The Films of Angela Mao Ying

[Jadedragon61]

I am re-watching a bunch of Angela Mao Ying films, and will make a few comments here. Any responses welcome!

"The Tournament" (1974)

Very good movie, once it gets going. It's a bit slow in the beginning, but by 45 min.s in, Angela starts kicking serious ass. The co-star is Carter Wong who does a very nice job in a long series of kick-boxing scenes.

Angela's stand-out scenes are: twice on the plum-blossom poles; fights with gangs; first fight with Sammo is great, second time she kills him; fight with Wang In Sik (who has one of the most ignominious exits every visited on a villain), and her kickboxing scenes.

First tangle with Sammo is best overall: and watch for that slow-mo 360 turning hook kick!

[SMK]

The Tournament, haven't seen this one yet. I will have to check this one out soon. Thanks for the comment on it.

[Jadedragon61]

Every the diligent, if desultory, lunatic, I happened to uncover this valuable Angel- link:

http://www.angelfire.com/az/ying/

If nothing else, reading a page like that makes me feel a little less obsessional about Fu flix - I mean, the guy who wrote that, now he's got a real problem

[Jadedragon61]

Just watched "Dance of Death".

I don't much care for KF comedy (some JC being the exception), but this film was not too bad. I laughed out loud a few times at their stupid antics.

But, to the point, AMY, is great. Shows some of her classical dancing skill (she was trained in Beijing opera), and her couple of serious fights have more of a Long Fist (Chang Quan) quailty than her usual Hapkido.

Last, it's one of those goof roles of her's where she plays a guy... but if you watch close, you see that she is a chick pretending to be a guy (in the film). Vide when she's with the hooker who asks the "young master" to take off his clothes... Funny.

Anyway, good film. About a 7 out of 10.

[SMK]

Can I confess that have not been a particular fan of Angela Mao over the years. This is not because I have seen her films and didn't much care for them, but on the contrary, because I HADN'T seen her films and didn't know how bad ass she was. That all changed after watching Broken Oath. I am now officially a Angela Mao fan, just like so many of you already are out there.

I did remember seeing her with John Liu in the film The Two Great Cavaliers years ago. I do remember liking her performance in that film, but it wasn't enough to make me want to seek out and view the rest of the movies she starred in.

February will be a Mao and Lee viewing extravaganza here at the SC36 headquarters. I vow to watch all that I can on Angela Mao Ying as well as Bruce Lee. It's about time, wouldn't you say?

[Jadedragon61]

[prinnysquad]

Can I confess that have not been a particular fan of Angela Mao over the years. This is not because I have seen her films and didn't much care for them, but on the contrary, because I HADN'T seen her films and didn't know how bad ass she was. That all changed after watching Broken Oath. I am now officially a Angela Mao fan, just like so many of you already are out there.

It's funny that you say that, because something very similar happened to me recently. I'd never really seen her in anything, until I watched Bandits, Prostitutes and Silver. Who was this beauty, with those crazy shoe razor disc things? Ah, it's Angela Mao, who I've heard a lot about. A couple of weeks later I watched Duel With The Devils with Tan Tao Liang, and in a supporting role was Mao again. The fight based around the train, and her kicking skill in other scenes, sealed the deal. One Angela Mao fan reporting for duty.

[Jadedragon61]

Just watched Two Great Cavaliers, a relatively obscure John Liu and Angela flick. Convoluted, but not bad, overall.

Found a review of it, funny.

http://www.weirdwildrealm.com/f-two-great-cavaliers.html

Anyway, worth watching at least once, or picking up if it's very cheap.

[SMK]

Just watched Two Great Cavaliers, a relatively obscure John Liu and Angela flick. Convoluted, but not bad, overall.

Found a review of it, funny.

http://www.weirdwildrealm.com/f-two-great-cavaliers.html

Anyway, worth watching at least once, or picking up if it's very cheap.

Yes, as I stated in a above post, I did enjoy this movie. I haven't seen it in years. I should rewatch it again soon.

[Jadedragon61]

Oh, SMK,! You hardcore glutton for "convolution"!

[dadadove]

A couple of terrific Mao Ying movies to watch are The Fate of Lee Khan and The Invincible Eight. I have not seen the few you mentioned.

[SMK]

A couple of terrific Mao Ying movies to watch are The Fate of Lee Khan and The Invincible Eight. I have not seen the few you mentioned.

I have not yet seen either of these dadadove, thanks for the recommendations.

[Jadedragon61]

Just a pic a found of Angela -

[ShawAngela]

Ok, a big thanks to AgriWuxia who sent me the document he saved with my short thoughts regarding Angela's movies I already watched years ago.

 

For what they are worth, here they are :

8 robbers : the quality print was so awful that I got a
headache and in addition to that, Angela didn't hare the
leading role, since it was her first movie...

The invincible eight : Legendary collection. I don't remember that the quality print was bad. Very good movie, with full of action and a superb music

The angry river : Legendary collection. Good one, but it seems to me that I enjoyed it less than other of her titles.

Hapkido : Legendary collection. Superb movie, with plenty
of action. She is great in it !l

The fate of Lee Khan : superb one. I have the Legendary collection vcd and the HK video French subbed dvd version.

Backalley princess : Legendary collectjon. Well..,Though she paired with Shan Kuan Ling Fung, I didn't find this movie very interesting when I watched it, but it was years ago and maybe I should revisit it...

Enter the dragon : HK video French dubbed/subbed  version, She is superb in it, but her role is toooooo short !! It would have been interesting to see her pairing with
Bruce Lee in several flghts. In France, she was known as the female Bruce Lee and I wonder what it would have been if they had played as leads in the same movie...Just
a dream...

Thunderbolt : Legendary collection. Very good one, but Angela was undersused in it,
When taekwondo strikes ; Legendary collection. Superb one, lot of fights.


Tne opium trail aKa Deadly China doll : BootIeg. I navent watched this one as yet,

The tournament : Legendary collection. Haven't watched it as yet.

Stoner : Legendary collection. Good one, but Angela Mao's scenes are too short for my taste and she never plays together with Georges Lazenby who she is supposed
to support in the story...

Naughty I Naughty ! : Dvdr. No interesting at all. The story only focuses on Nora Miao and his boy friend's story and Angela only has a scene, playing her own role in a good fight, though...

The association : French subbed or dubbed release. Good one, but she is once again underused in this movie, which focuses on the male lead.
Dance of death : Rarescope. Very good one. Angela is excellent in it.

A queen's ransom : Legendary collection, Not very interesting and only a brief appearance of Angela, if I remember well.

The Himalayan : Legendary collection. Very good one,

Revenge of Kung Fu Mao : bootleg with Spanish subtitles difficult to read due to a very bad quality print. A lot of fights in this, with a strong character for Angela.

Moonlight sword and jade lion : I don't remember if have an original or a bootleg and I haven't watched it as yet.

Return of the tiger : download from youtube. Very good one, good pairing of Angela and Bruce Li against Chang Yi.

Duel with the devils : I don't remember if I have an original or a bootleg and I haven't watched it as yet

Duel in the desert : Same comment and I don't even remember if I watched it or not !!

The damned : bootleg. I haven't watched it as yet.

Broken oath: Legendary collection. Superb one, one of her best movies !
The invincible kung fu trio : I think that I must have a download of this one, never watched as yet.

Two great cavaliers : same comment.

Legendary strike : French dubbed release. Superb one. The first Angela's movie I watched before beginning to collect her works and she was superb in it.

The lady constables : FEF version. Very good one, in which she pairs with Chia Ling, who studied opera with her in the same school.

Swift shaolin boxer ; dvdr. I don't remember what was the plot about and I have to revisit it, but it seems that the fights were very good.

Scorching sun, fierce winds, wild fire : French dubbedrelease. Superb one, great fights. I need to rewatch this one !!

Moonlight murderer ; probably a bootleg or a dvdr. Never watched it as yet,
Snake deadly act : bootleg or dvdr. I don't remember to have watched this one, and if so, I don't even remember what was the plot about.

The giant of casino : dvdr. Good one.

Sfunning gambling : dvdr. Good one too, but too many stars in it, so, each of them has only a short role...

New pilgrims to the west : dvdr. Strange movie. It seems to me that Angela has only a short role in it.

Devil dynamite : never watched it as yet.

With edited : same comment.

Mr Vampire : same comment.

I just took a look to her filmography and found Mr Vampire in it  together with a title in Chinese from 1983 that weren't mentioned before...

And I have two Taiwanese series in which she plays too (dvdr, of course...) :

Book and Sword chronicles with Yu Tien Long :    

https://www.shop.huaijiudvd.com/1984-1984SJJS.htm

Invincible God Sword

https://www.shop.huaijiudvd.com/1990-1990SJWD.htm?categoryId=-1

[Killer Meteor]

Does anyone know where I can get a copy of Deadly China Doll?

[DrNgor]

When Tae Kwon Do Strikes (1973) - I actually enjoyed this quite a bit. It takes Angela Mao 25 minutes to show up, but once she does, the woman puts on a 20 minute of head-kicking goodness that ranks with her very best work. The story is run-of-the-mill stuff, with the Japanese occupiers of Korea being the jerk-offs they always are, and it's up to the tae kwon do-kicking resistance, led by Jhoon Rhee, to help fight them off. His team includes Caucasian actress Ann Winton (who outkicks Jhoon) and Carter Wong (who's a little slow, but powerful, much like Kam Kong). Angela Mao shows up as a Chinawoman who's sympathetic to the Koreans' cause. There's a lot of fighting, but Angela sticks out the most. Jhoon was OK, but you'd think he'd put on a better show (which makes it a little disappointing when he asks Angela to interrupt the final fight to let him take over). Huang In-Sik shows up a the end to fight the good guys, but he's performed better in other films. This movie features a moment of female nudity so gratuitous, that you can't help but wonder if director Huang Feng or producer Raymond Chow looked at the final product and complained about the lack of cheesecake in the proceedings.

 

The Tournament (1974) - Another Angela Mao movie that casts her as the daughter of a kung fu school instructor who's a member of the local martial arts association. When a student's sister is kidnapped by the local extortion racket for failing to pay protection money, the master consents to let the student and his son (Carter Wong) go to Thailand to participate in a kickboxing tournament. Both are whooped soundly and cause Chinese kung fu to lose face, resulting in the instructor being ostracized from the kung fu community. So Angela Mao steps up to the plate and seeks to study Muay Thai in order to restore honor to her father's school and Chinese martial arts on the whole. The movie takes about 40 minutes to really get going, there is no central villain, and two subplots involving different sets of criminals are dropped almost as quickly as they are brought up, but the fight action is among the very best of the first half of the 70s. Angela has probably never looked better and the film should be viewed by fight fans just on that basis alone. The showstopper is an 11-minute sequence where she fights Sammo Hung, hapkido master Whang In-Sik, Wilson Tong and several others in rapid succession.

 

A Queen's Ransom (1975) - George Lazenby leads a band of criminals (including Jimmy Wang Yu and Bolo Yeung) to Hong Kong in order to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II on a scheduled visit to the region. The police find out after one of the assassins drunkenly makes cryptic remarks to a bar hostess/prostitute at her house. Meanwhile, a deposed Burmese (or Cambodian, depending on the version you're watching) princess (kung fu queen Angela Mao) is hanging out in the sticks of a Hong Kong while her people, with the help of the local Triads, are smuggling gold and arms out of her country and into HK, presumably for a counter-Coup of sorts. The two story threads eventually meet up, first coincidentally and then in a way I personally didn't see coming. There isn't a whole lof of action here, and when there is, it's not very satisfying. While Lazenby gave a good physical performance in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, watching him beat the snot out of Angela Mao is not my idea of a good time at the movies. In the end, the film is a colossal waste of a time of the talents involved.

 

The Himalayan (1976) - I really like this movie. It runs a long (by genre standards) 110 minutes, but I never felt it dragged. The plot was very well thought-out and the characters were memorable. Moreover, the costumes and photography were both great, too. The most common complaint levied against the movie is that the lack of action from Angela Mao and Dorian Tan Tao-Liang, although it makes up for that by having one of my absolute favorite final fights of the pre-Drunken Master era. Watching those two outkick a couple of dozen lackeys before double-teaming Chen Sing at his most brutal and slimiest never fails to make me smile. Excellent action direction from Han Ying-Chieh and Sammo Hung. Note: there was a DVD out that had the English dub (plus, strangely enough, a Batman vs Predator vs Aliens fan film as an extra). I found it interesting that the dub had excised most of the nudity (there's a brief shot of Angela Wan in a wet t-shirt and another glimpse of her boobies before she gets offed). In the Shout! Factory version, there is A LOT of nudity and sex (all courtesy of Angela Wan, although we do get an...gulp...unobstructed view of Cheng Sing's rear). It was kind of surprising.

 

Proud Horse in the Flying Sand (Taiwan, 1977: Siu Muk) - aka Duel in the Desert - Another one of Angela Mao's lesser films, which has the "intrigue at the inn" feel of another Angela film, The Fate of Lee Khan. There's a small town near the Mongolian border (I assume) that is famous for a big horse race it holds every few years with a 500-tael reward to the winner. Several contenders show up at the local inn, run by an old man and his daughter (Angela Mao). One is Pai Ying; another is a notorious thief (Wang Chung-Shan, who I thought was Hong Gwok-Choi at one point); there's a broke guy (Hsiang Yun-Peng) who gets a loan from an infatuated Angela to buy his horse; plus the fiancée of a Mongolian prince who shows up with her entourage; and the winner of the previous race (Hsieh Han). As it turns out, the different parties have hidden reasons to be there and soon alliances are formed, people are double-crossed, and motives are slowly revealed. Also, Wong Tao shows up in an extended cameo as the head guard for the Mongolian Prince.

There's not a lot of action until the end, and what there is is average at best. Choreographer Pan Chang-Ming worked on Duel With the Devils and Lung Wei Village, lesser films in the filmographies of its stars, Dorian Tan and Polly Shang Kwan, respectively. Pai Ying is not a good screen fighter, so I wonder how he got roped into so many kung fu movies in the 1970s. Don Wong Tao has two brief fights, where he uses Eagle Claw. Angela Mao doesn't fight until the end, using a mixture of the snake style and her usual hapkido kicks. It's not bad, but it's hardly Mao's best moment. I do enjoy her using a more traditional style, though. 

But without the action, what's left is a confusing mystery about too many characters trying to screw each other over.

 

Moonlight Sword and Jade Lion (Taiwan, 1977: Karl Liao) - Generally considered to be one of Angela Mao's lesser films, and with good reason. The action is decent, but not very memorable; the story makes little sense; and the writing leaves a lot to be desired. A kung fu master sends his pupil (Angela Mao) into town to find his brother, who knows the identity of her parents' killer. She spends much of the next 80 minutes going from one school or clan to the next, asking if they've seen Liu Chang (the brother), and occasionally getting into a fight. There's a mysterious martial artist (Don Wong Tao) also in town looking for someone. There are a few double crosses, surprise reveals, and double agents working for the good guys (or bad guys), but it's all to nought. We don't learn the learn the reason for Angela wanting to find Liu Chang until the final reel. We never learn why Don Wong Tao is even involved in the intrigue. There are several parties working for the good guys whose identities and motivations we never learn. It's a 1000-age wuxia novel condensed into 84 minutes, but with everybody's backstory shorn off.

The action, choreographed by Ko Pao (who also worked with Angela on The Lady Constables), is pretty okay. It's better than some reviews led me to believe, but nothing classic. Angela spends most of the film fighting with a short spear, occasionally delivering one of her trademark headkicks. Wong Tao uses hung gar, and wields a pair of short-handled halberds that can detach with a cord. The best fight has Angela fighting a formation of villains wielding flails/maces that are dressed to look like lotus blossoms, that can also explode on impact. Fellow Taiwanese action starlet Doris Lung shows up as the villain's lover, and fights with a small baton with horsehair at the tip (one occasionally sees Shaolin nunswielding this). This is mainly for Angela completists.

 

Swift Shaolin Boxer (1978) - @Lady Jin Szu-Yi, @paimeifist and @ShaOW!linDude were reviewing Angela Mao--member of the Holy Trifecta of Old Kung Fu Goddesses--movies, so I decided to get in on the fun and not be left out. I went this this movie, which is one of her more obscure films, but it is also one of her best. She's not the main character, but she does get some five fights including the finale and is the only person standing at the end, so you can say that her role is important here. The plot, such as it is, involves a small town where government agents kept on getting sent to their deaths. One fighter, Ho Kung (Barry Chan, the best thing about One Foot Crane) passes a rigorous government exam, that involves fighting multiple entities, including Judy Lee/Chia Ling, another member of said Trifecta. He gets the job and heads over to the town, where he's soon fighting for his life against practically everybody. His contact is an undercover agent, played by Angela Mao. Apparently there's some rebel activity going on, led by Lo Lieh, who'd be more than happy to see the agent die. And then things get crazy.

I love these kung fu/wuxia/intrigue capers made in Taiwan. They're colorful, full of quirky characters, and just fun to watch all around. See Green Dragon Inn and Knife of Devil's Roaring and Souls Missing for other good examples of the art. The kung fu on display, choreographed by Chen Shih Wei (who worked on One-Armed Boxer and Marvelous Stunts of Kung Fu) is among the best Taiwanese stuff of the period, easily matching anything Tommy Lee did at the same time, perhaps even surpassing it. Barry Chan kicks some major butt here and his handwork is fast and complex, his kicks powerful. I'm really going to have to follow this guy's work. Wong Goon-Hung, another Taiwanese mainstay, also impresses in his few fights (although his public exam sequence drags a little). Ting Wa Chung, who was the kid in Heroes of Shaolin, has a supporting role here, but he doesn't really get to shine here. Then there's Angela Mao. She kicks up a storm here, although her movements are more fluid and Peking Opera-like than her earlier basher movies. Her introductory fight is simply bad to the bone. There are a lot of wuxia flourishes, including a finale set in a sea of paper umbrellas developed by Q Branch, a fight set upon a bridge of saber blades, and a bamboo forest swordfight. Quick cuts and crude wires are used for some superhuman feats, but they add to the fun.

In the end, I give this film a hearty recommendation.

Edited February 3, 2022 by DrNgor