Angel Terminators II

                                                        
Director: Tong Loi Chun-ku / Chan Lau
Year:  1993
Rating: 7.5
There is no particular connective tissue between the first Angel Terminators and this one. Different characters, director and actors, but what it does have in common is a ferocious Girls with Guns attitude with some of the top actresses in that genre. The two films stand out during that period when the genre was beginning to slump towards mediocrity. Only three other films were at the same level in this period - Kickboxer's Tears, Yes Madam: A Serious Shock and Beauty Investigators - all three not coincidentally starring the two biggest stars - Moon Lee and Yukari Oshima. Whether they were on the same side or against each other, they were a bolt of high octave energy together. Admittedly, even those two plus Michiko Nishiwaki and Cynthia Khan could not save Avenging Quartet from edging into boredom. Such a wasted opportunity.



Here we have the adorable duo of Moon and Yukari again along with Sibelle Hu and in small roles Sophia Crawford and Li Fai. It is fairly unstructured with no main plot holding it together but instead devolves into a series of haphazard fights. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing because the action is top notch and for the most part just people beating the hell out of each other. Anything can start a fight; a bump in the crowd, an insult, a flicked cigarette but in the end it falls back on tradition. Revenge. And lots of it.



There are two pods that we follow in the film. Cops Auntie (Sibelle Hu) and her partner Uncle Bao (Jason Pai Piao - former Shaw Brothers star). Then there is Uncle Bao's delinquent daughter Bullet played by a surly Yukari and her group of friends - Chitty being her best friend played by Moon. The film literally doesn't lose a second before it throws us into the action - a group of jewel thieves with enough fire power to start a small war get into a shootout with Auntie and Uncle Bao. Sibelle Hu always has struck me an an unlikely Girls with Guns star.



From Taiwan, she was following in the Weepie footsteps of Brigitte Lin after Lin left for Hong Kong. But the Weepie melodramas were coming to an end in Taiwan, so she also moved to Hong Kong where she was selected by Sammo to appear in two Lucky Star films as Inspector Wah. A few years later she got into the Inspector Wears Skirts series and basically stayed in the genre for years. She has no training in martial arts or opera school and though she is fine in shootouts and fights, whenever you see her do flips or falls, that is a stunt person.  



Bullet has just gotten out of jail with a chip on her shoulder a mile wide. She just smoulders throughout the film with her bangs fashionably covering one eye, ready to strike out at the world. Her cop dad can't control her. Only her posse of friends can keep her cool. Bullet and Chitty get into fights all the time. The former boss of Bullet tries to get Chitty into prostitution and the two of them smash up heads in a pool hall. One of their friends is drugged and video taped having sex and there is a great all hands on deck fight in a mall.



When not fighting, they are girls who just want to have fun. It is revenge time at the end with Auntie and Chitty teaming up to take on two gangs at once. In a terrific sequence Chitty goes up against Sophia and Li Fai at the same time. She is like the old Timex watches - takes a beating but keeps on kicking. Li Fai wasn't in many films unfortunately as she was a wushu champion. Another old Shaw star shows up, Lo Lieh as Chitty's uncle. The film goes back and forth between drama, carousing and brutal action. It has an emotional punch to it that you don't see coming.