Happy Birthday to Angela Mao!

Of all the people who ever called themselves “the female Bruce Lee,” Angela Mao was the only one who ever seemed worthy of that stupendously grandiose title. After all, even though she played Bruce Lee’s sister in Enter the Dragon, people forget, she was a leading lady in martial arts films before and after that role; that role didn’t make her, it was just a coronation. In fact, her stardom predates Bruce Lee’s. In fact, calling her the female Bruce Lee might be underselling her, as her films actually outperformed Bruce Lee’s in 1972 and 1973.

Even though it was the studio that would later discover Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee (as well as the place where Sammo Hung first directed and produced a film), Golden Harvest’s first movie (made with money laundered from the Chinese Mafia by noted gangster associate Raymond Chow) was The Angry River in 1970 a full two years before Bruce. It was built as a star vehicle around Angela Mao, who they correctly figured would be the next Cheng Pei Pei. In fact, Angry River seems to be the odd movie out in Angela Mao’s filmography, in that she gets a love story, is asked to cry on camera (Angela Mao is notoriously made of stone). It’s seldom seen today, maybe because it’s a Cheng Pei Pei movie that just happens to star Angela Mao. It took her next two films to discover her real identity and screen persona. 

Her two biggest movies were two similar ones released and made closely together in time, a one-two punch: Hapkido, and When Taekwondo Strikes, both 1930s period pieces set in Occupied Korea, Hong Kong/South Korea co-productions (back when very little entertainment was made in South Korea), both of which essentially have the exact same plot: the main character who is a Chinese girl and martial artist caught up in the resistance to the hated Japanese occupiers of Korea, and their gi-wearing karate school enforcers, who are actually spies running operations for the occupation. 

These movies set the basic formula for Angela’s Mao’s films: she was a lady tiger who was fed up and wasn’t going to take it anymore, an all-Chinese girl who represented the presumed Chinese audience, and who got in exotic and beautiful Asian locations. In The Tournament, Angela Mao went to Thailand to challenge the Thai Kickboxers at their own game (the first Thai Boxing themed movie of course, is Cheng Cheh’s Duel of the Fists, which predates it by mere months). In The Himalayan, she was caught among the intrigues of the Himalayan tribes, which is easily her most beautiful movie with the most stunning locations, actually filmed in Tibet and Nepal. Blood Oath, another from her Golden Period, was essentially a remake of Lady Snowblood, and she kills people with scorpions. Finally, Lady Whirlwind gave her her nickname, much like how Madonna is known as the Material Girl. I can’t recommend that one, as it’s one of a few movies she splits top billing.

Angela Mao was who she was because her friends loved her. Yes, of course, she was good friends with Bruce Lee (stories disagree on how “close” and “friendly” they were, if you get my meaning), but it is just amazing to see, in the backgrounds of her movies, stuntmen turned action movie stars like Sammo Hung, Lam Ching-Ying (Mr. Vampire himself) and yes, even Jackie Chan. Blink and you miss him, arguably the most famous human being in Asia, and there he is, a nobody knockaround stuntman right behind Angela Mao, the star. 

Angela Mao very seldom got a love story or boy-friend in her movies. really. She seemed so ferocious, all glares, that it was like the tiger spirit inside of her scared off any love. Either way, nearly all martial arts actresses can be ranked on a continuum of “vulnerability” to “ferociousness,” with some, like Kara Hui, leaning toward vulnerability, Queen Boxer Judy Lee somewhere in the middle, and Angela Mao at the far, ferocious end.  No surprise, there: Angela Mao had a glare that could stop a charging rhino, one that her children said meant “they were in trouble.”

I’m delighted to say that Angela Mao is alive and well. But that was not clear until very recently. You see, at the height of her fame, Angela Mao vanished mysteriously. No one knows what happened to her...until 2016, when the New York Times, researching the fate of the lost Queen of the Kung Fu Movie, reported she was alive and well and running a Chinese restaurant in Queens, hiding in plain sight. 

Angela Mao in Broken Oath (1977)

Angela Mao 🥰

more favourite poems

ron padgett collected poems: "how long"

donald justice collected poems: "there is a gold light in certain old paintings..."

rita ann higgins witches in the bushes: “be someone”

frank lima incidents of travel in poetry

campbell mcgrath nox borealis

ha jin a distant center: "all you have is a country"

jack underwood war the war

kit schluter pierrot's fingernails: "bad faith"

angela mao theme and variations on ai weiwei's "dropping a han dynasty urn"

lilly bechtel the shape of grief

simon shieh act i

c.d. wright steal away: new and selected poems: "everything good between men and women"

stephen dobyns name-burning

dan vera speaking wiri wiri: “small shame blues”

hannah srajey the lamppost glows orange in the daytime

deborah landau the uses of the body: "september"

kofi

Time 13-Aug-2023 19:30 Day Sunday Where Cineworld - Rushden Lakes Screen 2 Seat H9 Price £2.43

Angela Mao

Hapkido (1972) starring Angela Mao choreographed by Sammo Hung directed by Huang Feng

The 50th Anniversary of WHEN TAEKWONDO STRIKES

The 50th Anniversary of WHEN TAEKWONDO STRIKES @HiYAHTV #jhoonrhee

August 1, 2022 (NYC)- The 50th Anniversary of WHEN TAEKWONDO STRIKES The 50th Anniversary of WHEN TAEKWONDO STRIKES.  2023 marks the 50th Anniversary  Golden Harvest’s film, When Taekwondo Strikes. This Raymond Chow action movie was most notable because it was the only film of taekwondo Grandmaster Jhoon Rhee. While the project is a low budget, formula, action film in the Raymond Chow genre of…

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Angela forever

“How famous was I?” she said. “When I was a somebody, Jackie Chan was a nobody.”

Angela Mao in The Tournament (1974)

Angela Mao: Hapkido & Lady Whirlwind Out Now On Blu Ray

Eureaka Classics Have Released A New 2K Restoration Of Angela Mao: Hapkido & Lady Whirlwind. More info here #AngelaMao #SammoHung #CarterWong #Hapkido #LadyWhirlwind #ChangYi @Eurekavideo

Eureka Entertainment to release ANGELA MAO: HAPKIDO & LADY WHIRLWIND, an action-packed double feature starring the ‘Queen of Kung-fu’. On Blu-ray for the first time ever in the UK as a part of the Eureka Classics range, presented from brand new 2K restorations. Available from 22 August 2022, the first print-run of 2000 copies will feature a Limited-Edition O-card Slipcase, Reversible Poster &…

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Preview- Angela Mao: Hapkido & Lady Whirlwind

Preview- Angela Mao: Hapkido & Lady Whirlwind

Angela Mao and director Huang Feng (The Shaolin Plot) were a superstar pairing that produced an incredible series of top tier kung-fu classics including Deadly China Doll, When Taekwondo Strikes and the two films presented here   Hapkido and Lady Whirlwind. In Hapkido (aka. Lady Kung Fu in the West), a group of martial artists (Mao, Sammo Hung, and Carter Wong) start their own school to teach the…

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"It's a rumic world!!"

Day 7 of @rumicworldweek - Happy Birthday Rumiko Takahashi!! 🎉

Sadly, no art for today since it seems I've hit an artblock after drawing for almost an entire week 😭, but to be fair everything drawn for this week was for sensei's birthday after all. I wanted to draw art for Mermaid Saga, One Pound Gospel and Rumic Theatre, but unfortunately there's only seven days in a week (though I have drawn art for Mermaid Saga like a week earlier and I have drawn an art for one of the Rumic Theatre stories months ago. Sorry One Pound Gospel, eventually!!) And plus, when it comes to topic of Rumiko Takahashi and her works, I decided to talk about it rather than draw...

Rumiko Takahashi... Honestly, all her works mean a lot to me. Each have it's own reasons, reasons why they're more than just mere stories to me. I guess it's mainly because of how good of a storyteller she is. Here's a little tidbit from her which may show why:

And boy, does it make me feel exactly how she wants it to. She knows what the reader looks forward to and she delivers just that while having fun. The amount of love and passion in her works in insane and the little details put to the story and characters are exactly what I love about her tales. Then there's the amount variety when it comes to her stories which I think is the most obvious when you pick up just one volume of the rumic theatre, one moment you're reading a hijinks story about a boy who just want to deliver newspapers but keeps getting interrupted by invaders and half- fishmen and the next moment you'll be reading a horror where this high school kid who knows archery is trying save his girlfriend from being murdered by his yandere cousin.

Honestly, just the amount of one shots she have is enough to prove how much as well as the number of chapters her serializations have is enough to show how much dedication and passion RT has for manga and this dedication is just what makes their quality so good. Urusei Yatsura makes me laugh and reminds me to have fun and enjoy life. Maison Ikkoku taught me about growing up. Mermaid Saga is a spine-chilling story which talks about the price of greed. Ranma 1/2 brings about the topic of familial love besides the romance itself. I've only watched the OVA for One Pound Gospel, but what intrigues me the most is the fact that the main pairing is a boxer and a nun, it's like the strangest pairing you could make but Kosaku and Sister Angela make it work and let's just say I love these kind of strange pairings, lol. Inuyasha talks about letting go from the past while still keeping the important within you. Kyoukai no RINNE is quite nostalgic to me as someone who grew up in a family who's very keen on saving money and a lot of moments make me laugh because I've been similar situations and it's nice to look back on them. And finally, MAO is the series I'm currently growing up with.

I know Rumiko Takahashi will never see this but.. Thank you so much for everything, your characters and stories managed to lift my spirits in the darkest of times and remind me that everything will eventually be okay. I know I'm not the only one who thinks this and all of what I've said is why I love Rumiko Takahashi and her stories.... ♥

I'm glad that I was able to participate in this year's Rumic World Week. Thanks to everyone who's liked and reblogged my posts and I hope everyone reading this has a great day ahead!! 🌹

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