What's happening Hai! Karate fans?!! We've got another film on deck for you, this one being the very first picture Golden Harvest Studios ever made, The Angry River! This film also boasts another first, in that it is the first starring role for the iconic screen star Angela Mao Ying!! Wong Fung is in the director's chair for this picture, which also features Pai Ying as the main villain and Kao Yuen as the assisting hero.
The story begins with a series of murders
committed in ghastly fashion against
various people. All of the victims are
noble knights. It's soon found out that
the Lunar Sect is behind it, at the
behest of their leader, King Hell(Pai).
Their main opponent, Liangyi Castle is
determined to stop them. Lan Tin-Lung,
head of the castle, rounds up other
fighters willing to join the cause. But
at that moment, the Lunar Sect launches
a sneak attack complete with poison darts.
Tin-Lung is badly wounded, and it is
found that there is no cure for the poison -
save for the Black Herb. The thing is, the
herb is located in a valley guarded by
various treacherous traps. No one has
ever come back alive. Tin-Lung's daughter,
Lan Feng(Mao Ying)doesn't care what the
risks are. And so, she sets out to find
the Black Herb.
The journey IS difficult, with Lan Feng's
skills being severely put to the test. She
has to cross...you guessed it, 'The Angry
River' and then one of her last trials has
her fighting...a monster. I kid you not,
a full grown kaiju her size. After these
ordeals, she winds up receiving the Black
Herb but is now without any of her powers,
having lost them in the fighting. She begins
the journey back, accompanied by a monk
(Fung Ngai) and hero Leng Yu-Han(Yuen) who
had tried unsuccessfully to get the Black
Herb before. And so, Lan Feng tries to get
the herb back despite bandits and the evil
wrought upon her by King Hell, with it all
coming to a bloody conclusion.
The Angry River is a neat little film that
has some kick for all of its ninety minutes.
Are there some things you can find an issue
in the flick? It does tend to appear a bit
boring in a couple of dialogue scenes. Fans
of Angela Mao may be a bit thrown off by
her few fighting sequences but it IS her
first real starring role. Plus, the monster
bit does tend to make you chuckle instead
of being terrified. That said, Angela shows
why Raymond Chow took such a huge risk in
casting a relative unknown to star in his
first ever picture. Angela Mao was only
20 years old at the time and fresh off of
the Chinese Opera scene in Taiwan. That
gamble paid off as she would be one of
Raymond Chow's shining stars. She displays
a good sense of drama throughout, and it
is intriguing to see her so helpless in
contrast to her future bad-ass persona.
But she does get a chance to deliver some
punishment and bloodshed, notably taking
someone's head clean off in a fight scene.
Pai Ying does his villain thing, complete
with a heavy tan. If you look closely, you
will spot some familiar faces throughout.
Sammo Hung features prominently as a villain
in a duo with another known role actor who
played a villain well, Han Yen-Ching. You
will know him from The Big Boss as Boss Mi.
You even have Shaw Brothers regular Wilson
Tong in an uncredited role and Lam Ching-Ying
as a thug is here too, padding the resume.
All in all, The Angry River is decent and
a good look at just how Angela Mao - and
Golden Harvest - got real famous.
RATING: 3 DRAGON PUNCHES OUT OF 5
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