6.4 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Ling Shih-hua is severely beaten by Japanese mobsters and left for dead on the beach. He is nursed back to health by a pretty young girl, and he vows to take revenge on the criminals. Meanwhile, Miss Tien Li-Chun (Angela Mao) comes to town with a score to settle with Ling.
Starring: Angela Mao, Ying Bai, Yi Chang (I), Sammo Kam-Bo HungForeign | 100% |
Martial arts | 36% |
Drama | 19% |
Action | 16% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Mandarin: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono
English: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono
English, English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
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.
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.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.
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.
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.
- Commentary by Frank Djeng & Bobby Samuels
- Commentary by Frank Djeng & Michael Worth
- Commentary by Samm Deighan
- HK Theatrical Trailer (HD; 3:23)
- US Theatrical Trailer (HD; 1:55)
- US Radio Spot (HD; 1:01)
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.
(Still not reliable for this title)
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