Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.0

Lady Whirlwind Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 30, 2022

Note: This film is available on Blu-ray as part of Arrow Video's Lady Whirlwind & Hapkido double feature release.

Perhaps some of you saw the reactions, many hilarious, when Jennifer Lawrence recently made the perhaps unwise assertion that, before she assumed the role of Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games franchise, "nobody had ever put a woman in the lead of an action movie because it wouldn't work". Just my own personal social media feed had any number of laugh out loud responses to Lawrence's questionable claim, including a few by some notable women who had themselves been "the lead of an action movie" maybe even before Lawrence was a gleam in her parents' eyes. In fact, both Lady Whirlwind and Hapkido came along long enough ago that they may well have been in significantly "pre-gleam" territory for Lawrence's parents, but one way or the other, both of the films Arrow has aggregated in this new set provide more than ample proof that yes, Virginia (and/or Jennifer), there were indeed women in the leads of action movies long before The Hunger Games (and, really, couldn't a cogent case be made that titles as old as the original 1914 version of The Perils of Pauline* qualify?).

*The link points to one of many remakes.

Frank Djeng contributes some of his almost patented exuberant takes on the movies in this set on some appealing commentary tracks, and in his commentary for Hapkido he mentions in passing how both of the films utilize pre-existing music (as was often the case), ranging from Emerson, Lake and Palmer to Bernard Herrmann (and there's some eclecticism right there). Unless I missed it, Djeng does not mention that the glorious music greeting the listener as soon as this particular disc boots and then when the film's credits actually start belongs to none other than the redoubtable Michel Legrand, in a kind of amazing whole cloth "lift" of the main theme Legrand wrote for a little remembered film called The Picasso Summer with Albert Finney and Yvette Mimieux. I was kind of stunned to hear this, as I instantly recognized the music as the big Legrand fan that I am, so it was fun to hear Djeng bring up some of the other examples of this probably morally questionable practice of "borrowing" someone else's music without offering proper attribution (not to mention remuneration).

Inveterate film music geeks like yours truly may find this particular example and the others Djeng mentions of some passing interest in terms of soundtrack offerings, but of course the main draw here is Angela Mao as a rather hardbitten character named Tien Li-Chun, who is on a quest for vengeance against a guy named Ling Shi-hua (Yi Chang), only to discover she has to more or less get in line, so to speak, as Ling has already been beaten senseless as the film opens, and will repeatedly find himself on the wrong end of various nemeses' fists and/or feet. Tien is more of a "type" than a full fleshed character, and she's actually almost on the harridan side of things, which gives this effort a kind of provocative edge. This film, like its sibling Hapkido, at least subtextually addresses simmering frictions between the Japanese and Chinese.

Lady Whirlwind Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Lady Whirlwind is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. Arrow's insert booklet lumps both of the films included in this release together in its verbiage about the transfers:

Lady Whirlwind and Hapkido are both presented in their original 2.35:1 aspect ratio [sic] with their original Mandarin and English monoaural soundtracks. In addition, Hapkido features two alternate English soundtrack options: an additional version of the vintage monoaural dub where all instances of the phrase "kung fu" have been dubbed over with the word "hapkido"; and a newer dub in 5.1 surround, recorded for the film's re-release on DVD in 2006.

Both films were restored in 2K resolution from original film elements by Fortune Star, who supplied these masters to Arrow Video for this Blu-ray release. Additional audio elements were supplied by Irongod2112 and other collectors, and the 35mm trailer for Deep Thrust (Lady Whirlwind) was kindly provided for scanning by Scott Napier. Additional audio sync work on both features was performed by Þorsteein Gislason.

Frank Djeng mentions the anamorphic process of Dyaliscope in one of his commentaries, stating that anamorphic anomalies that are frequently seen in productions like these (and, notably, a lot of Shaw Brothers films) are not "flaws" per se, but a result of the "technology" being used. That said, there is some extremely peculiar stuff going on at times in this presentation which is somewhat hard to describe, but which I'll compare to someone in Photoshop digitally manipulating the image to stretch it up and toward the right side of the frame, making everything in the frame weirdly skewed in that direction. I've provided some examples of this rather odd looking issue in screenshots 6, 10, 11, 12 and 13, though you may be able to make vestiges of it out in some of the others as well. Aside from that rather strange situation, a lot of this transfer looks very good, with a nicely robust palette, and some commendable detail levels at least in close-ups. There is some intermittent fuzziness and moments where grain spikes pretty dramatically for no apparent reason, as well as some actual out of focus moments, at least in some parts of the frame, which may get back to the use of anamorphic lenses.

Lady Whirlwind Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Lady Whirlwind features DTS-HD Master Audio Mono Mandarin and English dub audio options. I'd highly recommend sticking with the Mandarin track, as the English track has a kind of almost annoyingly bright high end and overly boxy sound, along with occasional slight distortion, that isn't as prevalent on the Mandarin side of things (if you like toggling back and forth, you might notice some very small speed differences in the underscore). The Mandarin track can still sound a bit hollow in some of the goofy sound effects accompanying the fight scenes in particular, but overall has a fuller midrange. Dialogue is presented cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

Lady Whirlwind Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentaries

  Commentary by Frank Djeng & Bobby Samuels

  
  

  Commentary by Frank Djeng & Michael Worth

  
  

  Commentary by Samm Deighan

• Lady Whirlwind Speaks (HD; 13:19) is a charming interview with Angela Mao conducted in 2022. Subtitled in English.


• Kung Fu Cooking with Thomas King (HD; 31:49) is a fun conversation between Frank Djeng and Angela Mao's son, also done in 2022.


• Alternate English Credits (HD; 1:34)


• Trailer Gallery

  HK Theatrical Trailer (HD; 3:23)

  
  

  US Theatrical Trailer (HD; 1:55)

  
  

  US Radio Spot (HD; 1:01)

• Image Gallery (HD)

Lady Whirlwind Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Lady Whirlwind is kind of interesting in that Mao portrays a woman who may in fact not be especially likable, even if her quest for vengeance is well founded. Some of the other sidebars are a bit on the hyperbolic side, including the whip bearing main female villain, but the action sequences are a lot of fun one way or the other. This has some intermittent peculiarities in the video department that I've attempted to outline and provide examples of, but audio is fine and the supplements very enjoyable. With caveats noted, Recommended.