Dotsthavesp I wanted to but couldn't!

Brainsbell The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

Sameer Callahan It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Woodyanders Korea, 1934. Three top martial arts school students -- shrewd Kao Yu Ying (Angela Mao, everyone's favorite petite firebrand), sensible Kao Chang (charming Carter Wong), and impetuous Fan Wei (liable Sammo Hung) -- move to China to start their own school. They face opposition from a rival Japanese school. Director Feng Huang, working from a compact script by Yan Ho, relates the enjoyable story at a swift pace, maintains a generally serious tone with a few amusing moments of humor, and stages the abundant kung-fu fights with stirring aplomb. Moreover, the plot neatly explores the themes of patience, courtesy, and standing up for the weak and oppressed. The three protagonists are very engaging, with Mao in particular once again in strong and assertive form as she takes on and defeats a school full of guys (she even beats one dude up with her pigtails!). The Japanese villains are quite arrogant and obnoxious. Yu-tang Li's crisp and lively widescreen cinematography rates as another definite asset. A cool little item.

deangelised This movie is a pearl which I hungered for a long time. While the plot is quite simple, for a modern day viewer it may contain some really unexpected twists. But we watch martial arts movies not for the brilliant plot, do we? I myself learned hapkido in Korea for a year and this movie brought to me a sweet nostalgia. Although, sometime I was not very happy with the choices of the heroes in their styles, and some greatly effective counter- attacks was never used, but in this movie you can see a variety of skills taught up to the third dan of the black belt. This movie gets 10 points from me, because these are really authentic hapkido. However, there is some important for me mistake in it. It is said in this movie that hapkido is an ancient Chinese martial art. It is entirely not true. Hapkido is a very recent (beginning on the XXth century) Korean martial art.

glenn-aylett I have seen this film twice and I believe it to be way ahead of its time as, firstly, it features a woman as the main martial arts star when this was almost unheard of and, secondly, features a martial art very few people would have heard of in the West and Hapkido was given the title Lady Kung Fu in America to reach a wider market.Basically Hapkido is the story of three students of Hapkido, a Korean martial art like a cross between karate and jiu jitsu, who are persecuted in thirties China by the Japanese who set up karate schools and try to ban non Japanese martial arts. Obviously this being a martial arts film there are some spectacular fight scenes between the Japanese and the Koreans, particularly the end fight where Angela Mao and Hwang in Sik take on two Japanese senseis, one of whom is a dab hand with a sword, and fight them to the death, Angela Mao having a unique figthing technique that involves her pigtails.The main drawbacks are fairly poor dubbing on the version I've seen, Angela is given a corny American accent, the very cheap sets and poor acting. However, the quality of the fight scenes cannot be faulted and Angela Mao is as good as Bruce Lee.

handofaces-1 Well, it's been a while since I've written a comment about a movie. Hapkido aka Lady Kung Fu is Fantastic. Mao Ying, Sammo, and Carter are all excellent in this film. The reason I'm writing a comment is because recently I have been a little disenchanted by some of the 70's kung fu films that I have seen. People have said films like The Master of the Flying Guillotine or The Five Deadly Venoms are Fabulous, but it seems to me that although there is things that are mentionable in those films,they lack something, perhaps a story that just hooks you such as Hapkido does. The only thing I am sad about is that the DVD I bought was in poor quality visually, but it was still in widescreen. I've only seen two of Mao Ying's films--Hapkido and Dance of Death. Dance of Death exhibits Mao Ying's talents, but it lacks a bit in story. The difference between hapkido and dance of death is that in dance of death mao ying is constantly fighting scene after scene which could be a joy to watch...though as I said before the story lacks...HEY I just put two movie critiques in one...heheh Last words: Hapkido should be a classic and it should be on DVD digitally remastered, widescreen, with originally Chinese language and English subtitled for the world to love..by the way this is better than fist of fury in my opinion sorry bruce...bruce is great but this movie is better.