{"id":49446,"date":"2026-05-03T15:35:36","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T07:35:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=49446"},"modified":"2026-05-03T15:35:36","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T07:35:36","slug":"why-1970s-hong-kong-film-legend-angela-mao-was-a-better-martial-artist-than-michelle-yeoh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=49446","title":{"rendered":"Why 1970s Hong Kong film legend Angela Mao was a better martial artist than Michelle Yeoh"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<div datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1xdhyk6 ec74h0k0\">A screen legend in the early 1970s, martial arts performer <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">Angela Mao Ying<\/span>, 75, is remembered for big hits such as the 1972 films <em data-qa=\"ContentSchemaRender-defaultRenderMapFunctions-Component\" class=\"css-1mniedq ex3nmsa15\">Hapkido<\/em> and <em data-qa=\"ContentSchemaRender-defaultRenderMapFunctions-Component\" class=\"css-1mniedq ex3nmsa15\">Lady Whirlwind,<\/em> and a small role in <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">Bruce Lee<\/span>\u2019s <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\"><em data-qa=\"ContentSchemaRender-defaultRenderMapFunctions-Component\" class=\"css-1mniedq ex3nmsa15\">Enter the Dragon<\/em><\/span> (1973).<\/div>\n<div datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1xdhyk6 ec74h0k0\">Beyond these, the Taiwan-born highly skilled fighter made several other excellent martial arts films. Here, we discuss Mao\u2019s <em data-qa=\"ContentSchemaRender-defaultRenderMapFunctions-Component\" class=\"css-1mniedq ex3nmsa15\">The Invincible Eight<\/em> (1971), <em data-qa=\"ContentSchemaRender-defaultRenderMapFunctions-Component\" class=\"css-1mniedq ex3nmsa15\">The Angry River<\/em> (1971), <em data-qa=\"ContentSchemaRender-defaultRenderMapFunctions-Component\" class=\"css-1mniedq ex3nmsa15\">The Tournament<\/em> (1974), <em data-qa=\"ContentSchemaRender-defaultRenderMapFunctions-Component\" class=\"css-1mniedq ex3nmsa15\">Stoner<\/em> (1974) and <em data-qa=\"ContentSchemaRender-defaultRenderMapFunctions-Component\" class=\"css-1mniedq ex3nmsa15\">The Himalayan<\/em> (1976) with film historian <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">Frank Djeng<\/span>, who provided the commentary for the 88 Films Blu-ray releases of the movies.<\/div>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\"><strong data-qa=\"ContentSchemaRender-defaultRenderMapFunctions-Component\" class=\"css-1mniedq ex3nmsa17\">Mao is a fantastic performer who is streets ahead of other female martial arts stars.<\/strong><\/p>\n<div datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1xdhyk6 ec74h0k0\">Yes, and she deserves more recognition for that. She retired early, so she was out of the limelight for around 30 years. It was not until the New York Asian Film Festival (invited her to present <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">Sammo Hung Kam-bo<\/span> with) a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010, that people started to talk about her again.<\/div>\n<div datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1xdhyk6 ec74h0k0\">I respect <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">Michelle Yeoh<\/span>, of course, but in terms of martial arts, Mao is the best. She learned martial arts at a Peking opera school in Taiwan \u2013 she did not come from a dance background (like Yeoh and <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">Cheng Pei-pei<\/span>). You could say Mao is a female version of Sammo Hung.<\/div>\n<div class=\"image-inline-container e1a5rv550 css-1llrc1m e1yqhwb40\" data-qa=\"Component-renderMap-StyledDiv\">\n<div class=\"image-inline caption e1fvabeq0 css-19sk4h4 ea9pn0s0\" data-qa=\"Component-Container\">\n<figure class=\"image-inline caption ea9pn0s1 css-1qeofuq e1gf69pb0\" data-qa=\"ArticleImage-ArticleImageContainer\">\n<div data-qa=\"ArticleImage-handleRenderImage-ImageContainer\" class=\"css-bjn8wh e1gf69pb3\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Angela Mao in a still from Enter the Dragon (1973). Photo: Golden Harvest\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/img.i-scmp.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto\/sites\/default\/files\/d8\/images\/canvas\/2026\/05\/01\/cbb831e2-b540-4336-81d5-7f634631b8f0_39c76357.jpg\" title=\"Angela Mao in a still from Enter the Dragon (1973). Photo: Golden Harvest\"\/><\/div><figcaption data-qa=\"ArticleImage-DescriptionContainer\" class=\"css-1bj5zno e1gf69pb1\">Angela Mao in a still from Enter the Dragon (1973). Photo: Golden Harvest<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\"><strong data-qa=\"ContentSchemaRender-defaultRenderMapFunctions-Component\" class=\"css-1mniedq ex3nmsa17\">Mao can really fight and uses authentic styles. It is amazing to watch her perform.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/lifestyle\/entertainment\/article\/3352099\/why-1970s-hong-kong-film-legend-angela-mao-was-better-martial-artist-michelle-yeoh?utm_source=rss_feed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A screen legend in the early 1970s, martial arts performer Angela Mao Ying, 75, is remembered for big hits such as the 1972 films Hapkido&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49447,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[19104,17832,1785,1900,3569,5231,1968,11421,6106,2862,2863],"class_list":["post-49446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bored-interesting","tag-1970s","tag-angela","tag-artist","tag-film","tag-hong","tag-kong","tag-legend","tag-mao","tag-martial","tag-michelle","tag-yeoh","wpcat-33-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/49447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}