Reap the Whirlwind: Four Films with Angela Mao on Eureka Blu-ray in August

Eureka Entertainment has announced the release of Reap the Whirlwind: Four Films with Angela Mao, a collection of rare Golden Harvest martial arts classics starring Angela Mao, the original Lady Kung Fu. Presented on Blu-ray in the UK for the first time from new 2K restorations, this release forms part of the Eureka Classics range. Strictly limited to 2,000 copies, the set comes housed in an O-card slipcase and includes a collector’s book.

One of the greatest action stars ever produced by the Hong Kong film industry, Angela Mao enjoyed a meteoric rise to fame in the 1970s following her leading roles in Hapkido, Lady Whirlwind and When Taekwondo Strikes, as well as her appearance alongside Bruce Lee in the breakout kung fu hit Enter the Dragon. Collected here are four standout films produced during the first decade of her career: The Angry River, Stoner, The Tournament and The Himalayan. 

In The Angry River (Gui nu chuan, 1970) – the very first film produced by Golden Harvest – Mao plays the daughter of a nobleman who is mortally wounded by the evil Lunar Sect. Having obtained a rare herb capable of healing her father, she returns to her ancestral home prepared for battle. Stoner (Tie jin gang da po zi yang guan, 1974 – also known as The Shrine of Ultimate Bliss), sees Mao’s secret agent team up with a tough Australian cop (George Lazenby) to bring down a drug trafficking ring. Then, in The Tournament (Zhong tai quan tan sheng si zhan, 1974), Mao sets out to avenge her father – the master of a martial arts school – after he is killed in cold blood by a gang of extortionists. Finally, The Himalayan (Mi zong sheng shou, 1976) casts Mao as the bride-to-be in a wedding orchestrated by a scheming murderer who intends to steal everything from her family.

All written and directed by an unsung talent in Huang Feng, the Angela Mao vehicles collected here illustrate the trajectory of her career from her earliest roles to superstardom. Eureka Classics is presenting all four films for the first time on Blu-ray in the UK.