Hapkido (1973)

an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

The acting in this movie is really good.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Perfect movie, cast is insane, top actors: Angela Mao, Carter Wong, Sammo Hung, Han Jae Ji, Ying Bai, Ing-Sik Whang, Ka Ting Lee, Billy Chan, Jackie Chan, Biao Yuen and Corey Yuen. It starts with Angela Mao, Carter Wong and Sammo Hung in picnic, then Japanese guys comes and starts fight. That happened in South-Corea 1934. Then trio travels to China to start Hapkido school, but Hung gets in problem, thus Japanese getting interested about Hapkido school. At first Hung fights 2 drunk Japanese students, they tell it to their master and Japanese makes short visit to Hapkido school. Then Hung beats even more guys in market and all Japanese wants Hung dead. Hung's friends noticed it and they advise Hung to keep it low and go to hide. Spy notices Hung's secret place and sends Martial-Artist's to fight Hung. Hung beats few guys, but last guy kills Hung. Coincidence Mao goes to visit secret place and founds Hung's dead body. That was it for Hapkido and Black-Bear school. Without wasting any time, Mao goes to Black-Bear school and says: "If you're smart enough, you let me walk". Of course they don't and if I remember right, Jackie Chan is in that scene. Chan gets thrown by Mao and Chan slides in floor. After that scene, Japanese invade Hapkido school and Mao and Wong escape in the nick of time. Then girl goes to Hapkido school and sees, Japanese are drinking and eating. The girl goes to get Mao and Mao fights in really dark room (I think that was night scene). Pretty soon Han Jae Ji arrives and he and Mao are going to teach Japanese a lesson. Thus end fight begins. I remember Japanese leader getting Samurai sword and he nearly kills Han Jae Ji. Lucky for him Mao was present and she finishes Japanese leader. In the mid of this movie, Carter Wong has fight scene in Black-Bear school and he gets beaten really bad. There's also dark scene, when Wong fights 10+ guys and they kill Wong. Why I compare this to Casablanca, because its every fighters dream movie. I say, this is better, than Fist of Fury (1972).

Korea, 1934. Three top martial arts school students -- shrewd Kao Yu Ying (Angela Mao, everyone's favorite petite firebrand), sensible Kao Chang (charming Carter Wong), and impetuous Fan Wei (liable Sammo Hung) -- move to China to start their own school. They face opposition from a rival Japanese school. Director Feng Huang, working from a compact script by Yan Ho, relates the enjoyable story at a swift pace, maintains a generally serious tone with a few amusing moments of humor, and stages the abundant kung-fu fights with stirring aplomb. Moreover, the plot neatly explores the themes of patience, courtesy, and standing up for the weak and oppressed. The three protagonists are very engaging, with Mao in particular once again in strong and assertive form as she takes on and defeats a school full of guys (she even beats one dude up with her pigtails!). The Japanese villains are quite arrogant and obnoxious. Yu-tang Li's crisp and lively widescreen cinematography rates as another definite asset. A cool little item.

I have seen this film twice and I believe it to be way ahead of its time as, firstly, it features a woman as the main martial arts star when this was almost unheard of and, secondly, features a martial art very few people would have heard of in the West and Hapkido was given the title Lady Kung Fu in America to reach a wider market.Basically Hapkido is the story of three students of Hapkido, a Korean martial art like a cross between karate and jiu jitsu, who are persecuted in thirties China by the Japanese who set up karate schools and try to ban non Japanese martial arts. Obviously this being a martial arts film there are some spectacular fight scenes between the Japanese and the Koreans, particularly the end fight where Angela Mao and Hwang in Sik take on two Japanese senseis, one of whom is a dab hand with a sword, and fight them to the death, Angela Mao having a unique figthing technique that involves her pigtails.The main drawbacks are fairly poor dubbing on the version I've seen, Angela is given a corny American accent, the very cheap sets and poor acting. However, the quality of the fight scenes cannot be faulted and Angela Mao is as good as Bruce Lee.

The plot of this movie is very similar to Fist of Fury, but in this film the main heroine is a female played by Angela Mao, who is better known for her role in Enter The Dragon, but in this film she get more of the show. The fighting scenes were great for that time's movie, though it beats some of the nowadays martial art's movies too. Actually the bigger part of the movie is fights, so if you want to see some great Kung Fu (Hapkido?) fights and don't care about a plot - this movie is for you. Angela Mao really knows how to kick and in this movie, she proved it several times. I liked Sammo Hung's character, who was a troublemaker in this film. Even Jackie Chan appeared in few scenes.