Features

Angela Mao: The Queen Of Kung Fu Movies

Angela Mao
Angela Mao

Other names: 茅瑛
Maau Ying

Mao Fook Jing
Mao Fu Ying

Birth date: 20/9/1950
Nationality: Taiwan
Workplace: Hong Kong, Taiwan

Selected Filmography
1971:Angry River
1971:Lady Whirlwind
1972:Hapkido
1973:When Taekwondo Strikes
1973:Fate Of Lee Khan
1974:The Tournament
1977:Broken Oath

Angela Mao, nicknamed “Lady Whirlwind” and “Lady Kung Fu” by her fans, started of in Chinese opera, like most others at the time before making her way into the movie business. Around the same time, she also attended Ballet lessons, which is why in time she would be so flexible and show these movements in some of the movies. When attending Opera school, she and the others would wake up around 5am to learn Gymnastics, mid day she would learn singing, which then went onto reading books and more acrobatics in the evening.

angela
angela

Enter the movie world
In 1970, boss Raymond Chow, went to Hong Kong in search of new actors, where she was introduced to him by a friend. At the time, Raymond heard about Angela from Peking Opera and that she was a good performer on the stage, at the time they needed a leading role for a upcoming movie “The Angry River”.

Angela Mao's ability had met Raymond Chow's expectations and that's how she became involved with Golden Harvest. After making her first movie with Golden Harvest “The Angry River”, she went to make a movie with fellow kung fu star called “Lady Whirlwind”, the movie was filmed in Korea. Whilst they were in Korea they studied Hapkido, training very hard every day and in the end they were both awarded 3rd Dan Black belts. This led them to come back to Hong Kong and start work on there next movie, titled “Hapkido”, which also starred Carter Wong, Wang In Sik and Ji Han Jae.

In 1973, Angela appeared in a few movies such as “When Taekwondo Strikes”, “Thunderbolt” and “The Fate Of Lee Khan” (Directed by legend KIng Hu). Then she was approached by and director Robert Clouse the same year, to have a small role in the international movie “Enter The Dragon”. In the movie, she would play Bruce Lees sister who was killed after being chased down by a gang at the start of the movie in the flashback scene.

lw1
lw1

In the few years that went by, she went to appear in other movies for Golden Harvest such as, “The Tournament”, “Stoner”, “A Queen's Ransom” and “The Himalayan”. In 1977, she made the movie “Broken Oath”, which co-starred Chan Wai Man and Chiu Hung and action by Yuen Woo Ping. Two years later, she made a movie called “Dance Of Death”, which was choreographed by Jackie Chan. In that movie, she would use lots of back-flips and somersaults, something Jackie could relate to, also starting off in the Peking Opera school.

One new years day, when she was coming home from her god fathers house, a guy attacked Angela in the street. Angela, of course knew her stuff and landed a few kicks on her attacker before he fled the scene. This story was to make it to the national newspapers and also made tv headlines.

In the 80's she would appear in a few movies, the most famous one being “Snake Deadly Act” (A great movie by the way). She retired from films in 1992 to devote herself to her family. Angela is my all time favorite female kung fu star, the real deal.

Mao trained in hapkido, wushu, taekwondo, and other forms of martial arts during her film career to prepare for her roles. She was paid US$100 for her short role as the sister of Bruce Lee's character in the film Enter the Dragon.

Angela's best lines:
“Want to die? Come on!” — When Taekwando Strikes
“That is to teach you not to talk to me dirty!” — Lady Constables
“Killing you is going to be a real pleasure!” — Hapkido
“That tone of voice–you might scare some young kid with that, but not me!” — Swift Shaolin Boxer
“Well then, you want some more?” — Lady Whirlwind
“He's with your mother!” — Dance of Death
“Now you can die, too. Because I'm going to kill all of you!” — Deadly China Doll

About the author

kingofkungfu

Hi my name is Justyn Hughes, I have been involved or watched martial art kung fu movies most my life. I started muay thai when i was around 4-5 years old for ten years. I became a fan of kung fu flicks after watching prodigal Son in the mid 90's and that blew me away. Some of my favorite stars are: Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao, lam Ching Ying, Lau Kar Leung, Ti Lung, David Chiang, Chen Kuan Tai and many more.

King Of Kung Fu (Justyn Hughes)

Favorite movie: The prodigal Son

  • Yes i always have loved her movies, Hapkido and Lady Whirlwind are the 2 movies i can remember the best, nice to see a tribute to her, she deserves it.

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