angela Mao always deliver the goods. I love that girl, from her warm smile to her icy stare, and everything in between. Carter Wong looks about as good as he did in HAPKIDO, which isn't bad at all. Jhoon Ree might not be much of an actor, but with those skills, who cares? The one who really threw me for a loop upon first viewing though was Anne Winston. For a western girl in 1973, she sure could move and was, as far as I could tell, only doubled for a few flips, falls and tricky moves--the rest was her. Never heard of her before or since. But she really impressed me. The bad guy roster is nothing to scoff at either. Tons of familiar faces, like Chin Yuet Sang, Alan Chui, Gam Kei Chu, and so on. Sammo is once again a vile Japanese henchman, which is always fun. But the real bastards are Kenji Kazama and Whang In Sik: these guys are just mean, and when everybody clashes in the final fight, you wouldn't think you were watching a movie from 1973. The choreo and techniques are super tight, and way above the rest of the herd. All of this awesome action is brilliantly framed by director Huang Feng, who creates great atmospheric tension, and plays around with some really interesting Leone and Kurosawa-like cinematography here. It all flows well together, spawning a true Golden Harvest classic. Definitely a must-have in my book.

BROKEN OATH

This Golden Harvest classic may be nothing more than a blatant rip off of Lady Snowblood, as other reviewers have pointed out. But any movie with ,my childhood crush, Angela Mao killing people by throwing scorpions at them is excused in my book. For a 1977 film, the fights are extremely tight, and there are plenty of them, one better than the next. Yuen Wo Ping and Tyrone Hsu were on hand for the choreo here, so that should speak for itself. Angela is hot, cool and vicious, all at once. And she looks awesome when kicking ass in the name of vengeance. Too bad bad that, whenever she comes on screen, my knees turn to jelly, I zone out, and the song "Angie" by the Rolling Stones starts playing in my head--but enough about me, and my impure thoughts. Bruce Leung once again proves that he is the most underrated kicker in kung fu movie history. Sammo has a short stint as a bearded villain, wielding the coolest weapon since the flying guillotine. Han Ying Chieh spits fire. And badass supremo, Chan Wai Man, is fierce as the main villain, sporting a do that is the envy of troll dolls everywhere. I mean, what more do you need? This is one of those movies that just keeps throwing cool stuff at you. And there is not much left to be desired by the end credits. This is classic stuff, people--don't sleep on it.

Hope this helps...

[HAZ]

Order from DDDhouse.com they're even cheaper!

[JAMAL]

HERE ARE MY SPEACIAL PROJECTS :

BROKEN OATH

http://jamalkungfuprojects.blogspot.com/search?q=broken+oath

WHEN TAEKWONDO STRIKES

http://jamalkungfuprojects.blogspot.com/2010/05/when-teakwondo-strikes.html

LADY WHIRLWIND

http://jamalkungfuprojects.blogspot.com/2009/10/lady-whirlwind-remastered-letterbox.html

JAMAL

[NinjaFearlessly]

What is quality like on U.S. DVD release of 'Broken Oath' English dubbed?

Read on HK Flix has annoying buzz on soundtrack, that bad?

I know DDD House do Subtitled version.

Jamal, you sell these DVD's or just projects? I'd buy them.

[KyFi]

Ni Hao

I have been meaning to see these 3 titles for years, ever since they appeared on 'The Best of Martial Arts' documentary yet I've never tracked them down and since forgotten about them, but browsing Yes Asia.com recently I see they've been released on Dvd by Joy Sales at a decent price. I'm consider ordering them but would like to hear from people who have seen them if they're any good or not, classics or just ok? Thoughts, opinions and reviews much appreciated.

Thanks

Others have commented on how great these three movies are, which I agree with. Excellent summaries by Tibetan White Crane! (and I completely agree about Anne Winton---don't know why she never did any more HK movies, as she looked awesome in that one). As far as the Joy Sales dvds, all three are anamorphic widescreen, original soundtrack. They're not remastered, so they don't look like IVL Shaws, but they're all pretty decent prints. I seem to recall Broken Oath looking the best of the bunch, with Lady Whirwind and When TKD Strikes looking pretty good---maybe a bit too dark during the night scenes, but not terrible prints by any means. Well worth the $6 price!

[JAMAL]

What is quality like on U.S. DVD release of 'Broken Oath' English dubbed?

Read on HK Flix has annoying buzz on soundtrack, that bad?

I know DDD House do Subtitled version.

Jamal, you sell these DVD's or just projects? I'd buy them.

I SALE ALL THE PROJECTS MY FRIEND ON MY BLOG,CAUSE I DO ALL THIS STUFF FOR ALL THE FANS,SO IF ANYBODY NEED ANYTHING PLEASE SEND ME A E-MAIL AT : jamal_tairov@yahoo.de

CHEERS

[David Rees]

The US version of Broken Oath is a bootleg, Avoid. Still amazes me how HK Flix are allowed to sell them.

This is the best film in my opinion of the 3.

Lady Whirlwind is good, if you like the swingy arm type of choreography.

When Taekwondo Strikes has its fans but i thought it was awful, bad acting and the action was sub par, but try it you might have a totally opposite opinion and the HK discs are cheap.

[wizard12220]

Just recently watched Lady Whirlwind, Broken Oath and The Himalayans. I think the action choreographies were good, but they have habits to put some unnecessary sex scenes in those GH movies from that era.

[The Dragon]

All three, to represent what GH studios' contributions meant to the growth of the genre'.

[Guest WuxiaFan]

These are asolutely 3 of Angela Mao's BEST films and MUST HAVES! LADY WHIRLWIND has one of my all time favorite Angela/Sammo fights, where Sammo takes her on at their first meeting at a gambling joint, get his ass kicked (literally) out of the place, but that wasn't enough. He waits for Angela outside of the restaurant and wants to take her on AGAIN! She then proceeds to take him apart AGAIN! It's just awesome and classic Angela Mao!

Highly recommend the Joy Sales/Fortune Star discs. IMO, they are the best versions you'll find on DVD. As HAZ pointed out, get them from DDDHouse.com:

LADY WHIRLWIND

http://www.dddhouse.com/v3/product_details.php?ProductID=5995

BROKEN OATH

http://www.dddhouse.com/v3/product_details.php?ProductID=5652

WHEN TAEKWONDO STRIKES

http://www.dddhouse.com/v3/product_details.php?ProductID=5996