Raped by an Angel (1993)

Raped by an Angel (1993)
AKA: Naked Killer 2
Chinese Title: 香港奇案之強姦
Translation: Hong Kong Crime Stories: Rape

Starring: Chingmy Yau, Mark Cheng, Simon Yam, Ng Suet-Man, Nick Cheung, Kingdom Yuen King-Tan, Dennis Chan, Cindy Yip, Fan Oi-Kit, Linda Cheung
Director: Andrew Lau
Action Director: Nicky Li Chung-Chi

Raped by an Angel is one of the more infamous titles in the Hong Kong filmography, not the least of which because the film spawned several sequels whose subtitles were even more outlandish. In some international markets, it was released as Naked Killer 2, probably due to the casting similarities and Wong Jing’s involvement as producer. Unlike the its predecessor’s ultra-stylish, every-scene-is-a-painting tale of sexy hitwomen, this is more of an erotic thriller-cum-rape revenge flick. Director Andrew Lau makes it look stylish most of the time, albeit not quite the way Clarence Fok had done his film. But it is also very tasteless and sleazy in a way that many viewers will need to take a shower after it’s over.

The film opens with a bang. And by “bang,” I mean that it opens with a woman coming home, being stalked by a man wearing a Jason mask, and then getting brutally violated by the guy. Psyche! Turns out the man, Chuck (Mark Cheng, of War and Tai Chi 2), is actually just really into rape roleplay and his girlfriend, May (Linda Cheung, of Last Hero in China), is fortunately (for him) willing to let him indulge in that particular kink. Although she worries that rape roleplay will one day result in him wanting to do the real thing, he assures her that doing it with her is enough to keep things channeled.

That is, until he turns on the TV and sees Chingmy Yau (High Risk and Naked Killer) in sexy soldier fatigues firing automatic weapons in a swamp. Turns out that Yau, playing a woman named Yau Yuk-Nam, a law student who makes ends meet doing commercials. The faux-Girls ‘n Guns film was actually a commercial for milk. Go figure.

Anyway, Chuck is immediately smitten and tracks her down to a nightclub where she’s celebrating the filming of her latest commercial with her crew. Chuck tries to put the moves on her, but her response of pouring her drink down his pants leaves him high and dry…or low and wet. So, Chuck sets his sights on Chu (Ng Suet-Man, of Martial Arts Master Wong Fei-Hung), Yuk-Nam’s best friend. He moves into the apartment next door to Chu—but not before ending his relationship with May by handcuffing her and, instead of having rough sex with her, having one of his friends do that instead.

But Chuck’s plans for Chu are arguably even worse. He gets into her good graces by informing her that as a high-powered lawyer, he knows the real estate agency good enough that he can find a place for her to buy that is just as big as her current pad, but much cheaper. He also puts the moves on Chu, but she shuts him down. Eventually, he just says “Screw it” and does the same to her, albeit with her consent. After a grueling session of sexual and psychological abuse, he leaves the damaged Chu in her apartment for Yau to find.

And where has Yau been all this time. For her law classes, she has been trailing a well-known Triad, Tso Tat-Wah (Simon Yam, of Killer’s Romance and Cyprus Tigers), whose legitimate filmmaking business has kept the authorities from discovering any possible illegal activity on his part. The two sort of form an unconventional relationship after surviving both a Triad hit and an attack from his ex-girlfriend, Pauline (Fan Oi-Kit, of Seven Sexual Maniacs and China Girls).

When Yuk-Nam discovers what happened to her friend, she convinces Chu to call the police and report what Chuck did. Chuck is immediately arrested and is taken before a judge to answer for his crimes. Unfortunately for Chu, Chuck managed to leave behind a series of planted evidence and public interactions to suggest that Chu was his girlfriend and that she was trying to extort money from him and then cover her tracks. Ultimately, the jury acquits Chuck of rape. But Chu’s trauma is about to get worse, as Chuck cannot believe that someone would ever commit him of a crime that he actually did commit…

On one hand, Raped by an Angel is very sleazy, with a number of uncomfortable scenes of sexual assault. Those scenes are the source for much of the film’s nudity. But on the same token, the sleaze is the purpose of the movie, although one would hope that the filmmakers would separate the titillation from the assault. But as far as I can tell, overlapping the two was the entire point of the exercise. And the film ends in a memorable, politically-incorrect manner that will probably explode the head of most progressives.

The climax involves Chingmy Yau being chased around her apartment by Chuck, who has found a way to get Simon Yam’s character out of the picture. Despite Yau’s fighting back with bear traps and baseball bats(!), Chuck eventually manages to overpower her and have his way with her. Psyche! In fact, the final victim, who willingly gave her body to the case, was in fact Cindy, one of Yuk-Nam’s friends, who had only recently discovered that she had contracted HIV from a philandering boyfriend. Yes, you read that right.

There are quite a few sex scenes, only a few of which are consensual. We also get far too much of Mark Cheng’s naked body, including some random scene of him walking back and forth in his apartment with his willie flopping around. Thanks, Andrew Lau…we really needed that. There is also a scene that brought to mind the infamous sequence from Last Tango in Paris, except that it’s consensual and, instead of butter, whipped cream is used as a lubricant. In the nudity department, we get three pairs of bare breasts and one almost pair. Plus Kingdom Yuen (Wing Chun), playing Yuk-Nam’s raunchy friend, talking about a kung fu B.J. technique involving ice cubes in one’s mouth.

Despite Nicky Li Chung-Chi—member of the Sing Ga Ban and go-to choreographer for many of the late Benny Chan’s films—being credited as the action director, there is only one fight sequence and that’s an attempted Triad hit at a barbershop involving machetes and baseball bats. It’s nothing special, however.

People who pick this film up based on any of its infamous VHS or DVD covers will probably be disappointed. For reference, one shows Chingmy Yau and Ng Suet-Man in army shorts and midriffs (that expose underboob) holding machine guns (a reference to the commercial they’re in); Another one shows gun-toting Chingmy in a slutty black leather dress that opens down the middle all the way to belly button; and the DVD cover showed Simon Yam in a lawyer’s wig with Chingmy wearing a bra, panties, and lace stockings and kneeling before him. Yau doesn’t do any nudity and her sex scene is implied, not shown. But she does do a sexy dance in her underwear near the end, for all you Chingmy fanboys out there. Just don’t expect her to expose as much skin as her colleagues, tough.

Black Magic (1975)

Black Magic (1975)
Chinese Title: 降頭
Translation: Sorcery/Black Magic

Starring: Ti Lung, Lo Lieh, Lily Li Li-Li, Ku Feng, Tanny Tien Ni, Ku Wen-Chung, Lee Sau-Kei, Yueh Hua, Chen Ping
Director: Ho Meng-Hua

Having already watched (and reviewed) the über-grotesque horror films that the Shaw Brothers produced in the early 1980s, something like Black Magic feels almost “quaint” in comparison. I mean, it has it’s share of disgusting moments, but it is ultimately small potatoes compared to the likes of Bewitched and its more notorious follow-up, A Boxer’s Omen. Nonetheless, every sub-genre has to start somewhere and for the “black magic sorcerer in Southeast Asia makes people’s lives a living hell” genre more-or-less started with this film.

The film is set in what I believe to be Malaysia, judging by all the minarets on their buildings. Usually, it’s Thailand, but Malaysia is a perfectly-acceptable alternative and the end result is ultimately the same. We open with a woman (Helen Ko, of Sex for Sale and The Killer Snakes) going to a black magic sorcerer named Shan Jianmi (Ku Feng, of The Kung Fu Instructor and Dynamo), requesting that her philandering husband and his current lover (Dana, of Super Infra Man and Edge of Fury) be killed. She gives him an offering of gold and jewels, to which he requests 5x more if he’s going to kill two people. Nonetheless, he takes her offering as a downpayment and gets to work: using the SE Asian equivalent to voodoo dolls, he makes the illicit couple have sex before jamming needles into them and causing their demise.

The bodies are discovered the next day by the locals, who quickly alert the village shaman, Master Furong (Ku Wen-Chung, of The Twelve Gold Medallions and 5 Fingers of Death). Furong quickly realizes that Shan Jianmi is behind it and starts chanting to send a supernatural Buddha avenger after him. Shan is saved at the last moment by the arrival of most recent client (the aforementioned woman), whom he ties to a post to distract the avenger while he runs out of the house. Time to move and set up shop in the city.

We then switch to Kuala Lampur, where we meet our main characters. The first is Xu Nuo (Ti Lung, of Duel of Fists and The Revenger), a handsome construction manager who is engaged to Quying (Lily Li, of Executioners of Shaolin and The Young Master). Unfortunately for Xu, he is the object of desire of millionaire widow Zhou Luoyin (Tanny Tien Ni, of The Magic Blade). Luoyin has set her sights on Xu Nuo and will do everything in her power to seduce him. Including, black magic, you say?

Well, not immediately. Mainly because that option is initially obvious to her. What brings it to her attention is her own admirer, a leech of a man named Chia Chieh (Lo Lieh, of The Chinese Boxer and Heroes of Shaolin). Chia Chieh wants to get in Luoyin’s panties because a) he’s almost broke, and b) she’s hawt. But his attempts to woo her usually result in abject failure, that is, until a friend of his suggests he go see a black magic sorcerer to cast a love spell. And wuddiyaknow? It’s Shan Jianmi, who has set up shop right outside of the city.

The spell involves hanging a large-schlonged voodoo effigy in her house and making her drink a love potion, which guarantees him a long night of pleasure with Luoyin. But the next day, the effigy falls from its place and the spells wears off. Rather than scream “Rape!” upon discovering Lo Lieh in bed next to her, Luoyin slyly asks him how he managed to bag her, and the idiot reveals his tricks to her. She offers him enough money to pay his debt to the sorcerer in exchange for the man’s address and sends him on his way.

So, the process for magically seducing Xu Nuo begins. It involves a love potion made from Luoyin’s own breast milk; samples of Xu Nuo’s blood and hair; and hiding effigies beneath the man’s bed. Soon enough, the spells takes effect—at the man’s own wedding, I might add—and soon he has forgotten about Quying and is spending his days banging Luoyin.

This is where things start to get real complicated. First of all, Shan Jianmi has fallen for Luoyin himself and performs a love spell on her to get into her panties—though it is not strong enough to overcome her love/lust for Xu Nuo (nor does Shan mind sharing her with her beau). Second, Quying’s attempting to bring her husband back to his senses irritates Luoyin to the point she requests that Shan kill her with a spell, too. He hits her with a curse that fills the poor woman’s body with worms, but thankfully for her, Xu Nuo’s best friend had almost been a disciple of Master Furong and some point. Furong recognizes Jianmi’s handiwork and is able to save Quying. From there on out, it becomes a series of magical confrontations between the two magicians for the life and soul of Xu Nuo.

If I were to point out one major flaw in the film, it’s that the film runs out of steam in the third act. The problem is that after Master Furong sets his sights on Shan Jianmi, there’s a scene where the spell on Xu Nuo is temporarily broken. Xu Nuo is about to go back to his old life when Jianmi starts doing his craft again and Xu Nuo becomes what is essentially a rage zombie. This leads to a prolonged sequence of Xu Nuo in the hospital undergoing brain surgery and recovering and whatnot. It is a total momentum killer when the film should be confidently barreling its way toward a big magical showdown.

The film also suffers from some really bad optical effects at the climax, the sort of which will leave you pining for the colorful beams of Toho’s 1950s and 1960s science fiction movies (including the Godzilla franchise).

The magical rituals themselves would be “very gross” to the newbies, but for those who have watched the movies I brought up in the first paragraph, will probably not make you wretch quite as much. There is a scene when Shan Jianmi has to “wake up” the corpse of an old woman in order to get some sort of fluid from her mouth to use in his death spell against Quying. And one random client has a ball of rice rammed into her snatch to make a love potion for her soon-to-be husband. The animal violence is not as bad as we know it can get in these movies. People may get squeamish at the idea of worms burrowing under the skin of Lily Li, but it’s presented in a manner that suggests that the actress herself wasn’t involved in the special effect.

There is a fair amount of sex and nudity, as one expects in these black magic films. We get to see Dana naked (again), in her brief scene with the unfaithful husband. At least two of the female clients have to give their breast milk for their respective love potions. In Tanny Tien Ni’s case, despite being something of a sex symbol in the 1970s, I don’t think she did nudity herself and usually employed a body double. In the case of this movie, the double had a noticeably larger bust size than she.

In the end, I found it interesting as a curio and as part of my Hong Kong cinema education, but nothing I’d consider wanting to revisit multiple times. Mileage of course will vary according to one’s tastes and preferences.

A Working Man (2025) & Mutiny (2026)

 Jason Statham vs. Human Trafficking: A Working Man and Mutiny

The more time that passes, the more apparent it is that Jason Statham has become this generation’s Steven Seagal. At least when he’s in action mode: unlike Seagal, Statham can switch to British criminal mode and occasionally into villain mode. But like Seagal, his action movies dictate that he has to be either a former cop, a former special forces operative, a former intelligence, or any combination of the three. He is also borderline unbeatable in his fight scenes, not too unlike Seagal. But unlike The Rotund One, Statham has kept himself in tip-top shape over the past quarter of a century since he started hitting it big. And he has more natural charisma than Seagal ever could muster, even at his best. But like Seagal, if you watch enough of his movies, they all start to feel rather interchangeable.

Jason Statham's follow-up to the sleeper hit that was The Beekeeper—I wonder how many people watched that because they liked it, and how much because there simply wasn’t anything better to watch at the time--was A Working Man, which reunited with that film’s director, David Ayer. Here we have a film about human trafficking. Now, let us all remember that Seagal himself has fought human traffickers on multiple occasions, most notably in Out of Reach. But given A Working Man’s release date, I’m guessing that Statham and company were more inspired by the runaway success of The Sound of Freedom than Seagal’s film.

The plot involves the kidnapping of the daughter of Statham's employers, who (yawn!) are like a surrogate family to him. For the record, the family is Mexican, which doesn’t have much bearing on the story, but there you go. Statham is a former British operative whose job took him away from home for long periods of time, which meant he wasn’t around when his wife passed away. His father-in-law has principal custody of his daughter and is fighting for sole custody under the impression that Statham is a violent man who has no business being a dad.

Once the daughter, Jenny (Arianna Rivas), is kidnapped by low-level Russian mobsters, Statham swings into action. (Actually, he goes to see his old war buddy for “permission” first, which buddy is played by David Harbour in a glorified cameo). He starts with the shady bartender at the last establishment—Jenny had been celebrating her first semester of college by getting a fake ID and going bar hopping—the girl had been seen at. This puts him into conflict with some local grunts for the Russia mafia, which leads him to mid-level lieutenant, Wolo Kolysnik (Jason Flemyng). He learns from Wolo that the man’s errant son, Dimi (Maximilian Osinski), was probably the one responsible: Dimi has his hands in all sorts of illegal activity that the other Russian mobsters do not wish to be involved in…such as kidnapping women and whoring them out to the highest bidder.

Because nobody that meets Statham—his name is Levon Cade, but we’ll just call him Statham---lives to tell the tale, it isn’t long before a higher-level mafia boss, Symon Karchenko (Andrej Kaminski), is on Statham’s trail. Apparently Wolo was Yuri’s brother or something. Meanwhile, Statham’s investigation puts him into contact with a gang of biker meth dealers, led by a African-American former special forces operative named Dutch (Chidi Ajufo). Dutch leads him to Dimi, but Statham can’t act until he knows where Dimi is. And it will only be a matter of time before Jenny’s rebellious attitude will get her in trouble with the prospective clients and Dimi’s enforcers, Viper (Emmett Scanlan) and Artemis (Eve Mauro).

On one hand, the film does take its time setting up a rather complex web of relationships between criminals. There are a lot of mini-bosses for Statham to deal with…I didn’t even mention the two unhinged mafia enforcers that Symon’s boss sends to assist him. On the other hand, the film is much too long and spins its wheels in the third act, especially when it introduces the Completely Random Corrupt Cops. Also, much like The Beekeeper, there was far too much profanity in this, especially from Artemis, who swears like she was in a Rob Zombie movie. We’re not talking about Quentin Tarantino “swearing with finesse.” It’s just F-bombs for the sake of F-bombs.

The fight scenes are generally pretty good, staged by Guillermo Grispo. Guillermo’s credits include The Kingsman films and some of the more recent Star Wars projects, like “The Acolyte” and Rogue One. There’s a short fight at the beginning between Statham and some (presumably) Trem de Aragua members hassling a member of the construction team he works for. That has him using a bucket, a pickaxe, and his fists…like a brutal Jackie Chan fight. The martial arts highlight is the fight at the biker bar, which sees him taking on a whole room full of drug-dealing bikers. Good choreography overall. The ending is more of a bullet ballet, but is a disappointment because his final showdown with Dutch is just too easy (which is where the film really feels like a Seagal flick), and his showdown with the two crazy assassins is even more so.

Although less successful than The Beekeeper, A Working Man still did reasonably well for the sort of generic action film that usually gets relegated to direct-to-video status. However, Statham's last two movies--Shelter and Mutiny--have been box office disappointments. I wonder if audiences have figured out that Jason Statham just keeps on making the film over and over again. Or maybe 2026 has really set the stage for successful blockbusters that the last two years didn’t do, so there was simply no way to compete with the likes of The Odyssey and Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Mutiny plays like a rehash of both The Beekeeper and A Working Man. Statham plays a former special forces operative and policeman (seen that before) who is working as a bodyguard for a shipping magnate in Thailand...who serves as a sort of surrogate family for him (seen that before). When bad people cause problems in the of his surrogate family (seen THAT before), he kicks into action to get revenge (seen THAT before) and go on a rescue mission save people from human traffickers (SEEN THAT BEFORE!!!).

The human trafficking element plays like a secondary element to the revenge aspect, although both threads more or less dealt with concurrently. It’s just that the people being trafficked often disappear for large swaths of the movie, at least until the final reel. In that way, Mutiny starts to look a little like The Transporter, but without the car.

The film puts a little more emphasis on the suspense elements than the action. There is a lot of Statham sneaking about the hull and the depths of the ship, trying to avoid conflict where he can. Assisting him is the third-in-command of the ship, a former Navy girl named Angie (Annabelle Wallis, of The Mummy and Anabelle). In this regard, it feels a lot more like the original Die Hard than, say, Under Siege, which was more outright action-oriented.

The action is pretty good, although a little sparse at times. The fights were staged by Godefroy Rykewaert, whose credits include Statham’s own Shelter from this year and the much-maligned The Crow remake. Much of the action is gun-oriented, but we get a narrow corridor knife fight and a big fight involving a fire axe at the end. The knife fight showed up in the red band trailer, in which we see Statham rip a man’s face open with the shackle of a padlock. But then it goes into Martial Club territory, and I’m always down for fights like that (that are well shot and staged). The final fight between Statham and the ship’s captain (Roland Möeller, of Skyscraper and Atomic Blonde) is more brutal Hollywood brawling, including the use of a fire axe (I watched this after several days worth of watching Hitman 3 shorts on Youtube, so I was pleased to see him kill people with an axe).

Mutiny probably has less to say about human trafficking than A Working Man did. The victims play more like an extra wrinkle in Statham’s quest for revenge—and an explanation of why the bad guys are so bad—than actual characters. I mean, we hope they are rescued before the mercenaries sent to pick them up can rape them, but the film is so preoccupied with Statham skulking about the ship that we forget about them whenever they aren’t onscreen. We never really learn who they are, how they were kidnapped, or what exactly the mercenaries’ aims with them are: cheap labor? Slave labor? Sex tourism? All of the above?

After watching The Beekeeper; A Working Man; and Mutiny in rapid succession, I sort of feel like I don’t need to watch anymore Statham films. Or, I don’t expect them to differentiate themselves much more from this template. That said, I do wonder if Statham will find himself relegated to direct-to-video films if the Beekeeper sequel fails to take off with audiences. But who am I kidding, I’ll probably keep on watching his movies regardless.