Angel (Iron Angels) (Hong Kong, 1987) – 3,5/5
What’s Elaine Lui + Moon Lee + Yukari Oshima? That’s 150 bodies plus hellava lot of broken bones. Angel features not only one of the most bone crunching femme fatale finales ever but also some excellent gunplay. The scene where this asian Schwarzenegger and two female Rambos go for a rescue mission is in the league of Commando. The soundtrack features some kick ass tunes as well. On the minus side the first half is feels a bit slow, although I’m quite sure it will work notably better on repeated viewings, or alternatively if you’re already very familiar with the main cast.
- dvd / Mei Ah
My Heart is That Eternal Rose (Hong Kong, 1989) – 4,5/5
My Heart is That Eternal Rose is one of the largely undiscovered Hong Kong gems, a true heroic bloodshed classic. Directed by Patrick Tam (After This Our Exile) this movie could be described as Wong Kar Wai in the world of John Woo. The crime drama sports an excellent screenplay, stylish action (although there’s only a few action scenes), beautiful music and visuals (cinematography by Christopher Doyle and David Chung) and an amazingly good performance by young Tony Leung (Chiu Wai). The rest of the main cast features Kenny Bee, Joey Wang and Gordon Liu.
- dvd / Mei Ah
Mezzo Forte (Japan, 1998) – 2,5/5
Kite director Yasuomi Umetsu continues on the same path but with more humour. While the numerous laughs are the saving element the sex scenes feel even more unnecessary than before. The first half is generally quite good (including the hilarious bowling alley sequence) but the last 30 minutes is a bit of a mess. Less androids, more sense please.
- dvd / Kitty Media