Angelfist (1993)

Angelfist (1993)
Aka: Angel Fist; Fatal Angel

 

Starring: Catya “Cat” Sassoon, Melissa Moore, Michael Shaner, Roland Dantes, Joseph Zucchero, Henry Strzalkowski, Christina Portugal, Ken Metcalfe, Sibel Birzag, Sheila Lintan, Jim Moss, John Crank, Bob Larson
Director: Cirio H. Santiago
Action Director: Ronald Asinas

 

Cirio H. Santiago occupies a special place in the hearts of true B-Movie lovers. The Filipino director is known for working on more than a hundred films in his lifetime, many of which he did for the late, great Roger Corman (who passed away only a few weeks ago as I write this). He dabbled in all sorts of genres, from Blaxploitation (like TNT Jackson) to martial arts (like this and Don “the Dragon” Wilson’s Bloodfist, which he produced) to sci-fi/action (Future Hunters) to Women-in-Prison (like Caged Heat II: Stripped of Freedom). His movies almost always featured a heap of action and a healthy dose of T&A, although his actors never dismissed him as a sleaze. In fact, Playboy Playmate Jean Bell, reflecting on her experience with him after his death, said that he “was a very professional man, and lotta personality, patient, and a family man.”

Cirio got his start in the 1950s working for his father’s studio, Premiere Productions. He cut his teeth in the industry editing and cutting trailer and quickly moved onto producing and writing. It wasn’t long before Cirio was directing as well, although he mainly focused on Tagalog films for local consumption. Among other things, he produced Tokyo 1960, a localized version of Gojira which was to the Philippines what Godzilla, King of the Monsters was to the U.S. He produced a few attempts to market Filipino films for international audiences, like Cavalry Command with John Agar and The Kidnappers with Burgess Meredith.

The notion that Filipino films could be made for worldwide audiences really came to fruition in the 1970s, when Santiago started making films for Roger Corman’s New World Studios. Their partnership continued up past the fall of New World and into era of VHS, with Corman’s Concorde-New Horizons, which eventually became New Concorde. His final projects included Mark Dacascos’s Hunt for Eagle One films (as producer) and the behind-the-scenes documentary of Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof, which he directed (Tarantino was a huge fan of his work).

Angelfist was made for Concorde-New Horizons in 1993, a period in which most of Santiago’s output was in the martial arts genre (although he still dabbled in sci-fi and war films). Santiago directed and/or produced a lot of Don “the Dragon” Wilson’s earliest films, plus much of The Master Jerry Trimble’s solo movies, like Live by the Fist. A couple of these movies for CNH were female-led martial arts movies, including this and Angel of Destruction. This was meant to be a star-making vehicle for the tragically-fated model-turned-actress Catya Sassoon, the daughter of world-famous hair stylist Vidal Sassoon.

The movie opens in Manila, where public protests over some treaty to allow the U.S. to open more bases in the Philippines are rocking the streets. Amidst the chaos, a car belonging to American serviceman Col. Rapaport (John Crank, of American Kickboxer II and Drug Connection) is attacked by a group of terrorists known as the Black Brigade. His bodyguards, the most worthless serviceman in existence, are quickly stabbed to death. Rapaport manages to shoot a few of his attackers before suffering the same fate. All of this is photographed from afar by Christy Leng (Sibel Birzag), an American woman participating in a local martial arts tournament.

After fighting in the tournament later that day, Leng is heading back to her hotel when she realizes she’s being followed. She gives the film to the taxi driver and tells her to leave it at a strip club with a dancer named Sulu (Blowback 2’s Sheila Lintan). She makes it back to her hotel, where she is ambushed by the Black Brigade. She makes a better showing for herself than those incompetent army drivers, but still ends up getting hacked and slashed to death. Following her death, FBI agent Victor Winslow (Joseph Zucchero, of Bloodfist 2050 and One Man Army) and local police chief Quirino (Henry Strzalkowski, of Raiders of the Sun and Firehawk) are looking over the murder scene when the latter points out that she has a sister in Los Angeles.

Cut to L.A., where a quartet of Mexican drug dealers are having a stand-off with the LAPD, including the SWAT team. A firefight breaks out, but the bad guys are having more luck than the boys in blue. Enter: Officer Katara Leng (Cat Sassoon, sporting enough silicone and lip filler to be the true proto-Kardashian) and her standard issue Uzi submachine gun. Leng jumps through the window into the house and mows down three of the four gunmen—the fourth is quickly arrested. She comes home later that evening to a message on her answering machine (remember those?) from Agent Winslow, cryptically informing her of something happening to her sister. Hard cut to Karata Leng flying into Manila.

Leng is quickly met by Winslow, who tells her the little that the FBI—do those guys even have jurisdiction in the Philippines—knows and then tells her to take a hike. Obviously, for an ass-kicking girlboss like Katara, that simply won’t do. One of the guys at the hotel tells him that her sister had a close friend who worked a strip club. Katara heads over and finds Sulu bearing her tits to everybody present, including an American expatriate nicknamed “Alcatraz” (Michael Shaner, of Lethal Weapon and The Expert). When some locals try to sexually assault Katara, Alcatraz tries to help her, only for her to have to step in and save him. He offers her his place to stay while she’s in Manila. Oh, and Sulu quickly leaves the establishment and disappears until later in the film.

Katara tries to enter the same tournament that her sister was participating in, hoping it will somehow bring her in contact with with her sister’s killers, but it’s a bit too far into the tournament for that. Alcatraz suggests that she talk to Bayani (Roland Dantes, of Arnis: The Sticks of Death), Christy’s trainer, who is on close personal terms with the tournament’s organizer. She visits Bayani out in the sticks and wins his trust via a fight scene where Leng is obviously doubled. He agrees to take her to see Mr. Carreon (Tony Carreon, of Bad Boy II and Stranglehold), the organizer. Carreon ultimately agrees to let her take her sister’s place in the tournament, if she can last a round against against the current champion, Bontoc (Triple Impact’s Christina Portugal). Katara holds her own and is admitted into the tournament, which puts her on a crash course with the Black Brigade.

Other reviews refer to this as a female-centric remake of Bloodfist, which I haven’t watched in more than 30 years, so I can’t say one way or another. But that’s probably about right when you get right down to it. It does have a similar feel to Santiago’s own TNT Jackson, with an American girls played by an actress who a) wasn’t formally trained in martial arts and b) was willing to show her breasts on camera snoops around the Far East looking for the killer of a family member. I’m guessing the tournament angle and the revelation of the main villain’s identity is a bit more in line with what Bloodfist did.

Is the movie any good? No, not really. The acting is sub-par for the most part and you can tell that Sassoon was a bit green in the gills when it came to emoting. Actually, she doesn’t really emote at all. I guess there was too much plastic in her face for that. The plot is what it is, although you have to wonder how a terrorist group that acts mainly with knives and bamboo sticks can kill as many important people as they do—but then again, when your military attaché don’t even carry firearms, Darwin says, “Let you die.” There are some big holes in the plot, like the scene where the FBI—once again, shouldn’t it be the CIA—threatens to have Alcatraz deported unless he convinces Katara to give up her search, and then in the next scene, Alcatraz and Katara are enjoying an explicit sex scene and the whole matter is thrown aside. Much like TNT Jackson, the appeal of a movie like this is the abundance of female nudity, which is includes two group shower sequences (complete with multiple examples of full frontal nudity) and numerous leering shots of Cat Sassoon’s perfectly-spherical, unmoving breasts.

The fighting is well…er…it’s abundant, I’ll give it that. The fights were staged by Filipino stunt coordinator Ronald Asinas, who has racked up almost a hundred credits in his homeland. Although the bulk of his work has been in Tagalog films for local audiences, he did work on a number of the films New Concorde/Concorde-New Horizons produced in the Philippines, like Angel of Destruction and Live by the Fist. The choreography itself is on the level of a typical Don “the Dragon” Wilson production of the era, but the execution of it leaves a lot to be desired, mainly on the grounds of its lead actress.

Despite being billed (in the opening credits, no less) as a World Champion Forms and Weapons Expert, Catya Sassoon had no actual training before doing this film. She studied Taekwondo and the Filipino art of Arnis in preparation for this film, although it’s pretty obvious the woman is a beginner. Her fights are performed sloppily, devoid of any sense of snap, impact or real technique.  When she finally beats her opponent in the final fight of the tournament, the choreography switches into complete “punching bag mode,” with Sassoon side-kicking the other woman in the face multiple times without the latter reacting…at all. I have mentioned TNT Jackson several times in the review and for good reason. They share similar characteristics and the accompanying flaws that come with it…and like that movie, Angelfist has a fight where Cat Sassoon fights off a bunch of henchmen while topless. So, for those fans of Escape from the Brothel and Ninja the Final Duel out there, here’s another film to add to the list. And it’s moments like these that make Angelfist dumb fun for exploitation fans, although serious martial arts fans can give it a pass.