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Lacking any better sorting method, I stuck all the "Girls With Guns" movies with "Angel" in the title (of which there were quite a few) into their own folder, and have now watched them all.
Things learned from this experience:
1. Cops have revolvers, criminals have uzis and AK-47s. Somehow it never occurs to the cops to break out heavier weaponry when they are shooting at the bad guys' HQ.
2. Every single time a criminal deal goes down, whether for the purchase of drugs, jewellery, counterfeit currency or guns, one or both sides will inevitably try to kill the other side so they can keep both money and valuables. This is usually done by having confederates jump out of hiding and mow down the other side with sub-machine guns. Sometimes instead someone just produces a machine gun out of hiding and mows down the other side. Yet somehow, despite every single purchase/sale of illegal goods inevitably leaving a room full of dead bodies, there seems to be no shortage of gang members willing to participate in such transactions.
3. If there is the slightest possibility of melodrama, then you can count on it being in there, dialled up to 11.
4. Gun jammed? Out of ammo? Then the obvious answer is to switch to kung fu. Gun knocked out of your hand? Don't bother trying to pick it up again, just switch to kung fu.
5. Early boss fights are only allowed to happen at construction sites, abandoned quarries, or derelict factories. Final boss fights either happen at one of those places, or they sometimes instead happen at a palatial mansion where the big boss lives.
6. *Everything* opaque is completely bulletproof - not just car doors, but also things like couches, the sliding panel doors in Japanese restaurants, and stacks of cardboard boxes all provide 100% safe cover for cops or bad guys to hide behind while the other side pumps a hail of bullets into the object in question.
7. Hong Kong cinema police tactics are even stupider than Hollywood police tactics, and involve a ton of anonymous officers stepping out into the line of fire and getting shot to death.
Angel Enforcers (1989) ( Read more... )
Midnight Angel (1990) ( Read more... )
Angel's Mission (Xian fa zhi ren) (1990) ( Read more... )
Angel Force (Tian shi te jing) 1991 ( Read more... )
Angel Terminators (made 1990, released 1992) ( Read more... )
Angel Terminators 2 (1993)
In Hong Kong cinema, numbered sequels don't necessarily have anything whatsoever to do with the original beyond being vaguely similar in genre and theme and released by the same company. Case in point, this film is utterly different from the previous year's Angel Terminators. With all the drama of the first installment but none of the brutal mysogyny and with a more upbeat ending, this is one I may be keeping in my library. ( Read more... )
Things learned from this experience:
1. Cops have revolvers, criminals have uzis and AK-47s. Somehow it never occurs to the cops to break out heavier weaponry when they are shooting at the bad guys' HQ.
2. Every single time a criminal deal goes down, whether for the purchase of drugs, jewellery, counterfeit currency or guns, one or both sides will inevitably try to kill the other side so they can keep both money and valuables. This is usually done by having confederates jump out of hiding and mow down the other side with sub-machine guns. Sometimes instead someone just produces a machine gun out of hiding and mows down the other side. Yet somehow, despite every single purchase/sale of illegal goods inevitably leaving a room full of dead bodies, there seems to be no shortage of gang members willing to participate in such transactions.
3. If there is the slightest possibility of melodrama, then you can count on it being in there, dialled up to 11.
4. Gun jammed? Out of ammo? Then the obvious answer is to switch to kung fu. Gun knocked out of your hand? Don't bother trying to pick it up again, just switch to kung fu.
5. Early boss fights are only allowed to happen at construction sites, abandoned quarries, or derelict factories. Final boss fights either happen at one of those places, or they sometimes instead happen at a palatial mansion where the big boss lives.
6. *Everything* opaque is completely bulletproof - not just car doors, but also things like couches, the sliding panel doors in Japanese restaurants, and stacks of cardboard boxes all provide 100% safe cover for cops or bad guys to hide behind while the other side pumps a hail of bullets into the object in question.
7. Hong Kong cinema police tactics are even stupider than Hollywood police tactics, and involve a ton of anonymous officers stepping out into the line of fire and getting shot to death.
Angel Enforcers (1989) ( Read more... )
Midnight Angel (1990) ( Read more... )
Angel's Mission (Xian fa zhi ren) (1990) ( Read more... )
Angel Force (Tian shi te jing) 1991 ( Read more... )
Angel Terminators (made 1990, released 1992) ( Read more... )
Angel Terminators 2 (1993)
In Hong Kong cinema, numbered sequels don't necessarily have anything whatsoever to do with the original beyond being vaguely similar in genre and theme and released by the same company. Case in point, this film is utterly different from the previous year's Angel Terminators. With all the drama of the first installment but none of the brutal mysogyny and with a more upbeat ending, this is one I may be keeping in my library. ( Read more... )