Angel Terminators
Director: Wai Lit
Year:
1992
Rating: 7.5
This
was produced in 1990 per the end credit on the film though for some odd reason
not released till 1992. In my opinion, it is one of the last great Girls
with Guns from that era. By 1992 the genre was losing steam and the budgets
which were never very large, dropped even further. So, this seems to have
barely made it into theaters for a few days before it was pulled and never
gained the reputation that some of the other GwG films did. Which is a shame,
but fortunately it has made it onto blue-ray. It has three of the main GwG
actresses but none of the big draws - no Moon Lee or Yukari or Cynthia Khan.
But Kara Hui, Sharon Yeung Pan-pan and Michiko Nishiwaki is still top tier.
Throw in Carrie Ng, Dick Wai and Kenneth Tsang and you have a great cast.
And naturally there are the Gweilo thugs on hand; Mark Houghton and Bruce
Fontaine.
Not many of the actresses of the Shaw Brothers
were able to make the transition to the now dominant Cantonese film industry
after Shaw shut down. By 1985 most were already retired or soon were. It
could not have been an easy transition. Shaw took care of everything. An
old-fashioned movie studio. The Cantonese film industry was a different animal
with no one taking care of you. Filled with lots of fly by night independent
film companies knocking out quickies. This was especially true in the GwG
films.
But both Kara Hui and Sharon Yeung managed
to do so. Both had been stars in many kung-fu films and Kara had been the
lead in My Young Auntie and The Lady is the Boss. Both had learned their
skills at Opera schools and they were not ready to retire and took on roles
in action films. Kara in Rosa and Naughty Boys. Sharon not until 1989 with
Angel Enforcers. Both are enormously physically talented and this film is
a series of highlights displaying those skills. Yeung in particular performs
some astonishing acrobatics and stunts. Her acrobatic skills were well known
and she used to perform exhibitions for charity.
It is a rough movie. Really nasty in parts.
The first half is one action set piece after another with just a smidgeon
of a plot in between. And then wow. It goes dark, very dark but that gives
the film an emotional underpinning that few of these GwG films have. It is
a sock to your stomach. The action comes fast and furious from big shootouts
to punch outs to some great one on ones. The stunts never slow down. That
one long fall in which he hits an out cropping on his way down before hitting
the ground looked terrifying. Shot in one take.
It begins with drug kingpin Tsang escaping
Hong Kong with Inspectors Kara and Sharon chasing him. He says his goodbyes
to his mistress Carrie Ng in her always lipstick glory. After a shootout,
he escapes to Thailand. Seven years later he returns with a different identity
and with Michiko and Houghton as bodyguards and killers. Always happy to
come across Michiko though she is a sadistic baddie here who at one point
cuts off her little finger for messing up. Kara gets written out of the middle
part of the film by sending her off for training in Scotland. Yeung warns
her not to have sex with the men to which Kara replies, "I am not that cheap".
Caarrie meanwhile has married a high-ranking
cop. With a gambling problem. Tsang wants her back and who can blame him
but it gets messy. And horrific. Eventually, after lots of nasty, Kara returns
from Scotland - unblemished - and she and Yeung go after Tsang in a great
finale - with Dick Wei showing up - and an exclamation mark as an ending.
Yeung never became the GwG star that Moon or Yukari did, but damn does she
amaze here. Kara amazingly is still working
