First, let me point out for this review, apart from reading other reviews and capsule summaries, the plot is not completely clear as I did not listen to the audio. I obtained a poor English-dub VHS copy; and while it's been many years since I have listened to any English dub film (of any type), this is worse than anything I have ever heard or ever imaginged in my worse dreams. It is bad even for a old "Kung Fu" movie dub. The dubbing is singularly ghastly--almost as though it was a joke for those doing the dubbing...but (un)fortunately, it was not amusing.

Even watching without sound, several things became immediately clear. First, I cannot imagine the budget for this film was larger than the cost of the celluliod. Although, oddly enough, it appears to have been filmed somewhere in the north where it was very cold (Korea?).

Second, remember this is 1972, and on-screen fighting (without weapons at least) was still far from being refined to the point it would be just a few years later by Lau Kar-Leung, Yuen Wo Ping, Jackie and Sammo, and to a lesser extent, others. But one can already see the Sammo-choreographed touches here, and the fighting is nonetheless suprisingly good for the day. Although given the limited budget, one can see a lot of this was done with minimal takes, as choreography mistakes, even by Sammo, are blatantly obvious.

The dramatic acting in this film is surprisingly good as well. Angela, Sammo, Chang Yi as well as several supporting cast performances all stand out without being completely over the top. A nice job. The Huang Feng direction may have helped here.

Without a doubt, though, the most obvious, unusual, as well as refreshing, aspect of this movie is Angela: she is depicted as 100% invincible. Nobody as much as lays a glove on her...and yet she mops the floor with entire roomfuls of bad guys...several times. Her displayed martial arts ability is certainly good, and although she is stunt-doubled in a few short summersault and jumping scenes, the one problem is her power delievery does not appear to match the effect on her opponent. And in that respect she is not completely convincing: certainly nowhere near as convincing as she would be in some of her other movies (especially later ones) where her kicking combinations and reversals are wickedly fast. Still, however, given the lack of budget and lack of takes, Angela is just as impressive as pretty much anyone (ever).

In this respect--without digressing into a lengthy social commentary--this movie may be among those that set a precedent in that the female lead is a physically and emotionally invincible action star--essentially playing the mythological male-hero role, and performing essentially all of her own stunts. How many movies or actors can fit that description? Outside of HK cinema? Nearly zero.