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皇家女將 (1990)
She Shoots Straight


Reviewed by: Hyomil
Date: 04/07/2011


Reviewer Score: 6

Reviewed by: j.crawford
Date: 06/20/2007
Summary: proven template with a few twists.....

May 2007 - After Yes, Madam [1985], the girls-with-guns sub-genre of Hong Kong cinema was big business at the local box office. Director Cory Yuen Kwai and writer Barry Wong Ping-Yiu teamed up in 1990 with producer Sammo Hung Kam-Bo and his pretty girlfriend, Joyce Godenzi, to make She Shoots Straight. This is a nice movie that uses the proven template while adding a few twists. The best reason to watch this movie is for the performance of Tang Pik-Wan. The casting of this seasoned pro as the matriarch of the story was sheer genius. With her compelling screen presence, Ms. Tang makes her young female co-stars look like rank amateurs.

Speaking frankly, if Sammo was just a regular guy without fame and fortune, he could never get a woman as good looking as Ms. Godenzi, right? In Hollywood jargon, this is a classic “vanity picture”, a project developed by a movie mogul to feature his latest starlet. Mr. Hung produces and designs a role in a feature film for his girl and hires the best available Action Directors [Yuen Tak and Mang Hoi] to help him make her look capable. He succeeds here quite nicely.

Reviewer Score: 7

Reviewed by: dandan
Date: 01/05/2007
Summary: she scores...

inspector mina kao (joyce godenzi), has just married into the wong family, by taking inspector bo wong (tony leung ka-fai) as her husband. bo's sisters (sandra ng, angile leung, sarah lee), in particular ling (carina lau), fell that bo is making a mistake by marrying the young, ambitious officer, who looks as if she'll be his superior sooner, rather than later.

still, mama wong (tang pik-wan) and her godson (sammo hung) manage to keep things together, until they get involved in the robbery of a nightclub. the robbery is prevented, but many people are killed as a result of ling blowing their cover. it is only when the vietnamese gang, who carried out the robbery, decide to take revenge against one of the gang who was killed by mina, that the wong sisters and mina start to pull together...

this is a pretty typical corey yuen film; touches of humour, touches of melodrama, a slightly clunky narrative and some solid action sequences, mixing gunplay and martial arts with style. godenzi and lau provide, along with yuen wah (the head of the vietnamese gang), take the lead in the bulk of the action sequences and do well.

good stuff.


Reviewed by: mrblue
Date: 09/17/2005

Joyce Godenzi stars as Mina, a tough cop who's hot on the trail of a gang of Vietnamese terrorists led by Yuen Wah. Complicating matters a bit are her sisters-in-law, who also happen to work for her. They never liked the "half-breed" marrying into the family, and as such, refuse to fully co-operate with her until a tragedy pulls the family together.

The plot here is really nothing special and the script is a bit flat. However, most of the actors here give performances that give their characters some credibility. There are some scenes in this movie that -- while still fairly melodramatic -- are actually touching. Don't get me wrong, even though this is a female-dominated movie and I just used the word "touching," this is no soap-opera cop drama. At its' heart, She Shoots Straight is an action movie and it delivers in spades. From a chase where Godenzi goes after the villains by leaping on top of various moving cars to a shootout seen thorough infrared lenses, there's inventive action and plenty of it throughout the film. The movie's real showstopper is the finale, where Godenzi takes on a female bodybuilder in a scene that's both brutal and beautiful at the same time.

Note: Joyce Godenzi (sometimes credited as Joyce Mina Godenzi or simply Mina Godenzi) is Sammo Hung's wife. Before their marriage in 1995, Sammo (through his powers as a producer) custom-made several roles for her, even going as far as teaching her a bit of martial arts himself, since she had no training at all beforehand. Despite roles in several big movies, Godenzi never caught on with HK audiences, even though (as evidenced in this movie) she was quite competent in both the action and acting arenas. Some people have surmised it was Godenzi's mixed heritage, rather than a lack of talent, that caused HK audiences to react badly to her.

[review from www.hkfilm.net]


Reviewed by: leepifer
Date: 05/07/2005
Summary: Very good!

The storyline is not the best point but there is enough to give credits to the characters.I like this family'affair with all that that implies in the everyday life.So the relations between sisters,brothers and sis in law find their goal trough the police work and it brings these amazing and great actions scenes!
Yes,i think they are very good,strongs and spectaculars!Young women are fighting with all their strenght and take back some blows who surely gave them some reel pains!
Tony Leung Ka-fai is the cool brother and the adored man of the family and trough its role,he gives a certain balance to the entire film.
If you like effective actions films,this one is for you;especially if you want to apreciate Joyce Godenzi in one of her rare role where she shows great skills of both fighting and play.
She is beautiful!


Reviewed by: balstino
Date: 07/09/2003
Summary: Joyce Godenzi = Amazing! Film = Tedious.

FANTASTIC action, Joyce Godenzi has got to be the number 1 female action star. BUT, this film gets very sentimental and crappy half way through. Shame eh.


Reviewed by: Sydneyguy
Date: 03/07/2002
Summary: Very under rated!!

i am sure i already reviewed this but this movie is one of the best action movies around. A lot of females fight but that makes no difference because the action is suburb. If you like action, do not miss this movie!!

8.75/10

Reviewer Score: 9

Reviewed by: Inner Strength
Date: 01/13/2002
Summary: QUITE GOOD

A better than average action movie, set just as the golden age of Hong Kong was ending. Joyce Godenzi is very underated in the movie world I think, and she really is very good. She does a great job here as a police woman, trying to get to grips over her husbands death, and trying to stay 'cool' for her friends and family. Carina Lau, not very good, I was happy when she was SLAPPED big time!

A Coery Yuen/Sammo Hung movie, who are very good together (let's not forget, they both studied at the same Peking Opera school).

Rating (out of 5): 3.5

(This rating is based on the year & genre, so don't think it's based as a comparison on new releases etc.)


Reviewed by: MrBooth
Date: 12/19/2001
Summary: Uneven and ill thought out

Another Girls With Guns movie from genre father Yuen Kwai (statistically more men have guns than girls in the movie, but it still belongs in the GwG genre). Leung Ka Fai and his 5 sisters all join the police force in honour of their deceased cop father. Family tensions are caused when Tony marries female inspector Joyce Godenzi, with Carina Lau in particular feeling that he is losing face by having his wife as successful/more successful than he is (or is it just jealousy?). The family make a good impression by foiling the robbery of a gang of Vietnamese thieves led by Yuen Wah without absolutely every innocent person in the vicinity getting shot, but Wah swears revenge against them for the death of his brother.

The movie is paced with typical Yuen Kwai randomness... the first 20 minutes is a manic action dash that somehow serves as character introduction too, then it alternately lurches between melodrama and more action in a rough manner. There is a melodrama section in the middle that seems like it drags on forever. The plot of the movie could basically be described as "both cops and robbers get pretty much what they deserve from a series of really ill-thought out plans". None of the movie is very well thought out, but that's reasonably typical of the genre and the time. The action is the movie's saving grace, and we get some pretty well staged gun fu... Joyce Godenzi suffers her way through quite a lot of her own stunts, and Carina Lau comes off fairly well too. Yuen Wah's super-tough sister is pretty impressive too.

Yuen Kwai fails to get good performances out of any of his characters, though Joyce Godenzi has her moments. Carina Lau in particular is shrill and stupid to the point of frustration, and even though Sandra Ng only has a small role, she managed to *really* annoy me whenever she was on screen - might have been the hair. Sammo Hung also has a small part, which he manages to give a suitably dignified air too.

It's not a particularly good film, but there's some entertainment to be found in there.


Reviewed by: GlennS
Date: 10/19/2001
Summary: Overrated

After hearing a lot of praise for this film, my expectations were high. Upon review though, SHE SHOOTS STRAIGHT turned out to be a minor disappointment.

An action-cum-weepy melodrama, SHE SHOOTS STRAIGHT features plenty of action but the weepfest in the middle of the film drags the pace a lot and seems to last forever.

Joyce Godenzi is awesome as the main character and is very ferocious and believable in her fight scenes. Her final fight scene with Agnes Aurelio is easily the highlight of the film.

7/10

Reviewer Score: 7

Reviewed by: MilesC
Date: 08/02/2000
Summary: Pretty good.

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Surprisingly decent Girls With Guns stuff... For the first fourty minutes. Then the movie, which was already heavier in emotional content that most movies in the genre, takes a MAJOR turn for the weepy... Literally 15-20 minutes of mourning. I guess they never heard of understatement... Still, despite this serious strike against the movie, it's got enough redeeming features to make it worth watching... Though the action scenes are never quite top-drawer by HK standards, they are generally solid... And unlike most movies, they actually sometimes give the impression that major characters may be seriously hurt or killed rather than simply stomping through endless baddies. Joyce Godenzi's fight scenes are of varying quality, but are generally pretty impressive considering she's reportedly not even flexible. And, as a major bonus, the "down time" scenes are a cut above most of the others entries in the genre. I did, however, find it pretty disheartening when Joyce makes fun of Agnes for being "sunburned like a nigger." The bottom line... Not art, but probably better than anything with "Angel" in the title...


Reviewed by: STSH
Date: 12/29/1999
Summary: Very good action-revenge melodrama

Mina and Ling are one great fighting team, and the way they polish off the baddies in the later scenes is some of the best fightin' fem stuff I've ever seen. The acting is totally unrestrained but effective, especially by Carina Lau. Joyce Godenzi is pretty good too, and I can't understand why she hasn't made more of this sort of movie. A young and rather chubby Sandra Ng also features. And the actress who played the feisty mother (possibly Dang Bik Wan ) is a scream.
The final battle between Joyce and Anges is, surprisingly, a fizzer, and the film ends in a whimper. But the rest of the film more than makes up for it.
Definitely recommended.

Reviewer Score: 9

Reviewed by: hokazak
Date: 12/09/1999

A pretty good film overall - notable mainly for the outrageous fightscene between main star Godenzi and her muscle-bound nemesis Agnes Aurelio, that has made this film a classic among fans of female brawling...