grumpynerd When Angela Mao is off-screen, this movie is mediocre to a fault. Not bad, but of little interest to anyone but a serious Hong Kong movie geek. But when Mao is on screen, she's electrifying.It's not just her charisma, although she's got buckets of that. She has a magnificent gift for selling a move that transforms what would be at best a serviceable fight scene into something riveting and dramatic. In the build up to her first fight in the casino, Mao flashes an ironically contemptuous sneer that sends icy chills down your spine. At the end of the fight she beats the crooked casino boss with a cold fury that's thrilling and appalling in its savagery.What's really unusual is how the movie doesn't do anything to soften her character. Often the girl in these movies is there to be raped and killed so the hero can take revenge. Sometimes she's sifu's daughter, who fights pretty good for a girl but is ultimately there to be rescued from the boss. None of that for Miss Tien. She is Nemesis, come to punish the hero for his past misdeeds. The question is: will she let him live long enough to redeem himself by fighting the boss of his old gang? This curious twist transforms a run-of-the-mill early 70s Kung Fu flick into something compelling and different.

gavin6942 "Miss Tien, thank you for saving me." "Forget it. I just didn't want somebody else to kill you!" This film was directed by Huang Feng (who made 18 films in the 1970s alone), and stars Angela Mao. Not sure if Mao is well known outside of martial arts circles (probably not), but she probably should be -- why let Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee get all the credit? Although I know very little about the martial arts film genre, I feel like this might be one worth seeing. If for no other reason than the fact that literally everyone is kung fu fighting -- there are hardly any scenes without a dozen guys trying to defeat Lady Whirlwind (and losing).

ckormos1 Raymond Chow's upstart company sure played it smart with this movie. He used Chang Yi as the male lead. Chang Yi was an established Shaw Brothers actor doing martial arts films since about King Cat in 1967 but was shelved due to new talent such as David Chiang and Ti Lung. Next add Pai Ying for the bad guy. He's another Shaw Brothers actor who did a fine job as an evil eunuch in the 1971 "The Eunuch". Sammo Hung was the martial arts choreographer and with some side burns (quite stylish in 1972 but ridiculous otherwise) he got good screen time as a co-villain. Bruce Lee had just done "Fist of Fury" so add the theme of evil Japanese to the mix. (Actually the movie still works fine without the subplot, but why not?) With all that foundation, the only risky element was casting Angela Mao as the hot kung fu chick female lead. That was really no risk at all. Angela was fabulous despite the otherwise impression that the entire movie was done in one take. Yes, the whole movie seems to have been made with a budget for the price of the rolls of film with just a few dollars left over to pay the crew. Nevertheless, here I am 40 years later and watching it for the second time and enjoying every minute of it. Certainly recommended for all fans of the genre and my rating here is 7.0

kragshot As this is an old film, there should be no harm in discussing what the film is about. Despite the film being advertised with Angela Mao Ying as the star, she plays a more subdued part in the film.Mao (Miss Tien) plays a woman who is searching to take revenge on a man who abandoned her younger sister and because of the abandonment, eventually resulted in the girl's death. The poor doomed fellow has problems of his own because of a vendetta against gangsters. Mao, deciding that she would not be cheated of her vengeance, helps him against them, so that she would have the pleasure of killing him, herself. Furthermore, he has fallen in love with another girl who tags along with him. So, every so often, the two end up begging Tien to wait a bit longer before killing the pathetic guy.The fellow starts the film as a lousy fighter, but eventually learns Tai Chi Ch'uan from an old herbalist. This stands him well to help him later in the film.So, what happens next? Does he escape from the gangsters? Does Miss Tien get her revenge? Is this a pretty good movie?Well, I can answer the third one. I found it enjoyable. The fight scenes were pretty realistic as this belongs to the "gritty" style of Martial Arts films. As for Mao Ying...she's always a pleasure to watch.