The Robin Shou "Action" Series (from Tai Seng)

Eastern Heroes (1991)
Aka: Fury in Red
Chinese Title: 轟天龍
Translation: Roaring Sky Dragon

Starring: Ben Ng Ngai-Cheung, Robin Shou, Conan Lee, Jo Jo Ngan, Newton Lai Hon-Chi, Ngai Suet, Lee Chun-Wa, Yau Gwok-Keung, Mark Houghton, Vincent Lyn
Director: Chong Lei
Action Director: Hung San-Nam, Tony Tam

Strange modern-day action produced by Phillip Ko Fei, with top billing given to Conan Lee and Robin Shou, even though both men disappear from the entire first half of the film after their initial introduction. The movie was part of Tai Seng's "Robin Shou Collection" in the late 1990s, alongside Fatal Chase and Interpol Connection (aka Hard to Kill).

The movie opens with gangster Hawk (Robin Shou) getting released from prison (in Los Angeles) and reconnecting with his boss, George (George Cheung, of The Amsterdam Connection). Hawk swears revenge against the cop who put him in jail, John (a white guy). John's wife is a Chinese woman named May, who is pregnant. May's brother, Roy (Conan Lee, of Tiger on the Beat), is John's partner.

After that introduction, we switch to Hong Kong, where we meet CID officer Steve Mak (Ben Ng, of Phantom War and Daughter of Darkness II). Steve is Roy and May's brother, and he's married to Jo Jo Ngan (of Brave Young Girls and City Warrior), who is also pregnant. Yeah, nothing good can come out of that. After an explosive introduction involving Mak taking down some bank robbers (including female Taiwanese bodybuilder Tu Kuei-Hua), Mak is assigned to handle the kidnapping of a successful businessman named Yau (Lee Wah-Kon).

Yau was kidnapped by a Vietnamese gang led by Vincent (Vincent Lyn, of Blonde Fury and Operation Condor), who in turn was contracted by the head of a rival company (Chang Ging-Cheung). The companies had been in a bidding war for a lucrative piece of property in the States and Yau had won, but if he's not around the sign the contract, then the rival gets the deal. Things are going swimmingly for the rival company until Vincent gets greedy, upping the price of the kidnapping (when the boss asks Vincent to murder Yau) and simultaneously negotiating a ransom with Yau's daughter.

Mak suspects that the rival businessman is involved and follows him around until the latter is ready to hand over the money to Vincent, which results in a three-way gunfight between the gang, the businessman's flunkies, and the police. When Yau's daughter tries to pay the ransom, the police step in and kill several members of the gang. At this point, the surviving members call George in the USA to help the, who sends Hawk to terrorize the Mak family and get revenge for his incarceration while he's at it...

The problem with Eastern Heroes is two-fold. First, it really does feel like two different movies stitched together. Not quite in the IFD/Filmark type of way, but after the introduction of Robin Shou's and Conan Lee's characters, the film spends the rest of the first half focusing on Steve Mak and the kidnapping. When the Vietnamese gangsters call George, which is where the film remembers that they had Robin Shou and Conan Lee in the cast, it becomes a completely different movie. And unfortunately, that new movie is extremely unpleasant, culminating in a long and explicit gang rape and mutilation of Jo Jo Ngan's character. And I guess this is the film where Conan Lee was making such a pest of himself on set that they finally blew his character up without telling him they would.

The action was staged by Hung San-Nam and Tony Tam. The former got his start as a stuntman in Venom Mob films and later went on to choreograph films like Vampire vs. Sorcerer and Escape from the Brothel. Tony Tam was one of the Baby Venoms (arguably a better kicker than Sun Chien himself) and later a member of Donnie Yen's team. There are only a handful of short fights dispersed throughout the movie, with the rest of the action being some well-staged gunfights. The finale gives us a shapes fight between Mark Houghton (playing an annoyingly smug FBI agent) and bodybuilder Lee Chun-Wa (Drunken Master), which is almost comic and clashes with the tone of the other fight going on. And that would be a feral, knock-down, drag-out brawl between Ben Ng and Robin Shou. Not a lot of neat-looking moves, just two men taking turns wailing on each other and kicking the other while they're down.

Fatal Chase (1992)
Chinese Title: 執法威龍
Translation: Law Enforcer

Starring: Robin Shou, Phillip Ko Fei, Waise Lee, Dion Lam, Yukari Oshima, Cheung Chi-Tak, Shing Fui-On, Jason Pai Piao, Ronnie Ricketts, Gabriel Romulo, Rachel Lobangco
Director: Phillip Ko Fei
Action Director: Dion Lam

Another movie that had been included in Tai Seng's "Robin Shou Action Series" back in the 1990s (God bless VHS). This one teams Robin Shou teams up with Yukari Oshima and Phillip Ko Fei in what comes across as a low-budget version of Ridley Scott's Black Rain, only with more kung fu.

After a gang boss (Jason Pai Piao, almost unrecognizable in his cameo here) is gunned down in public by a Filipino gang, the police (led by Wing Chun's Waise Lee) put Officer Dragon (Robin Shou) on the case. Dragon tails the gang leader, Torres (Dion Lam), who seems to be in league with a corrupt cop, Sai Gwai (Cheung Chi-Tak, of Cyprus Tigers). Torres sends his men to attack Dragon--they tie him up to his Filipina maid in a compromising position with a bomb next to them. Waise Lee tails Sai Gwai to a big drug deal between Torres and a local dealer (Shing Fui-On, in a cameo). Bullets fly and in the end, both the drug dealer and Torres are arrested.

Dragon (who was rescued offscreen) is assigned to take Torres back to the Philippines to be tried for his more extensive local crimes. Joining Dragon is a special investigations inspector, Cynthia (Yukari Oshima, of Avenging Quartet and Ultracop 2000). Dragon and Cynthia hand Torres over to the police, only for the real police show up several minute later, led by Sergeant Franco (Phillip Ko Fei). Ah ha! They have been bamboozled! Torres is now free and back with his boss/godfather, Tiger (Subas Herrero, of Guardian Angel and Asian Cop - High Voltage).

Tiger and Torres have a beef with another local gang leader, Tang (Franco Guerrero, of Warriors of the Apocalypse and Dynamite Johnson). Tang is meeting with some American gangsters to purchase some currency plates to make counterfeit currency, but Torres decides to steal them. This alerts Franco's old partner, Billy (Ronnie Rickets, of Angel on Fire), who is able arrest a member of Torres' gang. Tiger hires a pair of assassins to kill the guy before he can testify and then Billy as well. Meanwhile, Torres kills Cynthia in a scene not too unlike the one in Black Rain in which Andy Garcia gets offed. Dragon decides to defy orders and stay in the Philippines and team up with Franco to bring Torres, Tiger, and even some of the corrupt cops in their pockets to justice...

Unsurprisingly, this film is rather talky, jumping back and forth between multiple sets of characters. The action comes in fits and spurts, staged by Dion Lam (Spider-Man 2 and The Storm Riders). The fighting is rather uneven. When Phillip Ko Fei throws down with the female assassin (Rachel Lobangco, Lethal Panther 2 and Guardian Angel), the scene is undercranked and over-edited, which suggests that Ms. Lobangco wasn't a real martial artist. Shou's fight with her partner, played by Gabriel Romulo (the main villain in Ultracop 2000), fares better...until the fight inexplicably becomes comic (in an otherwise serious movie) with lots of intentional undercranking played for "comedic" effect.

The gunplay is mainly uninspired, although it gets a little better in the climax. Shou has a neat fight with Dion Lam at the very end, although it's a little too short. Don't expect much from Yukari Oshima: her role is essentially an extended cameo. She gets one fight alongside Robin against a room full of assassins disguised as baseball players. She throws some good kicks, but she's done much better work elsewhere. Not terrible, but I expected a lot more.

Interpol Connection (1992)
aka: Hard to Kill
Chinese Title: 至尊特警
Translation: Supreme Special Agent

                                                          

Starring: Robin Shou, Yukari Oshima, Simon Yam, Phillip Ko Fei, Lee Kwok-Leung, Lee Chun-Wa, Gabriel Romulo, Leung Yuen-Jing
Director: Phillip Ko Fei
Action Director: Dion Lam

The third and final movie in the "Robin Shou Action Series" that was released by Tai Seng back in the 1990s. This is another Phillip Ko-action fest starring Robin and Yukari and set in the Philippines. It's also not very good, once you get down to it.

The movie opens with a Hong Kong drug dealer played by Phillip Ko Fei arriving in the Philippines for a big heroin deal. The deal is interrupted by the arrival of the police, including the klutzy King Kong (Lee Chun-Wa, the muscular chef from Drunken Master). We know he's the Odious Comic Relief because he's the only member of the police force who doesn't wear a uniform: he's always decked out in a Hawaiian shirt, khaki shorts, and a Panama hat. The police manage to arrest Phillip Ko and that is that.

Back in Hong Kong (or at Interpol headquarters in Hong Kong), tough-as-nails Robin Shou is tasked with going to the Philippines and bringing Phillip back. He arrives in Manilla, where he's picked up by King Kong and the become friends of sorts, despite the fact that King Kong is a mostly ineffective boor. During transport to the airport, Phillip Ko is rescued by his men in a huge shootout. Robin and King Kong torture some suspects to find out what nightclub Phillip hangs out at, which culminates in a scene where a sex show involving Asian girls in bikinis lathering themselves in soap try to do the same to King Kong onstage, only to discover that he's wearing a bra, too...WTF?

Robin Shou follows Phillip's lover to his hideout, where Phillip gets the drop on him. Both he and King Kong are saved by the last-minute interference of Yukari Oshima, who shows up for no reason. At one point, Phillip and his men storm the hotel where Robin is staying and try to kill him, leading to another shootout. And finally, Robin, King Kong, and Yukari team up to take down Phillip at his next drug deal.

Despite the film's reasonably short running time, not a lot actually happens in this movie. And thus it feels slow and boring between most of the action scenes. I will admit that I watched this without subs, so I'm still not entirely sure what Yukari's role was supposed to be, though it seems she had some connection to Phillip Ko's lover--she even briefly fights Robin when he tries to shoot the other woman in the back. Much of the film revolves around King Kong acting stupid, which gets old very quickly.

The action was once again staged by Dion Lam, although he himself doesn't show up. Most of the action is gunplay--Robin gets to blow a number of stuntmen to pieces with a ginormous revolver. Yukari Oshima doesn't show up until about 50 minutes in, but has a nice one-on-many fight against Phillip Ko's men. At the end, Yukari has a nice fight against Ko's bodyguard, played by Fung Wai-Lun. It involves lots of kicking and staff fighting, plus the only time where an over-the-shoulder kick is used as a defensive counter to a jump kick. Meanwhile, Robin has a shorter-but-decent scuffle with Gabriel Romulo. The final fight between Robin and Phillip is a letdown, though.

Moon Over Tao (1997)

Moon Over Tao (1997)
Aka: Moon Over Tao: Makaraga
Japanese Title: Tao no Tsuki
Translation: Tao’s Moon

Starring: Hiroshi Abe, Toshiyuki Nagashima, Sayaka Yoshino, Yuko Moriyama, Takaaki Enoki, Kei Tani, Yukijiro Hotaru
Director: Keita Amemiya
Special FX: Tomo Hyakutake, Hajime Matsumoto
Action Director: Akira Ohashi

A few years after making Mechanical Violator Hakaider and the two Zeiram movies, writer-director-monster artist Keita Amemiya’s next project was a rather ambitious one. It was basically a Zeiram film set in period, albeit with lower-tech weapons and no “Zone” for our heroes to run around in—I guess filming in the forests of Japan is requires less extras than trying to set a believable action film in an urban setting. The film features alien babes (once more played by the pretty Yuko Moriyama), an indestructible alien monster, and earthlings caught in the middle. But it also features samurai sword fights, magical duels, and a more ambitious human story.

The film is set some time in the Sengoku Period (or some time before), opening at the fortress belonging to a daimyo named Tadaoki (Kei Tani, of Red Shadow and Samurai Fiction). Tadaoki’s men have recently come across a powerful sword while slaying bandits. The lord gives the sword to his trusted retainer, Hayate (Hiroshi Abe, of Godzilla 2000 and Chocolate), and asks him to find the source of the sword. Accompanying him is a warrior monk/magician named Suikyou (Toshiyuki Nagashima, of Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla and Gamera 2: Attack of Legion), who had previously served Tadaoki as a military advisor (though he tends to just up and disappear at times, much to his lord’s chagrin).

The two men decide to start their search in the bandit-infested (and sinister-looking) mountain not far from the fortress. The first person they meet there, however, is not a bandit, but a young peasant named Renge (Sayaka Yoshino, of Ninpuu Sentai Hurricanger Shushûto the Movie). Renge is out collecting honey from the local beehives and trying to steer clear of the bandits. Later that evening, Renge is awakened by the strange light in her window. She witnesses a trio of spacemen descending from what looks like a portal of light. The three spacemen get into an argument—they communicate telepathically, so we don’t hear it—and one of them strikes down their compadre with a sword. The other two depart to take their conflict elsewhere.

The fallen spaceman is actually a space woman named Kuzto (Yuko Moriyama) who has her mechanical support insect inject something into Renge so that they can communicate telepathically. Kuzto gives Renge a space gizmo called “the Tao” and tells her to either give it to one of her sisters, or to use it against “Makaraga”, should the entity appear. Kuzto gives Renge a special space tattoo that will allow her to use the Tao…and then expires.

The next day, Renge fulls around with the Tao and activates it, alerting the other two space woman—Marien and Abira (both of whom are also played by Yuko Moriayama, albeit in different wigs and make-up)—and the bandits. You see, the bandits in the vicinity are armed with the same sword that was given to Hayate and the loud sound produced by the gizmo causes the swords to shake violently. Renge turns off the Tao before anything else can happen, but the bandits are alerted to her location. They try to kidnap her, but she is rescued at the last moment by Hayate and Suikyou.

The three decide to follow the bandits back to their lair, where they discover that the brigands are led by a powerful magician named Kakugyou (Takaaki Enoki, of Heaven and Earth and Sailor Suit and Machine Gun: Graduation). We learn that Kakugyou and his men discovered a meteorite some time ago made of a powerful iron they’d never seen before. The iron of the meteorite was used to forge the special katana blades. What is more interesting is that at the core of the meteorite was a little white ball that kind of looks like a human brain.

What is that object? Well, that would be the Makaraga. We learn that the Makaraga is a biological weapon (see Zeiram) and is immortal (see also Zeiram). The Spacewomen got in a fight over it because Marien and Kuzto wanted to send it into the darkest reaches of space, while Abira wanted to use it in whatever revolution her clan was involved in on their home planet. There is a big fight between the good guys (including Marien) and Kakugyou’s bandit army, which inevitably results in the Makaraga being splashed with blood (see Zeiram 2). This awakens the creature and causes it to mutate, first into some worm-like parasites and then into a dinosaur-sized kaiju monstrosity. Will Suikyou, Hayate, Renge, and Marien be able to defeat the creature with their limited Earth weapons?

So, is Moon Over Tao any good? In my opinion, it’s pretty good…I guess. It has a lot going on: from sword fights to magical duels (similar to Big Trouble in Little China), cute space girls to giant ugly monsters, from buckets of blood to even a(n) (extremely) random gratuitous breast shot! There is no reason for people—i.e. people like me, fans of B-movie goodness—to NOT like this film.

That is, unless the execution of the cool concept(s) is less than the concepts themselves.

To me, the big problem is that Japanese fight direction in the 1990s was often (most of the time) rather dire. I personally like the fight scenes in the Zeiram movies, but I won’t ever compare them to even the most mediocre Hong Kong action flick from the same period. A few movies tried mimic their HK counterparts, most notably in Kunoichi: Lady Ninja, but I don’t think Japanese fight choreography was truly revitalized from its older Sonny Chiba days until Ryuhei Kitamura and Yuji Shimomura revolutionized the industry with Versus.

What I mean by all this is that the action direction is severely lacking in Moon Over Tao. I guess it’s not terrible, but it should have been a lot better. Hiroshi Abe showed us in Chocolate that he can swing a sword convincingly. And I personally enjoy watching Yuko Moriyama fake it. But I thought the martial arts in this film was rather weak. The showstopper was supposed to be a big three-vs-an-army sequence, but the choreography just didn’t grab me, especially on Yuko’s end. Akira Ohashi, who is credited with the stunts, has done both monster suitmation and fight choreography, but I guess he was too early in his game to do much with this.

The special effects are also questionable. Well, mainly the CGI used to animated the Makaraga monster from a distance. The design is certainly unique: the beast as a quadrupedal “base” with four crab-like legs, a large neck, and an even larger head with two horns protruding from its forehead and another from below its chin. But this is 90s CGI in a low-budget Japanese films. Even the most expensive Japanese movies at the time cost a small fraction of what a Hollywood blockbuster would have cost; a low-budget Japanese movie was fighting an impossible battle if it wants to use CGI.

I can see people watching this and enjoying its combination of science fiction, fantasy, and chambara elements, but it didn’t really grab me. And Yuko Moriyama looked a lot cuter as a female ninja or as Iria than she does in any of the three space women she plays here.

Kunoichi: Deadly Mirage (1997)

Kunoichi: Deadly Mirage (1997)
Japanese Title: Genma Sappōchō: Shinsengumi Hisho
Translation: Genma Demonic Murder Arts Chronicle: Secret Writings of the Shinsengumi

Starring: Miho Kiuchi, Hitomi Shiraishi, Michie Tomizawa, Mayu Ohara, Yumiko Mori, Motoko Nagino, Ryûshi Mizukami, Hiroyuki Watanabe, Takahiko Tatsuke
Director: Yutaka Akiyama
Action Director: Hideo Saito

Despite its title and the (strange) decision by Media Blasters/Tokyo Shock to package this in a double feature with Kunoichi: Lady Ninja, this movie is not part of the popular (for its niche) Kunoichi Ninpô-chô series. This was actually a low-budget, shot-on-video V-cinema release from Daiei from the same time period. Although it shares the same luridness as its more well-known contemporaries, it lacks the head-scratching outlandishness that made the Female Ninja Magic Chronicles films so unforgettable among B-movie enthusiasts.

The film is set around 1867, at a time that Japan was entering a certain civil conflict as the Imperialists, who wanted to modernize Japan and strengthen the emperor, fought against the Isolationists, who wanted to maintain the then-ruling Tokugawa Shogunate. An opening info dump informs us that the shogun set up the Shinsen-Gumi, a group of Ronin loyal to the shogun, to defend its interests. On the other hand, a number of powerful clans, including the Satsuma Clan (which is referenced by name throughout the film) have pooled together resources to support the Imperialists.

The Satsuma Clan hires the Hiryu Ninja Clan, led by Kegorou (failed Idol Miho Kiuchi, of Scorpion: Double Venom), to retrieve a secret letter in the hands of the Shinsen-Gumi, which … something … historical … I guess. Kegorou and her team of kunoichi—Kikyou, Ayame, Koyuki (Motoko Nagino, who did stunt double work for two incarnations of Super Sentai), and Kurenai (prolific voice actress Michie Tomizawa)—sneak into the Shinsen-Gumi headquarters, but don’t manage to find the letter. A fight breaks out between the lady ninjas and the Ronin, and Kegorou is only able to escape because Kikyou stays behind and lets herself get captured.

While the head of the Shinsen-Gumi, Toshi (Hiroyuki Watanabe, of Everly and Reborn from Hell: Samurai Armageddon), and his men are busy torturing and raping Kikyou, we learn that the secret letter is the hands of Senshiro and his lover, Saya (Hitomo Shiraishi, of The Bondage Master and Tokyo Decameron). Senshiro and Saya flee the Shinsen-Gumi after a random visit from a monk while the two are enjoying some sexy time.

The two are hunted by their fellow Shinsen-Gumi ronin and Senshiro is decapitated in the ensuing battle. Kegorou and her remaining ninja girls step in to fight the bad guys while Saya runs off with her lover’s severed head and goes crazy. The monk decides to try to resurrect Senshiro, only for his body to possessed by a demon and not Senshiro’s spirit. The demon seduces Saya with some purple goo and possesses her. Ayame, who had followed Saya into the woods, tries to steal the letter, but Saya beats her and allows her to get raped by the purple demon goo. At that point, the demon sends samurai monsters after the remaining Hiryu girls. Only two of them escape.

Kegorou and Koyuki go to the village where the monk had taken Senshiro’s body. There, they make an uneasy alliance with Soji (Takahiko Tatsuke), a member of the Shinsen-Gumi, to defeat the demon and its monster minions.

Running at a scant 72 minutes, Kunoichi: Deadly Mirage is a little more than cheap excuse for some female nudity and bad 90s CGI. Three of the six main actresses doff the duds and show their boobies to the camera. You get torture boobs, consensual sex boobs, and (unfortunately) some rape boobs. And the CGI used to depict the demon’s slime is pretty dire.

The fight choreography was provided by Hideo Saito, whose credits include stunt coordinator on the two Hollywood Grudge movies. As those movies are not known for their stuntwork, I don’t know what to make of that. The fighting feels more like your traditional jidai-geki sword choreography rather than Kunoichi: Lady Ninja’s more ambitious attempt to ape early 1990s wuxia pian. The problem is that as these young women were probably chosen more on their sex appeal (and willingness to get naked) than their martial skills, the fight scenes are pretty bland and forgettable. And the absence of over-the-top ninja magic just compounds that problem.

So, unless you have a penchant for naughty naked ninja movies—and there were a lot made between 1991 and 2010—there isn’t much of a reason to watch Kunoichi: Deadly Mirage.