03-02-2022, 11:25 PM
Another in my Yeoh Den research binge.
I remember watching this with ED around when it came out. We were knocked out by the helicoptering motorcycle move and that sold us on it’s a sure outrageousness. This movie is so bad that it’s awesome.
Michelle plays Ching which I already like. Ching is a tortured lovelorn villainess who fights with a whip chain. Maggie Cheung is a punk biker assassin who uses a double barreled shotgun and boomerang knives. Anita Mui is a masked caped heroine who throws weird darts and has a belt sword. There’s a demon stealing babies. His righthand henchman #9 uses a flying guillotine.
This unapologetically defies physics at every turn. Some of it doesn’t even make sense but once you give that a pass, the ridiculousness consumes you in that ‘who the heck thought of that?’ way. Johnny To directs and the effects are so cheesy, it’s almost art. Pre-cgi so all effects and stunts are in camera, which cranks the cheese factor to 11+. There are scenes like constantly swirling papers in a lab clean room. Maggie launches herself into battle by straddling an empty oil drum and tossing dynamite into it.
And along with the caricature superheroes, there’s a lot of senseless death of bystanders (I mentioned the flying guillotine - whenever one of those is in play, it means gratuitous beheading. There’s random baby death. This film just can’t make up its mind about what it wants to be, which makes the result even sillier.
The three actresses are at their cheekiest and sexiest. It’s like Charlie’s Angels meets Adam West Batman. Psychotropic grindhouse HK cinema ftw. It remains a delight in its unabashed approach as if the director has a bunch of stuff in his mind and threw it up in our faces to let us sort it out. It’s not about plot. It’s about hitting these random scenes that border on visionary, at least for a low budget B film.
It’s also female strong. The trio is on top of everything, in control. The men are all kind of clueless, especially the spouses.
I remember the sequel wasn’t good. Won’t go back that that for this binge.
D00M recommended for its absurdity (this might not work for everyone) Seen dubbed on YouTube (the dubbing sux - the original language is so much better).
I remember watching this with ED around when it came out. We were knocked out by the helicoptering motorcycle move and that sold us on it’s a sure outrageousness. This movie is so bad that it’s awesome.
Michelle plays Ching which I already like. Ching is a tortured lovelorn villainess who fights with a whip chain. Maggie Cheung is a punk biker assassin who uses a double barreled shotgun and boomerang knives. Anita Mui is a masked caped heroine who throws weird darts and has a belt sword. There’s a demon stealing babies. His righthand henchman #9 uses a flying guillotine.
This unapologetically defies physics at every turn. Some of it doesn’t even make sense but once you give that a pass, the ridiculousness consumes you in that ‘who the heck thought of that?’ way. Johnny To directs and the effects are so cheesy, it’s almost art. Pre-cgi so all effects and stunts are in camera, which cranks the cheese factor to 11+. There are scenes like constantly swirling papers in a lab clean room. Maggie launches herself into battle by straddling an empty oil drum and tossing dynamite into it.
And along with the caricature superheroes, there’s a lot of senseless death of bystanders (I mentioned the flying guillotine - whenever one of those is in play, it means gratuitous beheading. There’s random baby death. This film just can’t make up its mind about what it wants to be, which makes the result even sillier.
The three actresses are at their cheekiest and sexiest. It’s like Charlie’s Angels meets Adam West Batman. Psychotropic grindhouse HK cinema ftw. It remains a delight in its unabashed approach as if the director has a bunch of stuff in his mind and threw it up in our faces to let us sort it out. It’s not about plot. It’s about hitting these random scenes that border on visionary, at least for a low budget B film.
It’s also female strong. The trio is on top of everything, in control. The men are all kind of clueless, especially the spouses.
I remember the sequel wasn’t good. Won’t go back that that for this binge.
D00M recommended for its absurdity (this might not work for everyone) Seen dubbed on YouTube (the dubbing sux - the original language is so much better).
Shadow boxing the apocalypse
