The Angry River (1971)

Better Late Then Never

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Even though she fights in total of 3 scenes, this still is kick-ass movie. First Mao fight scene is in forest, when shes going after black herb, because her father got poison dart and black herb is only medicine to cure that poison. The movie opens with mysterious deaths via poison darts. Second Mao fight scene is against guardian hero, if you beat the guy, he'll let you pass. Mao doesn't beat the guy, but the guys boss comes in and lets Mao get through. Then Mao meets monster, but doesn't have any chance against that hideous demon, so boss saves her once again and gives some black herb to Mao, but rids Mao off her powers. After that scene, its other people fighting and Mao runs away of fights. When Mao got rid off her powers, she looks for place to stay and in inn, she meets 2 old friends, 1 monk and 1 expert swordsman. When Mao goes to her room, expert swordsman wants that black herb and attacks Mao. Then monk goes there, but doesn't fight, its the other swordsman, who saves Mao. Other swordsman says to expert: "This time I'll let you pass". Other swordsman advises monk to be with Mao. Next scene is in open land and monk and Mao are walking, then group of bandits attacks them and Mao doesn't have her powers, so its Enter the monk. Mao runs away and bandits kill monk and they catch Mao, but greedy bandits kills each other, because they all wanted black herb. Then Mao bumps to expert swordsman again and Mao runs away and goes hiding, so expert swordsman doesn't find her. Tired Mao collapses in front of building in town and other swordsman (Mao's friend) saves her again and sends her to room. In that town was also evil expert swordsman and he kidnaps Mao and its other swordsman to the save again, this time other swordsman kills expert swordsman and other swordsman finds Mao and together they travel to Mao's home, but in forest black demon (Played by Sammo Hung) attacks both. They kill black demon and they makes to Mao's home, but her father is in coffin, so Mao freaks out and eats herb herself, thus getting super powers. Duo goes to see evil leader and the leader sends white demon (Played by Ying-Chieh Han). Mao hits white demons head off and then its duo versus group of soldiers. Of course heroes won, thus beginning of end fight. They go to forest and main bad guy has steel claw, a fight scene, that lasts about 6 minutes and slowly duo kills main bad guy, but before main bad guy dies, he throws poison dart to other swordsman. Movie ends with Mao riding horse and knocked out other swordsman laying on other horse. Why I give this movie so high rating, because it was exciting, you always were worried about Mao, because she didn't have her powers and other characters were interesting as well.

Raymond Chow seemed to have the right idea when he formed Golden Harvest, and that is to recruit young new faces to create his movies. In this movie he went to Taiwan to recruit Angela Mao who was a star in their Chinese opera theater. She's barely 20 in this movie with zero movie acting experience. That's a lot of risk to take on his first movie. But he seems to have good eye for talents, and many including Angela goes on to become some of the biggest Hong Kong movie stars.Young Jackie Chan stars in this movie as well as his buddy from Peking Opera school days - Sammo Hung. They are billed (way) below Angela Mao in this movie.Angela Mao is the daughter of a wealthy local magnate. Her father gets poisoned, and needs a cure from a herb that grows in a valley 1000 miles away. On the way to the valley lies the Angry River that burns everything that tries to cross it. The format is classic Hong Kong Kung Fu movie, but there's something very modern about this movie. Perhaps it's because the quality is a notch above in almost all areas of production. It probably wasn't made on a big budget, as Bruce Lee only got $10K for his first appearance on Golden Harvest's movie. Other actors probably made much much less. Compared to now where lead stars often get well above one million Hong Kong dollar, this was the real formative days of Hong Kong cinema.This is a beautiful movie, and should be seen in its remastered DVD. Angela Mao is exceptional in her athletic abilities, as well as her martial arts skills, and beauty. She really was the golden harvest for Golden Harvest.In this first movie from Golden Harvest, you see the dawn of the new Hong Kong cinema that continues to this day.

THE ANGRY RIVER (1970) is Angela Mao's first film and also the very first production from Hong Kong's Golden Harvest Films, a studio set up by Raymond Chow, former aide to Run Run Shaw, to compete with the Shaw Bros. studio, especially in the production of martial arts films. It comes off as a blatant imitation of the female swordplay adventures starring Cheng Pei Pei then being produced by Shaw. It's a lot cruder-looking than a Shaw production, although Golden Harvest would rapidly improve its production values in subsequent films. Young Angela isn't quite yet the kick-ass kung fu diva she'd be in two short years in such films as LADY WHIRLWIND and HAPKIDO, among others, but she does have two major fight scenes early on, mostly involving sword-fighting, and one big finale at the very end.The plot has to do with a reign of terror conducted by a mysterious killer dubbed "Poison Dart," who is hitting all kinds of prominent people with poison darts. (A character will rise up and declare his intention to track down this Poison Dart guy and then get immediately hit and disabled by a poison dart.) When Angela's father is hit, she is told that he can be cured of the poison only with "black herb" retrieved from Soul Valley on the other side of the Angry River (which plays such little role in the action that its use as the film's title is puzzling). Angela sets out on a mission to get the herb, overcoming many obstacles on the way there and confronted by various attempts to steal the herb from her before she can get back home. (She fights a man-sized lizard monster in a cave at one point and it looks as silly as it sounds.) The price she has to pay for getting the herb is the loss of her "powers," taken from her by the mysterious white-haired guy who supplies the herb. She is given a way to restore her powers and double her strength any time she chooses but she inexplicably fails to make use of it until the very end. So, for nearly an hour of running time, we get a seriously weakened and vulnerable Angela and not one who can defend herself as all kinds of scurrilous characters jockey with her and with each other to try and get the herb. She has one defender, a benevolent swordsman named Master Leng (Kao Yuen). It's quite a frustrating experience to watch an Angela Mao film and have to wait so long to see her get back into action.The film was shot in Taiwan against some dramatic and picturesque backdrops. The music cues are mostly ripped off from John Barry's score for the sixth James Bond film, ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE (1969). There are several familiar faces in the cast, most notably Sammo Hung, future Jackie Chan co-star and a kung fu director in his own right, who was in many an Angela movie. He teams up with Han Ying Chieh to play Black Demon and White Demon, a pair of killers similar to the pair they'd play in Angela's masterpiece, BROKEN OATH (1977). Also on hand is Pai Ying, a frequent co-star/villain in non-Shaw kung fu movies. Feng Yi, who normally played corrupt officials or evil monks in Shaw Bros. films, plays a sympathetic fighting monk who helps Angela at one point.I suppose, under the circumstances, given that it was the first production of a fledgling studio and the first film for its budding 19-year-old star, that I should really be more lenient with it, but, overall, I'd have to recommend ANGRY RIVER only to Angela Mao completists and those interested in the early history of Golden Harvest. It's now out on VCD, with English subtitles, as part of the Fortune Star/Legendary Collection line.