The Angry River (4 Stars)

Don't get too excited when you see Jackie Chan's name in the credits. As in all his early films, it was a very minor non-speaking role. If you blink you'll miss him.

"The Angry River" is a good film, although I didn't enjoy it as much as "Hapkido". It's Angela Mao's first film, and it's very different from the martial-arts films she would make afterwards.

Mao plays Lan Feng, whose father is poisoned by the villainous King Hell, and the only cure is a rare herb found in a remote mountain region. Lan Feng sets off to find it, encountering various dangers along the way. When she finally obtains the herb, she's temporarily deprived of her martial-arts abilities, but after returning home and discovering that her father has died, she takes the herb herself and regains her fighting skills.

Unfortunately, I didn't find the fights as impressive as those in Mao's later films. Even after she has regained her abilities, the action doesn't have the speed and impact of "Hapkido" or "Lady Whirlwind". That's understandable, since "The Angry River" was her first film and is much more of a traditional wuxia fantasy than the hard-hitting martial-arts films she would soon become known for.

It's also an historically important film. "The Angry River" was the first film made by Golden Harvest, although "The Invincible Eight" was released first. The cast and crew include several people who would become major figures in Hong Kong cinema, including Sammo Hung, Jackie Chan and Lam Ching-ying, while the action choreography was by the highly influential Han Ying-chieh.

Watching it now, it's fascinating to see Golden Harvest and Angela Mao right at the beginning of their careers. Only a few months after "The Angry River", Golden Harvest would release "The Big Boss", and Hong Kong cinema would change dramatically.

The film also has some wonderfully old-fashioned fantasy effects. I was particularly amused by the monster on the mountain. There's no mistaking that it's a man in a rubber costume, but somehow that only makes the scene more entertaining. It's the sort of thing that adds to the charm of an early-1970's wuxia film rather than spoiling it.

So "The Angry River" isn't my favourite Angela Mao film, but it's an enjoyable piece of Hong Kong cinema history and an interesting glimpse of both Mao and Golden Harvest before they became famous.