Lady Whirlwind (aka Deep Thrust) (1972) d. Feng Huang (Hong Kong)
Hapkido (aka Lady Kung Fu) (1972) d. Feng Huang (Hong Kong)
Right off the bat, let’s make one thing clear: I don’t pretend to be a martial arts or Asian cinema expert. I’ve seen my share of chop-sockey flicks, both good and bad, but I’m a casual observer at best. Martial arts-wise, I’ve seen Bruce Lee’s five official features, several of Jackie Chan’s Hong Kong outings, Seven Samurai, 47 Ronin, a few 80s Cannon ninjafests, Five Deadly Venoms and other classic Shaw Brothers offerings, newer stuff like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, the Ong Baks, The Raid and its sequel, and maybe a dozen Jet Li movies. More than some, far less than others, but on the whole I can say I like the genre and am always eager to experience more.
Cold in July (2014) d. Jim Mickle (USA)
One hot summer Texas night, professional picture framer Richard Dane
(Dexter’s Michael C. Hall) is awoken by the sound of someone breaking into his home.
Spooked, the mild-mannered husband and father creeps downstairs and,
accidentally firing his pistol, mortally wounds the intruder who turns
out to have a criminal record a mile long. An instant small-town
celebrity, Dane is applauded by the local lawman (Nick Damici) for bringing
down “a really bad guy.” But when the burglar’s jailbird father
(Sam Shepard) comes to town looking for revenge, it sets in motion a
mysterious chain of events, revealing that nothing is as it appears to
be.
White Buffalo, The (1977) d. J. Lee Thompson (USA)
Produced by Dino de Laurentiis the same year as his Jaws/Moby Dick hybrid Orca, this similarly themed Western epic pits a syphilitic Wild Bill Hickok (Charles Bronson) against the enormous titular bison, with none-too-subtle parallels of them each being the last of their kind.
