Deadly Target
 
Director: Godfrey Ho/Phillip Ko
Year: 1994
Rating: 6.5
Format: In Mandarin with subs
When you see that this is co-directed by Godfrey Ho and Phillip Ko, it is enough to make you flinch like you have come across a dead bloody body in your home. The two of them combined have committed their share of sins against Hong Kong cinema with their quickie action films usually set in the Philippines. Their reputation was not helped much when Tai Seng back in the day picked up a number of these cheapies and made them worse by badly dubbing and editing them and offering them to the public. And often re-titling them making things very confusing. They retitled this one Fatal Target for some reason and it was years before I realized that Deadly Target was the same film. I saw these films on VHS long ago because I bought up all those Tai Seng releases not realizing that they had likely been fiddled with and reviewed them fairly negatively. I watched two of these films just recently in their original form with subtitles and what a difference it made. It has been so long since I saw the Tai Seng versions that I have no way to compare them and those tapes are likely in a landfill in New Jersey next to Jimmy Hoffa’s body.  So I am not sure if Tai Seng mauled the original or the dubbing put me off or if I have become more easily entertained but I quite enjoyed them both – this and Angel on Fire.




They both suffer from the usual Ho and Ko traits – that you take for granted - dreadful transitions between scenes, a cheap low budget look and plots that look to have been written up on napkins – but what they do have is an abundance of action. It can at times be clumsy with poor wire-work but there is so much of it that some of it has to be good. They also made good use of some of the Girls with Guns stars in particular Yukari Oshima but also Michiko Nishiwaki, Cynthia Khan, Sharon Yeung Pan-pan and Moon Lee. Even if the film reeked of idiocy like Ultracop 2000, there were some good action moments for the women. Deadly Target has two audiences in mind – fans of Hong Kong film but also the Filipino audience and much of it is centered on an action star from the Philippines – while Angel on Fire has a Filipino beauty queen and an action star as two of the major characters. But there is so much action in both that there is plenty left over for the Hong Kong stars.



This one has a delightful pairing of Yukari Oshima and Sharon Yeung Pan-pan. They are so much fun to watch that I wish they had made a series of films with their characters. Yukari scores high on the adorable scale and Pan-pan who is usually serious in her roles just seems to have fun joining in. They are Hong Kong cops on vacation in the Philippines. Just some good old R&R, lollygagging on the beaches and cycling on the water boats. A pink drink at their side. They go to visit Yukari’s wealthy cousin Master Hung (John Cheung) and practice some martial arts exercises. Little do they know that Hung is a weapon’s dealer and a ruthless killer. He seems so nice. As does his sister (Sarah Gomez) who in fact is vicious as a hungry rabid dog – “I want him to die slowly, painfully”. There is a lovely little scene which adds nothing to the plot but is just fun. The two girls are sitting on the beach under an umbrella when a volley ball from a nearby game hits them. Instead of just returning it like most people would they make a big deal of it by showing their kung-fu skills with the ball and then with men’s heads. There are a few scenes of them just working out and stretching that are just filling up time but for fans of theirs a treat.



Well, the vacation doesn’t last long. They get a call from Hong Kong headquarters to keep an eye on Mr. Wong (Phillip Ko) who is in town to buy arms. This brings them into contact with a Filipino police man played by Edu Manzano. We first see him in the opening scene when he gets involved in a fire fight between bad guys and the cops and just ends it by driving in, shooting a few, jumping on the back of their truck, falling off on to a passing Jitney, rolling off and coming up shooting and blowing up the truck. Another trait of Ho and Ko is a lot of things get blown up in their films. And it is nearly non-stop action after this. Our girls have a nifty fight on a fire escape, around a swimming pool and so much more. When they aren’t fighting, Edu is. Or Hung is by killing off all his rivals



One great scene has Edu captured in a container in his car. They raise it up and plant a bomb inside. No worry. He crashes the car out with the bomb, swings down while shooting a bunch of guys and then kills the female assassin on the motorcycle as she drives at him and jumps on her motorcycle and drives away to his daughter’s birthday party. It has the big shootout at the end with men being killed by the dozens and many of them doing a twisting dive as they die like they are being rated at the Olympics. Another Ko and Ho trait is the good guys are expert shots and the bad guys can’t hit an elephant in front of them. Yukari takes on Phillip Ko in a nice match up while Sharon beats up on Darren Shahlavi who showed up in a dozen Hong Kong films. It is basically action galore with some of it is mediocre and some of it is quite good. Just good dumb fun with action scenes coming at you like subway cars at rush hour. If you missed that one, another will come by soon. If you go to the bathroom, you will likely miss two action scenes.



I was looking at Godfrey Ho's filmography. Before he dipped into the Girls with Guns genre he made a ton of kung-fu and ninja films and I have not seen one of them. It would be interesting to track a few down and see what they are like. Phillip Ko was in a bunch of them but so are kung-fu stalwarts like Elton Chong, Dragon Lee, Casanova Wong and Hwang Jang-lee. He often co-directed with Kim Si-hyeon and shot them in Korea. Before that he was an assistant director at Shaw for Chang Cheh a few times. Wikipedia compares him to Ed Woods but I doubt that is entirely fair. I can't imagine Woods making an action film with Yukari! There must be some up on YouTube.