Robotrix (1991)

Robotrix (1991)
Chinese Title: 女機械人
Translation: Female Robot

Starring: Chikako Aoyama, Amy Yip, David Wu, Hui Hiu-Daan, Billy Chow, Kwai Chung, Wu Fung
Director: Jamie Luk
Action Director: Yuen Tak

Robotrix is one of the more memorable Category III films to come out of Hong Kong during the 1990s, mainly due to its loopy Sci-Fi premise. It is an exploitation film through and through, though it would be hard whether to call it a “Girls and Guns film with a sci-fi twist and an extra helping of T&A”, or a “Sexploitation film with a handful of fight scenes in it.” I tend toward the latter and it stands up there with Lethal Panther in terms of female-centric action movies that are interchangeable with softcore porn.

The movie begins with the Hong Kong police playing bodyguard to a Saudi prince whose sheik father is in town to attend a convention on robotics. Among the cops are Selina (Chikako Aoyama, of the Oedo Rapeman movies), who is visibly upset with having to keep watch over a man cavorting about in a swimming pool with four naked beauties. Shortly after she excuses herself—she is not about to watch her charge engage in a fivesome—the pool room fills with sleeping case. A mysterious man (Billy Chow, of Fist of Legend and Blonde Fury) kidnaps the prince and puts a large hole in Selina’s chest (what gun was he carrying? An AMT Hardballer?). Selina is rushed to the hospital with no prospects of leaving, except via the morgue.

Meanwhile, at the robot conference, we get to see the German and American models (played by Once Upon a Time in China’s Mark King and City Cop’s Ken Goodman, respectively) duke it out in a kung fu battle. They are defeated by another robot, built by Japanese scientist Dr. Sara (Hui Hiu-Daan) and her assistant, Anna (Amy Yip, of Requital and The Inspector Wears Skirts II). While showing off the robot to the interested sheik, the Hong Kong police commissioner (Wu Fung, of Big Brother and Skinny Tiger and Fatty Dragon) shows up to inform the sheik of his son’s kidnapping. Dr. Sara offers to let her robot perform the investigation and the commissioner allows her to transfer the now-deceased Selina’s memories and appearance to the fighting robot we saw.

We also learn the reason for the kidnapping. There is an evil Japanese scientist named Ryuichi Yamamoto who had tried secure funding for a robot army from the sheik. The sheik decided against it, so Yamamoto killed himself and had his consciousness transferred to a robot of his making—the guy we saw perform the kidnapping. Now, the sheik must agree to fund Yamamoto’s robot legion, or else his son gets it. I like the subtitle in this scene: “a mad robot is trying to undermine social security.”

Dr. Sara manages to create the robot clone of Selina, who initially has a hard time coming to grips with her new reality. Nonetheless, only the commissioner knows the truth; the rest of the cops, including Selina’s boyfriend (or suitor), Chou (David Wu, of In the Lineof Duty V and Tiger Cage II). They rekindle their romance while Anna goes undercover as a prostitute to flush out Yamamoto, who has been out screwing harlots to death—quite literally. It won’t be long before they find Yamamoto and he is going to wonder why the police officer whom he murdered is still out and about as if nothing happened…

Much like Inframan, you do not go into a film like Robotrix hoping to find anything resembling pseudo-science. The science fiction elements are there in set dressing, but no attempt is made to explain, even in gobblety-gook language, how memories are transferred, how synthetic skin is made, or how anything else works. This is a movie where “80s lightning” effects are run across the body of a dead woman and suddenly a robot body looks like her—very Metropolis level of technology here. It is fascinating to see female robots with sexual capabilities (to the point a man can go down on one and be none the wiser), AI brains (in the case of Anna), and a full range of movement (including martial arts), while 35 years later, we have silicone sex dolls with AI voice and interactive capabilities, but little actual movement—depending on who you talk to, we’re 5 years away from actual sex bots with realistic “movements”.

With that in mind, Robotrix is very much an excuse to film a bunch of sex (and rape) scenes, punctuated by the occasional fight sequence. I counted no fewer than seven pairs of breasts in this film, with four being displayed in the first five minutes. There are two consensual sex scenes and two rape scenes—the first rape starts consensual and then goes on after the woman decides she cannot keep up with Billy Chow’s stamina. Billy Chow’s rear end gets a lot of screentime, which is not something I ever thought I’d say about a movie and we even get a glimpse of his junk, too. All the sex scenes are both very explicit and lengthy, so smut fans will get their fill, just as much as Chikako Aoyama and Amy Yip do in their respective love scenes (there is no nudity from Amy, who does her famous “Yip Tease” when lying down with Stuart Ong).

The fight scenes were staged by Yuen Tak, who at the time was working on films like The Dragon from Russia; Prince of the Sun; and Saviour of the Soul. The fighting is typical modern-day kickboxing of a late 1980s or early 1990s movie. There are a few wire-assisted flourishes here, but not many. The choreography is pretty much what you would see from other non-fighter girls making movies at the time, think any movie with Sibelle Hu, or Carrie Ng and Cheung Man in films like Cheetah on Fire or Crystal Hunt. Only the finale really disappoints, as it starts as a fight scene and then becomes a stunt sequence involving a giant magnet and a trash compactor. I think sleaze hounds will get more out of this than fight fiends, although Billy Chow fans will certain enjoy him getting a lot of the spotlight.