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Review
by Kozo: |
Hong Kong
Cinema was once known for movies like Angel,
i.e. over-the-top action vehicles with barely disguised
B-grade movie plots. This late eighties actioner should
be a welcome diversion for those bemoaning the current
cinema's lack of robust action entries, as it possesses
the violent excess that helped propel Hong Kong Cinema
to midnight movie staple status. That, and it has
pretty girls who fight.
Also called Iron Angels, Midnight Angel, and probably a trillion other
B-movie names worldwide, the film tells the tale of
a suave mercenary group called the Iron Angels. Presided
over by a white-suited David Chiang, the group assembles
when they're hired by Interpol to take down a violent
drug cartel led by the haughty Yukari Oshima. She's
assassinating Interpol agents responsible for burning
down some of her gang's opium fields, and when some
of her allies get nervous about her extreme actions,
she offs them too. She's obviously in charge, and
the regular authorities seem unable or maybe unwilling
to do anything about her.
But the Iron Angels are willing
to do something to stop her - as long as the monetary
reward is sweet enough. Composed of Japanese popstar
Hideki Saijo, popular female fighting star Moon Lee,
and relatively unpopular female fighting star Elaine
Lui, the trio is as tough and unprofessional as you
can get, meaning they take breaks from their job for
sassy pouting and minor romance, plus go about their
business in distractingly inappropriate outfits. In
one sequence, the trio stage a nighttime building
break-in while wearing white track suits, off-the-shoulder
sweaters, and large, dangly hoop earrings. The fashions
presumably prevent them from getting hit by vehicles
at night, but ninja-like stealth is probably not aided
by this choice in attire.
Nevertheless, when it's time
to kick ass, the trio does, with satisfying results.
Angel isn't much of a movie, in that it possesses
little in the way of acting, story, or direction.
On the other hand, it's got excellent, if not too
brief flashes of action, including many scenes of
Yukari Oshima whacking people around with her powerful
legs. In one scene she takes on both Elaine Lui and
Alex Fong (as a smarmy young FBI agent), and is both
pretty and powerful in her lithesome ass-kicking ability.
There's also a nifty, if not distractingly edited
raid on a bad guy hideout where the Iron Angels come
calling with grenades and machine guns, leading to
plenty of blood and broken glass. Hideki Saijo, whose
Hong Kong Cinema output consists of this lone film,
even gets a couple of entertaining mano a mano bouts with Korean fighter Hwang Jang-Lee.
The above is nothing, however,
compared to the jaw-dropping knockaround between Moon
Lee and Yukari Oshima, where the two attack each other
with nails, two-by-fours, and whatever sharp or blunt
objects happen to be within their reach. The fight
is still over far too quickly, but the speed and impact
with which it's portrayed are probably responsible
for a good 70% of Angel's status as a certified
Hong Kong Cinema classic. Truthfully, that label may
be a bit overstated. Angel accomplishes much
less than some of its contemporaries (Righting
Wrongs and On the Run, to name two) as
it delivers little emotion to go with its outstanding
action. The absolute best Hong Kong films delivered
more than just kinetic thrills; they were frequently
cathartic too. But hey, Angel has girls who
can do both attitude and action, and they do it very,
very well. To some, that's what Hong Kong Cinema is
about. That parade shall not be rained on. (Kozo 2007) |
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