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Reviewed by: STSH
Date: 04/12/2001
Summary: So So

This film is more a curiosity than one to recommend. The best I can say is that it boasts a fine cast and a great soundtrack. The lack of subtitles make it hard to describe the story in detail, and there is evidently quite a lot of plotting going on, but I found it heavy going for the most part. Lots of glares and melodramatic gestures but not much action. And, despite the fine cast, the acting is nothing special. And the very poor quality of the print didn't help much either.

The selection of western pop tunes which make up the soundtrack nearly saves this picture. Chas Jankel's weird and funky Ai No Corrida (a minor hit in late 1981, the title refers to the Oshima's In The Realm Of The Senses), several tracks from The Long Run (The Eagles), One Way Ticket (Eruption), Time (Pink Floyd), tracks from the soundtrack of American Gigolo (Giorgio Moroder), as well as two samples from Alan Parsons Project tunes which are played no less than five times each (which is about twice too often !). The release date of 1984 may be misleading as, because the film is released under Joseph Lai's IFD Films, it is likely to be a retitle. However, the soundtrack music indicates the film to have been made no earlier than 1982. Unless, of course, IFD films overlaid a new soundtrack........

Another curious feature is the front credits. They roll on all the way from stars to director in English only, then a frame appears with the main actors and the director credited in Chinese ! I've seen no other film which has this feature.

As I can't comment much on the story, a few words about the actors. Perhaps the top half dozen actors seem to share screen time equally. Brigitte Lin is still clearly the star, but she's not on the screen nearly as much as one would expect, for a film which was made around the time of her peak of popularity in Taiwan. Yeung Wai San was mainly an action star, but neither she nor Brigitte get much action here.

Overall, if you want a film where Brigitte and YeungWS kick serious arse, this one ain't it ! For curiosity and completist value only.

Reviewer Score: 4