The Avenging Quartet


 
Director: Stanley Siu-wing
Year: 1993
Rating: 5.5
Cynthia Khan, Yukari Oshima, Moon Lee and Michiko Nishiwaki are the Avenging Quartet.  This is like going to a Hall of Fame Girls with Guns ceremony. Or the 1927 New York Yankees Sluggers Row. Without these four there may not have been a Girls with Guns genre. There were certainly other females who did great stuff in those films but these were the essential ones. Moon and Yukari got the whole thing started with Angel in 1987. Before that film Moon had been in some fine films - the first two Mr. Vampire movies and Zu: Warriors but she was not considered an action actress. More a comic cutie pie. She had dance training though and was all in when it came to doing martial arts and stunts. Yukari had trained with Sonny Chiba and been in a successful TV show in Japan but first Taiwan beckoned in three nutty action films - Funny Family, A Book of Heroes and Kung-fu Wonderchild. That got the attention of Hong Kong and she was brought over for a small but attention-grabbing role in Millionaire's Express as a Japanese female Samurai alongside Kurata Yasuaki. Next up was Angel as the ferocious villain. She was the villain in most of her early films - the Japanese killer.



The same applied to Michiko Nishiwaki who had been a body builder in Japan till she was enticed over to jump right into villainy. The images of her from two small roles – as the Yakuza tattoo covered gambler in God of Gamblers and her kimono muscle bound appearance in My Lucky Star are two of the more enduring ones in Hong Kong film. It was no coincidence that both Japanese actresses often played villains (as did the lesser known Nadeki Fujimi); the same went for the non-Asian female action stars with the exception of Cynthia Rothrock. But as the popularity of Yukari and to some extent Michiko grew they were able to become the heroes in their film. And the fourth in this quartet was from Taiwan where she had trained in dance. She too didn't start off as an action star but D&B signed her after Michelle Yeoh aka Michelle Khan left to marry Dickson Poon, the head of D&B. Cynthia took on the name of Khan and was to star immediately in the In the Line of Duty films. So here they are together. Get ready to rumble.



Let me say it again. Are you ready to rumble! Wait a second. We are having technical difficulties. No one is ready to rumble quite yet. Come on we have Moon, Yukari, Michiko and Cynthia prepped and ready to go. Sorry, director Stanley Siu-wing thinks the public wants some drama first, character development and female bonding. Is he out of his mind? That's not what the public wants. Not this public. They want blood, flips, kicks and mayhem. Ya, but first the drama, the romance, the comedy relief, the inevitable tragedy of man. Noooo. They want Moon and Yukari kicking the hell out of each other. They want Michiko licking the blood off of her knife as she wickedly smiles. They want Cynthia kneeing a few men in their groins and then kicking them into a fire. Sure, they will get that but first we build character.  Which is pretty much what we have in this film. 75 minutes of plot and drama and fifteen minutes of a blast out of Hell.



Cynthia is a Mainland cop and leads a raid on some smugglers coming ashore. They have a painting from World War II in which the Japanese hid their germ warfare experiments. The Japanese want it and are willing to pay big bucks. Nearly all the bad guys are killed but one of them is about to shoot her when he is shot by one of the gang. By Waise Lee. He and Cynthia have a history but he vanished seven years ago after being sentenced to death. She gets leave and goes looking for him in Hong Kong. Where she runs into Moon Lee when they take on a few bullies. And become friends each talking about the man they love and going shopping. Turns out in this small crazy world that they are talking about the same man. Waise romanced both of them. Damn. They don't realize this though and get the help of a cop, Chin Kar-lok to help them look. And they look and look. And look. A couple times you think ok, this is it, action is coming up. Sorry. Just a tease. Stay in your seats. On two occasions there is a race up the stairs and the camera follows them up - floor 2, floor 3, floor 4 - and so on in which nothing happens other than they run out of breath. That sure was exciting. 



Michiko was married to the gang leader who was killed by Cynthia. Who happens to be Moon's brother. A fine kettle of fish this is. So Cynthia is in love with the man that Moon is and she killed her brother. And they have bonded. Talk about drama. Now I get it. Michiko is looking for Waise too who happens to have the painting and who turned down her seductive come-ons. Damn again. What are you taking Waise. Yukari after a training session against Ninjas is sent over to help get the painting. She and Michiko have a short scuffle until they discover they are both Japanese and call a truce and decide to work together. So very little action takes place until the wheels come off in the finale. It was almost worth the wait. Brutal with a capital B. Just nasty and cruel. Explosions and beat-downs. Torture and rape. Everybody takes their punishment. And gives more in return.