The Villainess (2017)

The Villainess (2017)
Original Title: 악녀
Translation: Villain(ess)

 

Starring: Kim Ok-bin, Shin Ha-kyun, Sung Jun, Kim Seo-hyeong, Eun-ji Jo, Ye-Ji Min, Kwon Hyuk-bum, Jung In-Tae, Hae-Kyun Jung, Yun-Woo Kim, Seung-Joo Lee, Cheol-min Park, Min-Ji Son
Director: Jung Byung-gil
Action Director: n/a[1]

 

I’ve long kept myself aloof of the whole Korean cinema revolution that started with Shiri in 1999. I mean, sure, I made quick efforts to watch giant monsters movies like Yonggary and D-War, but that’s only because I’m a kaiju ohtaku. Beyond that, I have no real good reason to not make more than modest efforts to watch Korean movies, but I just haven’t. I suppose I’ve invested so much of my life in Japanese movies—mainly kaiju and tokusatsu stuff—and Hong Kong-Taiwanese-Chinese action-martial arts cinema that the idea of adding another country to the mix seems a little daunting. But even then, I’ve made efforts to stay afloat of Thai martial arts movies, so then, what’s the difference?

I think Koreans have carved out their own specific cinematic identity as their films have gained international renown. Thai action cinema, especially under the late Panna Rittikrai, was basically Jackie Chan 2.0, but with more flying elbow smashes. A Hong Kong cinephile—especially one who was reared on 80s action movies—can sit down for a Thai film in absolute comfort. Korean cinema seems to have its own artistic and storytelling sensibilities, even when it comes to action. There are not many pure martial arts movies coming out of Korea—there were a handful in 2000s, including a few wuxia movies choreographed by Hong Kong veterans—although they do have crime thrillers and the like that often get attention for a specific fight sequence amidst the more conventional action beats.

I feel like a journey into Korean cinema is something that cannot be done half assed. It strikes me as a film industry in which all of it has its cultural stamp on it in such a way that to appreciate most of it, you have to watch a lot of movies. I’m always weary of making a new cinematic journey, because of how much time and money has already gone into my more “conventional” martial arts (and HK bullet ballet) collection—not to mention whenever I go on buying sprees for movies that fit an idea for a book I have, only to be abandoned later on.

All this means is that I’ve seen precious few Korean movies outside of the late 70s/early 80s chopsockey films which are practically the same as their Hong Kong counterparts anyway. So, whatever my thoughts on The Villainess might be, you may take my opinions with a grain of salt.

We open in the best possible way a movie could open: a balls-to-wall, blood-as-hell action sequence filmed like a first-person shooter. Just imagine the infamous scene in Andrzej Bartkowiak’s Doom, but with no CGI monsters, only stuntmen getting blood splattered all over the walls. A woman enters an apartment building is quickly starts shooting, killing dozens of men who pour out of the rooms and try to stop her. The building is apparently the HQ of a drug gang, as she storms a lab and puts a bullet in all of the white-coated lab guys. She eventually gets her gun knocked out of her hand, so she switches to a pair of long knives and hacks, slices, chops and stabs the remaining goons before she storms the villain’s inner sanctum. After a blistering fight, the girl kills the drug lord via a reverse-hanging and is arrested by the police who have just arrived on the scene.

The girl is Sook-hee (Thirst’s Kim Ok-bin), the widow of a murdered crime boss who was trained by her husband/surrogate father (yeah, it’s really weird) to be a one-woman army. She is taken into custody by a shady government agency who trains young women to be sleeper assassins. Her boss, Kwon (Kim Seo-Hyeong, of The City of Violence), makes her an offer: if she works for the agency for 10 years, her and her child—Sook-hee is pregnant—may live a normal life. She makes friends, like Min-joo (Son Min-ji), and enemies, like the bitchy Kim Seon (The Concubine’s Jo Eun-ji). At length, her baby is born and she raises the child in the confines of the training center until it’s time for her first mission—which involves a sword fight on motorcycles in oncoming traffic. Having survived that, Sook-hee and her daughter move out of the complex and into an apartment to start her new life.

Sook-hee, under a new name, is employed as an actress at the local theater, occasionally being given missions to murder someone in the crime world. Unbeknownst to her, Sook-hee’s new neighbor, Hyun-soo (Korean TV actor Jung Sun), is an agent for the organization whose job is to babysit Sook-hee, even if it means dating her. There is an interesting scene early on in which all of the male agents in the surveillance room are discussing who wants to take on the job of supervising Sook-he. When Hyun-soo volunteers, his colleagues comment that in addition to a promotion, he may very well get some action in bed as a fringe benefit. Sook-hee and Hyun-soo eventually do become an item. Things take a turn for the dramatic when Sook-hee is ordered to carry out an assassination on her wedding day. While that in and of itself isn’t a problem, a glance at the target gives Sook-hee the jitters.

Most viewers will immediately identify The Villainess with movies like La Femme Nikita and its Hollywood counterpart, Point of No Return. The movie benefits from a strong performance of Kim Ok-bin as Sook-hee, who runs the whole gamut of emotions: vulnerability, anger, sadness, desperation, bloodthirstiness, idealism, puppy love, and even a smidgen of lust. Her team-up mission with Min-joo ends in an unexpected manner, which exposes both her vulnerable side and her horror at the sheer callousness of her employers. She juggles the emotions of bloodlust and sorrow quite handily during the climax, too. The other actors acquit themselves well, but this is mainly a tour-de-force for Kim Ok-bin.

Director Jung Byung-gil is best known for Confession of Murder, which takes its horror-suspense premise and turns it into an over-the-top action movie. Jung and the film’s martial arts team are at home when it comes to the action sequences. The non-action scenes are generally compelling, although at 123 minutes, the film runs a little long. The movie slows down at around the hour mark and doesn’t really pick up until the last twenty minutes. Jung uses flashbacks—often at inopportune moments—to tell Sook-hee’s backstory, including everything that led up to the opening set piece. I think that the movie could have been trimmed a bit to keep things a bit snappier without losing the depth of Sook-hee’s character.

The action scenes are definitely top tier stuff, although I recommend that you adjust your TV’s brightness and dim the lights in the living room before watching this. Several of the more important set pieces are set at night, so if you have a glare on the TV screen, you’ll miss a lot. The first-person perspective bloodbath is a bit chaotic at times, but always visible. The film cleverly switches out of first person when a henchman grabs Sook-hee and slams her head into a mirror, thus revealing who has been doing all this killing. The ensuing fight is a bit shaky, but it is also filmed with minimal cuts as the camera moves in and around the combatants. It is very dynamic.

The most conventional fight is a brief display of Sook-hee’s sword prowess during a training session against Kim Seon. The lighting is normal, the photography is pretty conventional, and while cut a bit more than I would like, it’s still a solid little duel. Sook-hee’s sword duel with what appears to be a Japanese gangster is similar, but with darker lighting. It’s the motorcycle sword duel with the gangster’s flunkies that really impresses, with Kim Ok-bin (or her stunt double) exchanging complex sword attacks while driving motorcycles through a tunnel. And then they ride into oncoming traffic and it becomes The Matrix Reloaded part 2, but more hair-raising.

The finale is broken into three parts. It starts off with gun fight in a kitchen that would make John Woo proud. Sook-hee and the main villain have a brief knife duel that wanders into Chocolate territory with the combatants falling out a building and standing atop air conditioners as Sook-hee knocks any new opponent to the ground below. And then things get really crazy, as the villains commandeer a bus and Sook-hee chases them, driving a car as she crouches on its hood, ready to jump onto the bus when she draws close enough. It ends with a bloody axe fight on a moving bus, which often results in Sook-hee’s head getting shoved outside, with oncoming traffic threatening to rip it off. The fight itself is a bit too Batman Begins for my taste, but the premise and the stuntwork—assuming that stuntmen are falling off the bus—are just great.

You could have probably cut about ten minutes out of the final film—a snip here and trim there—and it would have been better. There are some very well-photographed action sequences, so anyone with the minimal tolerance for chaotic (if still visible, most of the time) camerawork will definitely enjoy this film.

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[1] - The IMDB doesn’t credit an action director or fight choreographer. The Korean Movie Database does mention the martial arts team: Ryu Seongcheol, Kim Min-soo, Han Jeong-uk, Baek Dong-hyeon, Jang Han-seung, Gwon Ji-hun, Choe Bong-rok, Jeong Jin-geun, Yoon Dae-won, Song Won-jong, Jeong Dong-hyeok, Jang Han-byeol, Seon Ho-sam, Chae Seong-won, Kim Yeong-min, Lee Su-min, Lee Gwang-ki, Lee Hwak-gwang, Park Yong-gyun, Jee Sang-min, Kim Seon-ung, Cheon Jun-ho, Kim Seong-jong, Yu Mijin, Kim Seung-chan, Yoon Sung-min, Jo Kyeong-seob, Gim Yui, Choi Hyun-wu, Lee Yujin, Seo Yeongmin, Hong Juman, Kim Yonghak, Lee Seung Chang, Choi Jun Young, Lee Cheol Il, Choe Minhyeok, Lee Chan Hee, Kim Mi Jin, Kim Hyun Ei, Kim Jihye

Headshot (2016)

Headshot (2016)

Starring: Iko Uwais, Chelsea Islan, Sunny Pang, Very Tri Yulisman, Julie Estelle, Ario Bayu, Yayu A.W. Unru, Ganindra Bimo
Director: Kimo Stamboel, Timo Tjahjanto
Action Director: Iko Uwais, Uwais Stunt Team

Headshot is Iko Uwais’s sixth film, coming on the heels of his brief appearances in the Hollywood blockbuster Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens and the Chinese-American co-production Man of Tai Chi. This movie places him once more at the center of the action, albeit without Welsh director Gareth Evans in the director’s chair. This time, we have horror directors Kimo Stamboel (Killers and Macabre) and Timo Tjahjanto (ABCs of Death and V/H/S 2) helming the production, which was partially financed by Japanese studio Nikkatsu. Given the directors’ background and the fact that Nikkatsu also owned Sushi Typhoon, which gave us lots of ultraviolent made-for-ohtaku movies, it’s no surprise that Headshot is unrelentingly gory. So much so, in fact, that it often threatens to stop being fun and simply mean spirited instead.

The movie begins with a violent jailbreak in which a man in a high-security cell (Sunny Pang, of The Night Comes for Us and Kill-Fist) is broken out when the prisoner-cum-janitor pulls a shank out of the bucket’s dirty water and goes to town on the prison guards. The prisoner in question, Lee the Sea Devil, then does something so risky and treacherous that you have to hand him an award. He goes into the guard’s room, sets off the alarm, releases all the prisoners in his cellblock, and arms them. He then lets them have a Mexican stand-off with the remaining guards while he skulks in the shadows. After they’re done blowing each other to pieces, he simply walks over the dead bodies and escapes.

At the same time as the prison break, a fisherman named Romli (Yayu A.W. Unru) discovers the body of the man on the bank of a river. He takes the body of the man to the hospital, where he lays in coma for two months. The doctor attending him is Ailin (Chelsea Island, of Street Society and May the Devil Take You) and she has taken a liking to her John Doe patient. One day, the man wakes up and we quickly realize that the man has amnesia. When asked what his name is, he responds “Ishmael”—Ailin is seen reading Moby Dick in his room when she’s off duty.

At about the same time, Lee and his gang are offing one of their clients and his henchmen when he learns that Ishmael may still be alive. He sends a guy to investigate, using the clever ruse of blowing the man’s ear off with a pistol so as to give him a reason to get medical attention. The guy is about to start roughing up Ailin for answers when Ishmael shows up and beats him up with skills that even he didn’t realize he had. That immediately puts a target on his and Ailin’s backs. So when Ailin leaves town for Jakarta for greener pastures, Lee’s men show up looking for Ishmael. When they don’t find him on the bus, they murder everyone aboard and make off with Ailin. Ishmael will now have to remember his past and face it head on if he wants to rescue Ailin.

Headshot feels like The Bourne Identity by way of Avenging Eagle[1], with a little bit of Black Mask thrown in as well. The Bourne influence is obvious both in the amnesia plot and the shaky cam that mars a lot of the fights in the first half. As we learn more about Ishmael’s past, we discover that he one of many who had been trained by Lee to be a soulless killer since childhood. All of Lee’s subordinates were trained in that fashion, including being tossed into a well with other children, starved for days and then forced to fight each other over a bottle of water. Pretty sick stuff, if you ask me. So yeah, the fact that Ishmael’s “father” is the main villain is what makes this movie closer to Avenging Eagle than Azumi. The bit about facing one’s past is also an element of Black Mask, and some of the fights suggest that Lee’s training practically rendered his stronger subjects almost impervious to pain.

The first half is a lot more notable for Ishmael’s interactions with Ailin than for the action itself. When the bad guys step foot on the bus, you actually start feeling worried about her character. That goes double when the killers open fire on all the passengers. Ailin is the emotional core of the film and Chelsea Islan does a good job of making her a compelling character.

You know, Chinese martial arts and action movies—I say “Chinese” to include Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the PRC—have always excelled at creating complex, balletic action sequences, even when dealing with gunplay. Obviously, the fact that many of the best choreographers were trained in Peking Opera has a lot do with it. Japanese movies have traditionally lacked that—although some movies made in the past 20 years benefitted from a generation of filmmakers raised on Jackie Chan and Yuen Biao—but they made up for it with a harder edge, more sleaze and just general weirdness. Indonesia it would seem—and this goes back to the 80s and the days of Barry Prima—just went for the blood and guts.

Headshot is no exception. In fact, the film is so needlessly violent and gory that it often becomes simply unpleasant to watch. Admittedly, I don’t consider myself a gorehound, so I may not be the best person to judge a movie like this. But this film is just vicious. Innocent people are blown away without a second thought. People get stabbed in the neck, which scenes are always followed by dark-red aterial sprays. A good portion of the characters die after spewing half a pint of blackish-red blood from their mouths. One character gets a face full of flesh wounds after a shotgun goes off a few inches from it. Another character gets stabbed through both cheeks with a machete. And the list goes on. If it had been released to theaters (instead of streamed on Netflix), it would have been saddled with an NC-17 rating.

The action sequences often emphasize the violence and brutality as opposed to the ballet of the actual movements, at least in the first half. This comes to a head during a brutal showdown between Ishmael and a number of killers at a police station. Ishmael and his opponents tear each other to pieces while dead policemen, covered in blood from slit throats, “watch on” in the background. These early fights are a bit too shaky and chaotic for their own good, with a bit too much handheld camerawork.

The martial arts action improves in the second half, as Ishmael has to contend with his “father’s” top killers. The first big fight pits Iko Uwais against Very Tri Yulisman, who played “Bat Boy” in The Raid 2. Yulisman’s fighting style involves a retractable steel baton, much like Donnie Yen in Sha Po Lang. There is some very good fast-hands, lighting-fast exchanges of blocks and strikes during this sequence. It is a wonder that after blocking so many blows from a baton, that Ishmael’s arms haven’t been reduced to jelly. The following fight is a rematch between Iko Uwais and Julie Estelle, who played the Hammer Girl in The Raid 2. This time, Estelle fights with a nasty-looking hunting knife. There are some nice evasive moves and complex exchanges of handwork, plus some flashy takedown moves executed by Estelle, too. Once more, the fact that Uwais gets sliced up as much as he does and still fights suggests that he’s nothing less than a 701 soldier from Black Mask.

The best is saved for last, when Iko Uwais and Sunny Pang face off. Pang has obviously trained in Chinese martial arts, so his uses what looks to be a mixture of the Tiger and Eagle claw styles, mainly the former. Between his fighting style, his mustache, and his general air of ruthlessness, Sunny Pang is like the spiritual successor to Chan Sing in this movie. In any case, the fight choreography here is simply astounding and makes up for the shakiness for the action earlier in the movie. These two just tear each other to pieces, often literally, given the styles used. And like any other action sequence in this movie, it ends on an rather gory note, which goes to remind us that yes, this is what you get when you have a bunch of horror directors make an action movie. At least they’re consistent, I suppose.

In the end, Headshot is a strange beast. You have these really good fights in the last act, plus some nice character interaction between the leads. But these are distributed amidst a sea of hyper-violent excess that will undoubtedly turn off some viewers, even those who enjoy martial arts mayhem. That makes it hard for me to rate this film. If violence for the sake of violence doesn’t bother you, you’ll certainly find a lot to enjoy here. If it does, beware. It may not be worth sitting through for some good fights later on.

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[1] - By extension, you could swap Avenging Eagle for Naked Weapon or Azumi and get a similar result.

Operation Pink Squad (1988)

Operation Pink Squad (1988)
Chinese Title: 霸王女福星
Translation: Overlord Female Lucky Star

 

Starring: Sandra Ng, Ann Bridgewater, Elsie Chan, Suki Kwan, Tan Lap-Man, Wu Fung, Lowell Lo, Billy Lau, Yuen Cheung-Yan, Melanie Barter, cameos by Ricky Hui and Jeff Falcon
Director: Jeff Lau
Action Director: Yuen Cheung-Yan

 

The Girls n’ Guns (sub)-genre was already on firm footing by the time Operation Pink Squad came out at the tail end of 1988. The classic Yes, Madam! had made waves three years earlier, followed by two sequels: Royal Warriors and In the Line of Duty III, the latter coming out the same year as this one. Taiwan had already joined the party with Book of Heroes, while Moon Lee and Elaine Lui had already headlined two Angel movies. Moreover, American actress Cynthia Rothrock had memorable turns in Righting Wrongs and the Jackie Chan-produced The Inspector Wears Skirts, which predated Operation Pink Squad by several months.

Operation Pink Squad is the brainchild of writer-director-producer Jeff Lau, one of the more eccentric names in Hong Kong cinema. He tends to focus in the comedy genre, and his films are very…odd. He’s not as crass as his contemporary Wong Jing, but his work is arguably less accessible to foreign audiences than Wong’s stuff is. Lau started off his career as an actor and producer, making films in different genres, some of which are lauded today, like The Imp and Coolie Killer. In 1987, Lau started writing and directing his own films, often working with the likes of action director Corey Yuen. He started off with the Haunted Cop Shop movies, and Operation Pink Squad is also one of his earlier efforts.

Plastic Flower (Ann Bridgewater, who was in The Inspector Wears Skirts) and Ng Siu-Mui (Sandra Ng, also of the TIWS series) are pair of policewomen working in the Pink Squad Division. The movie opens with them busting a corrupt cop who’s hounding a crime boss (Wai Ching, of Tragic Hero and Haunted Cop Shop) for more money. Just as the Pink Squad is about to arrest him, an assassin (Blonde Fury’s Jeff Falcon) shows up and kills him. The assassin scuffles with Plastic Flower before getting killed himself.

The Pink Squad is disbanded and the girls, who also include Vampire Buster’s Elsie Chan and Suki Kwan (of City Cops and a dozen New Option movies), are sent to work with a regular unit. Unfortunately for them, their new boss (Wu Fung, of Robotrix and The Inspector Wears Skirts IV) and his subordinates are a bunch of awful misogynists. They want to get the girls fired so that they don’t have to work with icky girls[1], so they decide to have them bust a drug dealer, played by Yuen Cheung-Yan (the film’s fight choreographer). To Inspector Wu’s chagrin, the girls successfully bust the guy and his men, despite initiating what appeared to be a three-way shootout between the girls, a male contingent of cops, and the bad guys.

With that plan having failed, Inspector Wu decides to put the girls on a stake-out case to watch over a blind man, Piu (Cat. III actor Tan Lap-Man, who made films like Reincarnation of Golden Lotus and Erotic Ghost Story). He was involved in a car accident while transporting a stolen diamond and is now blind. The police want to find the diamond and suspect that his former partner and lover (whom I think is played by Melanie Barter) will contact him soon about it. The thing is, Ng Siu-Mui falls head over heels in love with Piu and starts sneaking out of the house to spend time with him, which is against regulations. So, Plastic Flower has to watch out for her partner and make sure she doesn’t get caught, which would probably result in all the girls getting fired.

There are a lot of characters in this movie, but once we enter the third act, it mainly focuses on Ng Siu-Mui’s relationship with Piu and Plastic Flower’s efforts to cover for her friend. The other two girls on the team are practically forgotten about after the drug bust sequence, except for a bizarre sequence in which the male officers on the stake-out (including Rosa’s Lowell Lo) hire Ricky Hui to sexually assault them. Policemen hiring someone to do something heinous as that in the name of comedy is already weird, but the sequence ends with Ricky Hui making out with a camcorder! There is also the germ of a subplot of Lowell Lo’s character falling in love with Plastic Flower, but that story element goes absolutely nowhere.

Much of the comedy is rather broad, making it more along the lines of the Lucky Stars films than Royal Warriors and ITLOD 3. The showstopper is a scene early on when Sandra Ng sneaks into Piu’s house and gets trapped under the table while he plays rock music…with the speakers set up right next to her head. If that wasn’t bad enough, the vibrations caused by the guitar playing push a variety of objects to the edge of the table wear Ng’s head is, including a carving knife(!). The whole sequence is so surreal that it’s pretty entertaining. Despite the goofy comedy that permeates much of the film, there are some serious moments, including a borderline tragic finale set at the airport.

Sadly, there isn’t any action at the finale, which is more emotional (and maybe even suspenseful, if you aren’t just watching to see girls punch people) than anything else. Fighting is relegated to about three short sequences. The first fight pits Ann Bridgewater against talented gwailo hard-hitter Jeff Falcon, but it’s pretty short. Bridgewater also faces off in any even briefer scuffle with Yuen Cheung-Yan, who actually bests her before complaining that he’s too old for long fights. Both of those fights look like they have good choreography, but the VHS-transfer quality of the DVD I have mixed with the limited lighting in scene itself result in the action being hard to see.

The big fight has Bridgewater in a goofy disguise fighting off a bunch of policemen at a playground. Her (and her stunt double) do some really good kicks and some flashy moves in this scene. It’s definitely the highlight of the movie. I wish there had been a big fight between Bridgewater and the Caucasian actress playing Piu’s vengeful ex-girlfriend, but the latter is dispatched offscreen in an offhand manner. Boo.

I suppose there are HK cinephiles out there that consider themselves to be Sandra Ng fans or Jeff Lau fans. Those people will probably get a lot more out of this than die-hard Girls n’ Guns fans, who will decry the lack of action, including the absence of a big fight/shoot-out finale. Those fans would be better off sticking with the works of Moon Lee, Yukari Oshima and Cynthia Rothrock than Operation Pink Squad. Jeff Lau followed this up with Operation Pink Squad 2 the next year, but strayed from the Girls n’ Guns template to make a baffling horror film instead. Hong Kong. Go figure.

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[1] - One of the running jokes is that one of the sexist inspectors, played by Lo Hung, is always suggesting sicc’ing the Bamboo Gang on the girls whenever they they’re trying to figure out what to do in a given situation.

Three short Girls n' Guns Reviews

Killer Angels (1989)
aka: Extreme Vengeance; Ultra Force
Chinese Title: 殺手天使
Translation: Killer Angel

 

Starring: Moon Lee Choi-Fung, Gordon Liu Chia-Hui, Kingdom Yuen King-Tan, Yuen Hung, Leung Kar-Yan, Lau Siu-Kwan, Fujimi Nadeki, Shing Fui-On, Ng Man-Tat, Chan Pooi-Kei
Director:  Tony Liu Jun-Guk
Action Director: Tsui Fat

Moon Lee and Yuen King-Tan (Abacus Fong from Wing Chun) play a pair of elite policewomen called the Angel Squad. They are called in bring in a former gangster named Jackie Chan (Shaw Brothers actor-turned-Cat III creator Lau Siu-Kwan), who claims to have a list of all of his former associates. While Rosa (Yuen) watches Jackie so that he doesn't get into trouble, Yueli (Moon) goes undercover as a singer at a nightclub owned by the Big Kahuna (Leung Kar-Yan, of Shaolin Martial Arts and The Odd Couple). His top enforcer, Michael (Gordon Liu, of Heroes of the East and Return to the 36^th Chamber), has some sort of past with Yueli, but we never exactly find out what it is. The Big Kahuna's daughter and Michael's lover (Fujimi Nadeki, of Crystal Hunt and Cheetah on Fire) notices and takes a Strong disliking to Yueli. Stuff happens and our characters get in numerous scuffles and firefights until the finale, when our two heroines, joined by a high-kicking female DA's assistant, lead an assault on a skin trafficking deal between the Big Kahuna and some "Middle Easterners" (including a blonde-haired Michael Houghton, student of the late Lau Kar-Leung).

There is quite a bit of action here, although most of it is of the gunplay variety. The fight scenes are generally short, with the final fight between Moon Lee and Leung Kar-Yan, plus a fight between Moon Lee and the female DA, being the two stand-outs. Her fight with Mike Houghton, who uses hung gar as if he had walked out of an old school movie, is sadly really short. The choreography itself, provided by Tsui Fat (whose credits include Mountain Warriors and Boxer from the Temple), is pretty strong. He makes Fujimi Nadeki look better than she did in her other movies. Gordon Liu doesn't show much of his skills, but he does get to wield a huge honkin' revolver that would make Dirty Harry jealous. The plot is no great shakes, but there's enough 80s style action to keep any HK cinephile happy.

 

The Dragon Fighter (1990)
aka Hard to Die 
Chinese Title: 地頭龍
Translation: Head Dragon

 

Starring: Alex Man Chi-Leung, Alex Fong Chung-Sun, Francis Ng Chun-Yu, Sibelle Hu Hui-Chung, Carrie Ng Ka-Lai, Nishiwaki Michiko, Eddy Ko Hung, Gregory Lee Wing-Ho, Kam Hing-Yin, Tin Ching                     
Director: Tony Liu Jun-Guk
Action Director: Tsui Fat

 

The third movie from Tai Seng's "China Heat series" is this lesser-known Girls n' Guns vehicle: an unoccasionally fun, but frequently unfocused movie about a number of people whose lives are affected by a drug kingpin, played by Eddie Ko Hung (Duel to the Death and Hitman in the Hand of Buddha). Sibelle Hu plays the imaginatively named "Madame Hu", a detective who's determined to bring down Eddie, spurred on even more by the fact that her dad is a junkie. Michiko Nishiwaki (Passionate Killing in the Dream and My Lucky Stars) is Japanese girl who's in Hong Kong trying to assassinate Ko for personal reasons that I didn't catch (I saw an unsubbed version in Cantonese). The Naked Killer’s Carrie Ng is the girlfriend of Francis Ng, who I *think* runs the legitimate business that serves as a front for Eddie Ko's activities. Alex Fong is tough-as-nails hitman in Ko's employ who falls for Carrie. Alex Man shows up as a petty criminal that Madame Hu is always harrassing. All of their paths will cross in diverse ways.

There is a fair amount of action in this movie, although the film tends to drag during the non-action scenes (or maybe it was the fact that I don't speak Cantonese). Genre veteran Chui Fat handled the action duties and acquits himself fairly well here. He was always a dependable choreographer, even when saddled with B-movies for most of his post-Shaw Brothers career. Michiko Nishiwaki gets a nice fight at the docks where a drug deal is going down and a brief fight on a passenger train. Sibelle Hu mainly uses firearms, but does have a very short fight with Mark Houghton in the beginning and a fight atop a moving vehicle with a drug dealer (Wong Chi-Hok) midway through the movie. Carrie Ng and her stunt double have a nice acrobatic fight in a dark room with Jimmy Au and she has another fight with some thugs right before the climax. Alex Fong mainly uses a gun for his scenes, although he does some basic fisticuffs on occasion. The climax is a huge gunfight at a container warehouse that spills over into a nearby shantydown. There are some car stunts, lots of explosions, and thousands of bullets being fired. There are also lots of smaller gunfights scattered throughout the movie.

In typical Hong Kong action movie fashion, nobody is given plot armor and anybody can die at any time. There is one suprisingly graphic death of a child...onscreen!

My main gripe, besides the occasional lull in the story, is that Alex Man's character is over-the-top and obnoxious, which is at odds with the rest of the movie, which is serious and brutal.

 

Power Connection (1995)
Chinese Title: 龍虎之戰
Translation: Dragon and Tiger Battle

Starring: Yukari Oshima, Robert Mak Tak-Law, Lo Lieh, Andy Tai Chi-Wai, Ko Chun-Kit, Leung Wing-Yim, Phillip Ko Fei, Newton Lai Hon-Chi, Mark Houghton, Jestoni Alarcon, Karla Estrada
Director: Phillip Ko Fei
Action Director: Phillip Ko Fei

This HK-Filipino co-production was made at the tail-end of the Girls n' Guns genre, when practically all of these movies were meaning made in the Phillipines. And it only makes sense that this one would feature Yukari Oshima, since she had a strong following there, billed in her movies as "Cynthia Luster". In fact, her popularity in the Phillipines seems to continue to this day. She has a fan page on Facebook that is mainly populated by Filipino fans of all ages.

The plot is some nonsense (written by cut n' splice maestro Godfrey Ho, no less) about a Filipino cop with a mullet and a mustache named Ray going after a drug dealer named Dick. After killing his right-hand man (Philip Ko Fei, who directed and choreographed this movie, and had actually dated/married Yukari Oshima at some point), Ray chases Dick to Hong Kong. At the same time, Yukari Oshima is a HK cop disguised as an enforcer for Henry, a local crime boss who's losing his clientes to Dick. Ray finds out that Dick had promised his girlfriend Lina a singing career in Hong Kong, but locked her in a mansion and got her hooked on heroin instead. Dick eventually kills Lina and flees to the Phillipines, with Ray and Yukari in hot pursuit. There is a fair amount of gunplay here, which is exaggerated, but sort of fun. Yukari shines in her three fight scenes, and her opponents include hung gar stylist Mark Houghton and a flashy kicker. Too bad her fights only add up to four minutes of screen time. Not great, but it's at least a little bitter than Ko Fei's own Yes Madam 5 made at the same time.

Queen's High (1991)

Queen’s High (1991)
aka: In the Line of Duty – The Beginning
Chinese Title: 紅粉至尊
Translation: Pink Supreme

 

Starring: Cynthia Khan, Simon Yam Tat-Wah, Wang Yong, Kenneth Tsang Kong, Shum Wai, Cha Chuen-Yee, Chris Lee Kin-Sang, Christiane Duhler, Hung Gwok-Yeung. Chai Hon, Newton Lai Hon-Chi, Kwan Ming-Yuk, Billy Chow Bei-Lei, Gam Biu
Director: Chris Lee Kin-Sang
Action Director: Poon Cheung, Rocky Lai Keung-Kun, Lee Kin-Hing, Nicky Li Chung-Chi

 

Queen’s High is generally recognized among HK cinephiles for its iconic image of Cynthia Khan in a wedding dress holding an Uzi submachine gun. I even recall a number of martial arts magazines that had adds from HK Bootleggers with that image front and center. And yet, Queen’s High has proven to be a rather elusive film. Viewers with easy access to a Chinatown—LA, SF or NY—could probably find it back in the mid-late 1990s at any store with an extensive VCD inventory. Those of us who didn’t have that sort of access would have to get it from an grey market outfit like Far East Flix or that lamentable Advantage Video seller. It got a DVD release from Mei Ah, presumably in the early 2000s, but it wasn’t long before it was Out Of Print and once more extremely difficult to find in any (legal) format.

So, for a movie this rare, is the film itself as good as its most well-known production still?

The story follows the Yeung family of Triads. Father Yeung (Wang Yong, The Proud Twins and Imperial Tomb Raider) runs a legitimate shipping business which (presumably) serves as a front for smuggling, albeit not drugs. His son, Chung (Simon Yam, of Full Contact and Hitman), is sort of his right-hand man. He also has an adoptive son, Lung (Black Butterfly’s Hong Gwok-Yeung), who is a gambling addict, although he’s poised to take over the company’s operations when Yeung retires. Meanwhile, Chung and another confidant, Michael (Category III actor Chai Hon), are set to oversee the company’s financial sector. Yeung also has a daughter, Kwanny (Cynthia Khan, of In the Line of Duty VI and Angel on Fire), who’s a bit of a free spirit. Kwanny is engaged to marry Peter (Cha Chuen-Yee, of Super Lady Cop and Tiger Cage II). Peter is just there to spend time with Kwanny.

The plot proper begins at a party that coincides with the release of Father Yeung’s brother, Uncle Tim (The Killer’s Kenneth Tsang in a cameo) from prison. While Yeung and Chung are off dealing with business at the party, Uncle Tim gets into an argument with another Triad boss, Chau Yung (Shum Wai, of The Protector and Supercop), whom Tim blames for his getting incarcerated. Later that evening, Chau Yung has his men lob grenades into Tim’s car. Exit Tim, stage left.

Although everybody suspects that Chau Yung is behind Uncle Tim’s murder, Triad protocol prevents Yeung and his son from doing anything about it. And Chau Yung would like for nothing more to get his hands on Father Yeung’s shipping business. And he’s not the only one: another Triad figure named Lai (Newton Lai, of Fury in Red and Casino Tycoon II) wants to use the business to smuggle narcotics from Japan—led by the director, Chris Lee—to Hawaii. Since Father Yeung would refuse to put drugs on the manifest, he starts making inroads on Brother Lung instead. Meanwhile, the perpetually-nervous Chau Yung decides to put it all on the line and orders Father Yeung’s assassination. The attempt, involving covering a stretch of highway with oil, is successful.

Following their father’s murder, Chung and Kwanny decide to honor the old man’s wishes and go forward with Kwanny’s marriage to Peter. On the eve of the wedding, Chung shows up at an auction and guns down Chau Yung in front of everyone. At the wedding, a team of assassins show up and start gunning down everybody. This leads to the iconic sequence in which Cynthia Khan, decked in a wedding dress, picks up an Uzi and starts gunning down the assassins. Only Kwanny, Lung, and Chung’s wife, Tin Tin (Kwan Ming-Yuk, of Ghost Busting and She Shoots Straight), survive the bloodbath. Now it’s time for Kwanny to take up the family business and get revenge for her loved ones.

Prior to directing Queen’s High, Chris Lee had been a member of Jackie Chan’s Stuntman Association. His credits included Project A; Police Story; Project A II; Police Story 2; and Mr. Canton and Lady Rose. In addition to extensive experience in working with both the Sing Ga Ban and Sammo Hung, he also had action director duties in films like In the Line of Duty III and In the Line of Duty V: Middle Man, which paired him with Cynthia Khan. Sadly, the green around his ears shows here, as Lee struggles to maintain a consistent pace throughout the film. Queen’s High feels like two films: the first half is a Triad family drama in which Cynthia Khan is largely pushed into the background while Simon Yam and other veterans stand in the foreground.

The massacre at Kwanny’s wedding comes at the halfway point and marks the moment that Cynthia finally steps into the limelight. The pace begins to pick up with several smaller action sequences before climaxing with a huge set piece at the docks. There is an assassination attempt at a car garage with a little bit of fighting, followed by a gunfight at Lai’s estate. Khan looks especially sexy here with her black garb and oversized revolver. The action here came from four different action directors, including Jackie Chan Stunt Team members Nicky Li Chung-Chi and Rocky Lai, plus Poon Cheung and Lee Kin-Hung. Of those second two, the former is most well known for assisting with the action on Ronny Yu's China White, while Lee mainly did low-budget films, with his best movie being That's Money with Max Mox and Yukari Oshima.

The climax is pretty good for the most part, although I kinda expected more. Things kick off with a kung fu catfight between Cynthia Khan and Midnight Angel’s Christiane Duhler, which is a pretty decent exchange. They trade punches and kicks well, although neither of the women do anything particularly flashy. I thought Khan’s dust-up with the equally-blonde Kim Maree Penn in In the Line of Duty V was more impressive. While the girls are going at it, perennial villain Billy Chow beats the snot out of Chai Hon without breaking a sweat. We get a nice stunt of Khan jumping face first through a plate glass window before throwing down with Chris Lee. Those two had a nice escrima fight in Middle Man, but here Lee demonstrates that he has some nice kicking skills. At one point, Cynthia’s lackeys show up for a big shootout with Brother Lung’s men. Sadly, Billy Chow is wasted in this sequence, never really facing off with Cynthia.

There is not a lot much else to say about Queen’s High. It’s a decent entry in the Girls n’ Guns sub-genre and falls somewhere around the middle of the bell curve. It needed more action in the first half and a Cynthia/Billy scuffle to reach the upper echelon. As it stands, it’s 50% OK Triad drama and 50% pretty good action movie, with one iconic sequence and some decent fighting at the end.

Merantau (2009)

Merantau (2009)
aka: Merantau Warrior 

Starring: Iko Uwais, Cisca Jessica, Christine Hakim, Mads Koudal, Alex Abbad, Laurent Busson, Yayan Ruhian
Director: Gareth Evans
Action Director: Iko Uwais, Yayan Ruhian

This film never got an official release here in Brazil. In 2010 or 2011, when São Paulo was having one of its annual “Cultural Weekends,” there was one porn theater that changed its venue to martial arts films for 48 consecutive hours and this film was one of the movies shown. There was the Cultural Center of São Paulo that also showed it last year, but I was in the middle of moving, so I didn’t get around to seeing it. It was thanks to a friend in the States that I finally got a copy of it to watch..

The film, in many respects, is literally Ong Bak transplanted from Thailand to Indonesia. Iko Uwais plays Yuda, a tomato picker somewhere in rural Indonesia who’s a devout Muslim (yes, Indonesia houses the largest Muslim population in the entire world, not in part because it is also one of the most densely-populated countries in the world, period) and like his predecessors Tang Lung and Ting, spends much of his free time practicing martial arts, mainly Silat. The time has come for his “merantau,” or wandering, where he must head off to the modern world to live and decide what he’ll ultimately do with his life.

While chasing down a young pickpocket, Adit (Yusuf Aulia), Yuda stumbles across the kid’s sister, a stripper, being manhandled by her employer, Johni (Alex Abbad, of The Raid 2). Yuda comes to the girl’s rescue (whose name is Astri and is played by Triangle the Dark Side's Cisca Jessica). This results in Astri being fired from her job. And if that isn’t bad enough, we soon learn that Johni does freelance work for a pair of Eurotrash white slavers who need one more girl for their next shipment. It looks like Johni isn’t finished with Astri after all. But now, he’ll have to deal with her knight in shining armor: Yuda. Things get bone-crushingly violent fast.

In many respects, this film is better than Ong Bak and many of its Thai contemporaries, even if the film initially follows the same story template. Much of it has to with how Gareth handles the story, which is simple, but focused enough to know which buttons to press and is infinitely more compelling (especially in this post-Weinstein environment) than “bumpkin goes after a severed Buddha head.” It also helps that Iko Uwais is a better actor than Tony Jaa and is a lot more charismatic than his predecessor, who would spend large swaths of film not saying a word, lacking the experience to emote through his facial expressions. The villains, played by Danish actor Mads Koudal (Copenhagen Ninja) and French actor Laurent Busson (who had a small role in Silver Hawk), are an interesting pair, having some sort of deep personal friendship that isn’t explored, but frequently hinted at. I would’ve liked to have seen more interaction between them, just to know what that relationship actually was.

Most importantly, there’s the action. I’m guessing this is one more purer showcases of the Indonesia martial art Silat on film. I like how the early fights show Uwais trying to use his skills more defensively, as if to only subdue and neutralize his opponents without doing major damage to them. After that gets him a beating in an alleyway fight, he switches to the offensive and goes all Tony Jaa on everyone. Obviously, I prefer the latter to the former, although it helps set the early fights apart from the later ones. Interesting is how Silat influences not only Uwais’ fighting style, but seeps into the way the guy moves in otherwise ordinary situations. Much like Yuen Biao in Dragons Forever, Yuda can’t even walk without doing some bizarre sidestepping movements that are probably associated with the style. What’s especially impressive, is how Silat employs a lot of low, deep stances, and yet those never seem to keep Uwais from moving quickly and delivering lightning-fast footwork (compare with Jet Li’s lecture on traditional stances in Fist of Legend).

The fights are staged without editing tricks and wires to “assist” the actors’ abilities, which it seems that even Hong Kong and China can’t avoid anymore, even when working with top-tier talent like Tony Jaa and Wu Jing. There are some wince-inducing moments, mainly when Uwais takes on contingent of hired stooges in, on and around a series of shipping containers at the end. But that’s only an appetizer for the real finale, where he does a one-on-two against the European villains, in a fight whose setup is reminiscent of the finale of Who Am I? Mads Koudal does mainly hand-based attacks early on, where Laurent Busson is very obviously a talented kicker, and gets nice moves in, including what seems like a killer axe kick. The choreography here is stunning, and even the characters are on the ground, they get off some great ground-based kicks as well. Then the two chase Uwais into the network of containers armed with lead pipes and we get something out of Blonde Fury.

I can see the print of 80s Hong Kong films in the fight, with the Silat style being used to set things apart. It works fine for the most part, although there are some moments when it feels like the action could be varied more. However, that final fight makes the film worth watching by itself. Add to that some credible acting by the leads and good action design all around and you have a little gem worth checking out.

The Raid: Redemption (2011)

The Raid: Redemption (2011)
aka: Serbuan Maut
Translation: The Raid Killed

Starring: Iko Uwais, Ananda George, Ray Sahetapy, Donny Alamsyah, Joe Taslim, Yayan Ruhian, Pierre Gruno, Tegar Satrya
Director: Gareth Evans
Action Director: Gareth Evans, Iko Uwais, Yayan Ruhian

A couple of years ago, during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, I had an idea for a book called Zen of Kung Fu Cinema: Reflections on the Canon. It was to be a collection of essays about the top 25 or so martial arts movies in “the canon” of the genre. I would attempt to forego the usual review format and shoot for a fresh take for each movie discussed. I also brought in a number of author friends to make a contribution. They included Scott Blasingame (TheNightDragon series); Kyle Fiske (Dragons and Boxers); Michael Lauck (The Grand Tournament); and Keith Allison[1] of Teleport-City, who has been reviewing kung fu movies (in addition to numerous other genres from world cinema) since the late 1990s. I even invited El Santo of 1000 Misspent Hours and Counting to do a write-up, but he eventually declined on account of not knowing enough about the genre to comment on it, even though I wanted an essay from a more casual fan and grindhouse junky.

So how I did I determine which movies were in “The Canon”? I basically started by combing the internet for about fifty or so Top 10 (or 20 or 50) Martial Arts Movies Lists and tallied up the results. That is, the more inclusions on these lists, the higher that film’s ranking. I was satisfied with the end results, a healthy mixture of old school and contemporary martial arts movies—with the exception of Kung Fu Panda, which I ignored completely on the grounds of my own “No Animated Movies” rule. In any case, I set about working on this project.

As is par for the course with me, I get extremely self-conscious when writing non-fiction, mainly because there are few approaches that haven’t already been done (and done better) by people with better academic credentials than me, and who have seen more than my own measly 780 Chinese movies. I eventually halted the project and moved on to something else, which itself got abandoned in favor me simply restarting my old site. You can see some of my unused essays at this site. See the reviews for Fist of Fury; Enter the Dragon; Way of the Dragon; Master of the Flying Guillotine; Fist of Legend; and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

The Raid: Redemption also made it to the canon at number 21, pretty good for a movie made only nine years earlier (as to when I started tallying up the results of the articles) competing against 50 years of genre history[2]. The question that stands is: what approach would I have taken to discuss this movie?

I suppose I could have discussed the stripped-down nature of the story. It is simplicity defined: in Indonesia, a SWAT team storms an apartment complex run by a drug kingpin. The locale’s tenants are mainly junkies, dealers, petty criminals, and the kingpin’s own personal army. It doesn’t take long for the SWAT team to get mowed down in a violent firefight inside a stairwell. With snipers surrounding the building and dozens of machete-wielding goons wandering the halls, the survivors have to fight for their lives. The story was more or less copied by the following year’s Dredd, which also pitted the superhero Judge Dredd and his new partner against a building full of drug dealers. I have also seen people compare the second Purge movie to The Raid, although the parallels are a bit sketchier. The story is arguably thinner than your average Jackie Chan film, although the storytelling is simply superb.

We can talk about the fight action, which most people will remember this movie for. There are five major fights, at least four of which are “certified classics.” The first major fight is set on the 7^th Floor, in which Iko Uwais takes on a dozen or so men armed with machetes with a knife and police baton. There is a certain Wow factor to the proceedings, as Uwais must fend off and dodge attacks coming from multiple angles, very much like a vintage Jackie Chan film. The choreography is suitably complex, mixing knife and baton attacks with “economical” kicks—most of which are aimed no higher than stomach level. There is also a certain “ick!” factor in the fights, notably as Uwais not only stabs several of his opponents, but often drags the blade across the limb in order to up the pain factor. After all, a huge gaping wound in your leg will definitely take away your will to fight.

After a suspenseful interlude in the apartment of an honest man (Ananda George) and his sick wife, Uwais finds himself face-to-face with an even scarier band of men brandishing machetes. This time, however, he is completely unarmed. Thus, we get the big fight on Floor 8, where Uwais has to contort his body in dozens of different ways, not to mention roll on the floor, in order to not get sliced to ribbons. Uwais gets off a lot of ground-based kicks in this sequence and the choreography is just astounding. The first time I watched this movie, I had wondered how the other fights were going to top that first one. I admit that I was a little afraid that the first fight was going to be the best of the entire film. That has happened too many times for my taste. Thankfully, director Gareth Evans and company knew what they were doing and kept the suspense only growing. The major “ick!” moment is when Uwais does a backward jumping takedown on a young assailant, ramming the broken shards of a door through the kid’s throat.

The fight between the drug kingpin’s chief enforcer, Mad Dog (Yayan Ruhian, of Beyond Skyline and John Wick 3), and Sergeant Jaka (Joe Taslim of Mortal Kombat), is pretty solid. It’s not exactly a classic, but it’s intense enough.

Not too long afterward, we have a big group brawl on Floor 15, where the kingpin keeps his drug lab. Rama (Uwais) and two other policemen—Dagu (Eka Ramahdia) and the corrupt Lieutenant Wahyu (Pierre Gruno)—fight off all of workers. The Floor 7 fight was weapon-against-weapon. The Floor 8 fight was unarmed-against-weapon. The Floor 15 is mainly unarmed-against-unarmed, although a few goons carry the standard machete. This fight is very Jackie Chan in its presentation, with characters fighting in, on and around tables, or using the scenery as weapons, including shelves and filing cabinets. The kicking is a bit flashier than in the other fights, both from Uwais and his opponents.

The climax is a long and brutal—no, that word is overused—long and feral two-on-one between Rama, his brother Andi (Donny Alamsyah), and Mad Dog. One great aspect of this fight is the subtle characterization of Mad Dog in this scene. The man is a ferocious, take-no-prisoners mob enforcer type, but he prefers the thrill of personal combat to the simplicity of a firearm. When Rama steps into the room where Mad Dog is torturing Andi, Mad Dog stops what he’s doing and lowers the chain that suspends Andi. He patiently waits as Rama frees his brother. Once Andi is mobile again, Mad Dog approaches them and gestures for them to give him a bit of space. From there, a blistering fight starts as the brothers double team Mad Dog. On one hand, there is strength in numbers. On the other, Andi isn’t quite the trained fighter his brother and Mad Dog are. Moreover, Andi is also injured and Rama is probably completely exhausted by this point. So Mad Dog, the superior fighter of the three, has the bigger advantage.

Both Iko Uwais and Yayan Ruhian are masters of the Indonesian Silat martial arts. Yayan trained in Pencak Silat, in addition to other styles, like Silat Harimau and Silat Minang. He was also a professional instructor before he started appearing in movies, so his fighting cred is pretty hard to argue with. Iko Uwais also started his silat training at age 10 and was a national champion at age 22. He was also running a martial arts school when he was discovered by Gareth Evans. I point this out because this fight becomes a pure silat clinic in the best sense possible. Ruhian and Uwais conduct this beautiful symphony of punches, blogs, throws, holds, breaks and kicks. Yayan does some very flexible kicks, reminiscent of the sort that Ken Low could do on his best days. One notable kick is where Ruhian throws a front kick, then switches it into a heel kick to his opponent’s head, and, missing his target, brings his leg down to a roundhouse to his opponent’s knee. Watch Ruhian as he uses his shorter stature to his advantage, performing spinning elbow strikes on his opponents’ knees. Or watch Ruhian get put in a strangehold from behind, only to jump and kick out with both legs, using the falling momentum to grab his opponent from behind and throw him over his shoulders. This is alone placed Mr. Ruhian on the short list to one of the best martial arts villains in cinema in a LONG time.

One of my observations about Merantau Warrior was that the fight sequences, as good as they were, were starting to feel a little repetitive by the end of the movie. Not enough to dampen my enjoyment of the film as a whole, but enough to make me wonder if future Indonesian movies might eventually lose their spark. Gareth Evans and company certainly learned a bit about action direction in the meantime, making sure to keep the fights varied and the difficulty progressively harder until the finale, when the protagonists took on a night-invincible little fighting machine (and adrenaline addict, it would seem). I have yet to watch The Raid 2 as of writing this review, but it is certainly the next movie on the list.

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[1] - Keith is so important to the fandom that he has been quoted on Brazilian DVD releases of Shaw Brothers films like The Shaolin Prince and The Crippled Avengers, the former of which he hadn’t even seen before I brought it to his attention!

[2] - Or in some cases, sixty or more as some lists included films like Yojimbo and The Seven Samurai.