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 choreo. Well recommended.

The plot of “Lady Whirlwind” is a little convoluted at best. Two main sub-plots abound: 1) a standard (for an early ‘70s HK fu flick) Japanese vs. Chinese sub-plot, and 2) the main conflict between Mao’s character and the male lead character, played by Chang Yi. Of course, in going after Yi, Mao ends up in conflict with the Japanese (who are the main bad-guys in the flick), since Yi is the central Chinese character at play in the first sub-plot. Mao certainly kicks Japanese ass to get to Yi, but only after she states, “I have nothing against you guys…I want to kill [Yi]”. There are many little twists and turns that do little to clarify the plot lines (at least in the English dub), but both Mao and Yi, who are flawed characters to say the least, get some redemption during the plot development as both befriend someone in need leading to their own growth.

While fights are generally good (and fairly numerous and long) there are some very noticeable gaffs in some of the fights (hits and kicks not coming even remotely close–probably says something about the budget and lack of multiple takes, since Sammo Hung did the action direction and even early in his career he was generally solid). There’s lots of knife play and hand-to-hand martial combat (fu vs. karate), with moderate levels of blood, as might be expected of a Golden Harvest production.

As a bonus we get to see Sammo playing a bad-guy (Japanese thug)–certainly a rarity in his early career–while the role is small, Sammo is fun to watch, especially with his make-up, nasty facial scars and muttonchops.