Customer Reviews

Sting Of The Dragon Master

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

STING OF THE DRAGON MASTERS (1973, aka WHEN TAEKWONDO STRIKES) stands out from the more formulaic martial arts movies of its time for a variety of reasons. It was shot in Korea and is set in the 1930s at a time when Japan occupied the country. Its emphasis is on Taekwondo and the cast includes Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Caucasian martial artists. The chief attraction for kung fu fans is the starring presence of 1970s kung fu queen Angela Mao who is featured in enough hard-hitting fight scenes to keep her many fans fully satisfied.

The plot has to do with the efforts of a Korean resistance group to get a list of its members to their contacts in Manchuria without the Japanese authorities intercepting it. The action culminates in a big battle with the Japanese at their headquarters in Manchuria. The cast includes future kung fu star Carter Wong (SHAOLIN TRAITOROUS, 18 BRONZEMEN) as a Korean Taekwondo student; Korean martial artist Jhoon Rhee as the leader of the resistance; and future kung fu star-director Sammo Hung as a Japanese villain.

The version currently available in the U.S. suffers from extremely poor English voice dubbing and a soundtrack of patched-together music cues that dont match the action and are slathered on indiscriminately, often drowning out the dialogue. Also, the full-frame transfer crops off much of the widescreen action.

One of the other reviews claimed that this movie was originally titled "Hapkido" ( AKA "Lady Kung-fu" ). That error caused me needlessly to pick up this video which was originally called "When Taekwon-do Strikes" when released earlier and stars Joon Rhee not Carter Wong. Not nearly as good as "Hapkido" which made much better use of Master Hwang (Whang)In-Shik and his senior Master Ji Han Jae (Game of Death). For Angela Mao fans only.

The original title for this little gem is Hapkido and stars samo hung,whang-in-sik and a little known actor called jackie chan.Also carter wong is in it.Forget the story what we have here is a first class traditional martial arts movie with as usual the genius samo hung handling the fight scenes.Get this!

Angela Mao's appearance in this flick is more feminine than in others.

At least here she isn't attired in male clothing, so the erotic effect is much better.

It's especially enhanced in one scene where she giggles maddeningly while fending off male attackers and on other occasions, we see their fury.

Better still, she finally does get roughed up somewhat in the climactic fight scene, which is always fun to watch; for that matter, she requires the assistance of her male co-star to finish off the enemy soldier that she's fighting with.

But no film starring a chop-sockey kung-fu biatch will ever be worth 5 stars, or even 4 stars, until some filmmaker finally has the moxie to show some male assailant dishing out the ultimate punishment to her.