Emerging kung fu stars Angela Mao, Sammo Hung and Carter Wong portray three 1930s-era Chinese students of Hapkido returning from training in Japanese-occupied Korea to open a Hapkido school in China. They soon discover that members of the Black Bear karate dojo run by a Japanese Imperialist are terrorizing local townsfolk. When the hot-headed Fan Wei (Hung) comes to their defense, a deadly blood feud begins that pits the Hapkido-trained heroes against the entire karate school including its top student Toyoda (Bai Ying). As the conflict intensifies, Ying (Mao) sends for her senior brother, played by high-kicking Hapkido dynamo Whang Ing-sik, who shows up in time to assist in a final showdown with Toyoda and his master (Teruo Yamane).
As its title suggests, HAPKIDO provides a cinematic showcase for the relatively modern and underrepresented Korean martial art of Hapkido and one of its most skilled and famous exponents, Ji Han-jae, who displays peerless joint-locking and throwing skills in a knockout opening exhibition. At the time, Golden Harvest used Hapkido as the foundation for its screen fight training program which most of their actors went through including the stars of this film so a movie centered on the style was a natural fit.
The last time this art had been notably featured on screen was in Hollywood, in Tom Laughlin’s THE BORN LOSERS (1967) and its 1971 sequel BILLY JACK where Laughlin dropped Hapkido moves on biker gangs and bigots.
HAPKIDO is also the first truly great showcase for the talents of soon-to-be martial arts superstars Angela Mao, Sammo Hung and Carter Wong, whom Golden Harvest wisely chose to bank on in the wake of Bruce Lee’s breakout successes with the fledgling studio in THE BIG BOSS and FIST OF FURY. Perhaps the idea was that while Lee could not be matched by any individual star maybe three talented newcomers could hold their ground.
Sammo had been a young action director and supporting actor recruited several years earlier by the studio from Yu Jim-yuen’s famed China Drama Academy where Jackie Chan, Yuen Biao and other screen fighting talents later surfaced from. HAPKIDO was Sammo’s second kung fu movie after having co-starred and choreographed action for LADY WHIRLWIND. Previously, he had worked on a number of wuxia films where he was simply learning the craft of filmmaking. His fight work displays significant growth from the previous film and it was no doubt due to his association with Bruce Lee who was filming FIST OF FURY simultaneously at the same studio. Sammo not only stepped up to the challenge of producing better action but also displayed the rudiments of the seemingly impossible speed and charismatic delivery that would allow him to become a major action star in the 1980s.
In HAPKIDO, Sammo is a fiery-tempered martial artist who ignores his teacher’s admonition to always exercise forbearance, or restraint, when dealing with aggressors. He has justifiable cause though in coming to the aid of a local martial artist and later a woman scalded with boiling water, both accosted by vicious members of the Black Bear karate school. Sammo has several fights in the film beginning with a couple matches with Bruce Leung, the future lead fighting villain in KUNG FU HUSTLE. This was also before Leung became known for his kicking mastery in films such as LITTLE SUPER MAN and the Yuen Woo-ping choreographed classic BROKEN OATH. Late in the film Sammo takes on a roomful of baddies including Bai Ying while displaying the dynamic, fast-moving sparring that would become the hallmark style of Sammo, Jackie Chan and Yuen Biao.
Carter Wong, future star of 18 BRONZEMEN, BORN INVINCIBLE and BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA, was a 25-year-old student of traditional kung fu and Goju Kai karate who had joined Sammo and Mao in training in Hapkido for his debut in this film. Although cast in a smaller, less flashy role than his fellow stars, Wong makes a solid first impression with his distinctive intensity and power. He gets one noteworthy, five-minute fight about half way through where he takes on a roomful of karate men before tangling with Bai Ying.
Although she doesn’t get any sizable action until the third act, it is Angela Mao who makes the biggest impression with her righteous fury and fierce fighting moves. Despite being a woman of modest stature, Mao’s character is set up early on as the strongest of the three Hapkido students because she uses her wits while fighting rather than relying on strength or fighting skill alone. She performs a lot of striking, locks, leg sweeps, and some throws but her special weapon has nothing to do with Hapkido and is more akin to hidden weapons found in Chinese wuxia films. When all else fails, Mao whips her opponents in the face with a pair of metallic beads hanging from the end of her ponytail. Like some of the other gimmicks such as the occasional exaggerated leap or flying kick, it’s a bit of a letdown to see so much reliance on artificial combat when so much of the movie’s action is grounded in authentic martial arts.
Frankly, the best representation of Hapkido remains with Ji Han-jae’s opening exhibition. Near the end, when Whang Ing-sik shows up there is a sense that we’ll get back to the core of what this movie is supposed to be about but instead we get to see a lot of straight kicking without the other distinctive flavor that makes up the art of Hapkido. To be sure, it’s still a phenomenal showing which undoubtedly led directly to the re-pairing of Mao with Whang in WHEN TAEKWONDO STRIKES.
Whang’s bout with a sword-wielding Teruo Yamane is particularly good because for once it actually appears that the swordsman has the advantage. Too often in martial arts movies, an unarmed fighter effortlessly dodges and disarms a skilled swordsman without so much as losing a drop of blood. That’s about as realistic as swordsmen flying through the air, plus there is little dramatic value in seeing it. Whang on the other hand doesn’t get off so easy and for this reason I was honestly on the edge of my seat for this fight while waiting to see how he was going to survive, if at all.
Likewise, Mao, who is often cited as the female Bruce Lee, isn’t a superwoman in this film and struggles in her match with Bai Ying which adds dramatic value to the movie that’s missing from FIST OF FURY. Bai, a Taiwanese martial arts star who made his debut as the evil Eunuch in King Hu’s DRAGON GATE INN, is aggressively built up as a significant challenge which makes his match with Mao more satisfying. In addition, he holds his own against these talented leads.
Chinese action filmmakers never really embraced martial arts styles dominated by locking, throws or submissions despite the country having its own traditions, largely found in Tai Chi. Some of the best examples came much later and include Johnnie To’s THROWDOWN and Wilson Yip’s FLASH POINT. HAPKIDO is an opportunity lost in that director Huang Feng retreats from the hard depiction of Hapkido at the beginning by allowing the style to be diluted and ultimately overshadowed by other techniques both real and imaginary. Aside from this, the fighting action as put together by Sammo Hung is excellent and holds up well against his more refined work in films like THE PRODIGAL SON and THE MAGNIFICENT BUTCHER.
Unfortunately, most of the film’s structure is a poor imitation of FIST OF FURY and its Chinese-versus-Japanese theme. Paul Wei plays the same toady he did in FIST OF FURY and several other basher films. The Japanese are painted as uniformly evil caricatures with no redeeming qualities. Bruce Lee’s one-versus-many battles in FIST OF FURY are repeated with limited variation no less than four times in HAPKIDO.
Whenever a film strikes gold in Hong Kong, local filmmakers invariably try to copy it in an effort to cash in on that success. As such, HAPKIDO stands slightly above the dozens of forgettable FIST OF FURY imitators. Its distinction is that no one tries to act like Bruce Lee, Sammo’s above average choreography, the stars’ fighting performances, and the plethora of recognizable faces. Aside from the main cast, sharp-eyed viewers will briefly see Jackie Chan, Corey Yuen, Yuen Biao, and Lam Ching-ying who all play nameless karate students. At one point, Mao knocks Chan on his ass and sends him rolling across the floor. He later returned the favor by putting Mao through her paces while choreographing her fighting in the enjoyable kung fu comedy DANCE OF DEATH (1979).
Availability:
HAPKIDO is available on VCD from Joy Sales. The film was scheduled for release on The Weinstein Company’s Dragon Dynasty label back in 2008 but sadly was put on indefinite hold, partly due to poor sales of their other classic kung fu releases. Bey Logan had recorded an audio commentary and interviewed Carter Wong for the release. Before leaving Dragon Dynasty, Bey wrote a blog post on the topic which is still available at the label’s official site.
Related Topics:
Angela Mao • Bai Ying • Carter Wong • Genre: Basher • Genre: Kung Fu • hapkido • Hapkido (1972) • karate • Sammo Hung • taekwondo • Whang Ing-sik
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