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喋血柔情 (1995)
Angel on Fire


Reviewed by: ewaffle
Date: 01/17/2007

“Angel on Fire” is a terrible movie—there are two reasons so watch it (thumb always poised over the fast forward button). I was aware of only one when I put the DVD into the tray. That was the presence of Cynthia Khan, an actress with whom I am becoming increasingly impressed. The second reason, having seen it, is Melanie Marquez, who has a very distinctive look and powerful screen presence.

So the slog through poorly written and badly directed dreck continues, moving toward the grail of having seen all of CK’s films. As both previous reviewers have mentioned, the editing was abysmal. It looked as if parts had been snipped and then lost—for example early on when Mimi, the supermodel with sticky fingers, is being pursued by two thugs. She escapes by jumping on the ferry just as it is pulling out, leaving the bad guys (actually one bad guy, one bad gal) fuming on the dock. The next shot—not the next scene, but the next shot—has her on a bus with the thugs right behind her.

Marquez and Khan are well matched foes—both are very fit and athletic, Cynthia is her usual extremely earnest, righteous and essentially humorless cop while Melanie is a demented, deranged lunatic who is also a master thief. The opening scenes of Mimi at the Shaolin Temple set the tone for the rest of this sorry spectacle. While the monks are in the courtyard practicing kung fu she is in the bell tower stealing a precious relic. The entire monastery is alerted to the theft but she manages to get away by outfighting, outrunning and outbiking all of her saffron clad foes. One unintentional subtext may be that Shaolin has fallen on very hard times if person can not only sneak into the temple and steal an object of great value from them but also get away with it. The correlation, of course, would be the sorry state of classic kung fu movies in 1995 and the hopeless anachronism of both the Temple and the genre of films.

Sharon Yeung is a Mainland cop dispatched to Hong Kong and then to the Philippines (along with the rest of the cast) in search of the relic and those who stole it. She has little to do, occasionally popping up accompanied by a Philippine police officer to shoot or beat up someone. Possibly the shortest person in the cast she does get the honor of beating up Black Leopard, played by the very large Winston G. Ellis.

Things are completely confused by the end of the movie. There are either two or three sets of bad guys, all armed with automatic weapons who show up in an industrial area for the handover of the sacred object to buyers with a briefcase full of money. There is a lot of gunfire, many explosions and a high butcher’s bill but who is shooting at who is never really made clear. Actually most of the combatants seem more interested in emptying as many clips of ammunition possible than in retrieving the stolen Shaolin trophy.

The good news is that Cynthia Khan looks great. Excellent make-up—she has a lot of close ups—and some very nice if badly out of date costumes. Especially in an outfit of very high waisted trousers with suspenders over a white blouse she looks sexy and feminine on one hand and ready to mete out quick justice on the other. For once in a modern police drama she wasn’t stuck with the boxy jackets and baggy pants that often pass for a wardrobe. Melanie Marquez, at over six feet tall and supple as a sword blade, would look good in anything including the long coats, form fitting slacks and always present opaque sunglasses.

That isn’t very much to pin one’s hopes on though. You should skip this one unless you have a specific reason to see it. Two points--1.5 for Cynthia Khan the other half point for Marquez who I encountered for the first time here.

Not recommended.

Reviewer Score: 2

Reviewed by: PAUL MARTINEZ
Date: 01/25/2005
Summary: Painful

It's a shame that when people look back at Cynthia Khan's career they will probably remember her more for the dreadful films she was a part of rather than the couple of good ones. That being said here's another example of the former.

Ms. Khan is a cop on the trail of a top fashion model, who happens to be a thief, who also happens to be a martial arts expert. If you haven't left yet then I'll continue. After stealing something from a Shaolin temple (You heard me)The model is betrayed by her partner. So she decides to betray her boss. (Huh?) Now she is being chased by the cops, her ex-partner and her ex-boss. So she goes to try to sell the artifact but of course everyone in the world knows where the deal's being made and mayhem ensues. If this sounds bad to you, it's not even close to how bad it truly was on screen.

I have been asked by people I know, "How do you know what's good editing? It all seems the same to me". Well here is the example of what truly bad editing is. To call it amateurish is an insult to amateurs.

A really bad film. Which gave me a headache. Stay away!

Reviewer Score: 1

Reviewed by: mrblue
Date: 09/25/2004

For a Phillip Ko movie, Angel on Fire is good stuff. That might not be saying too much, as the movies Ko has been involved with in a behind-the-camera capacity range from straight-up generic (Hard to Kill) to downright bad (Cyprus Tigers). He's only had one outstanding film that I've seen, 1989's Final Run (aka Kickfighter) -- and that was probably more from Ko's ex-wife Yukari Oshima's "go for broke" attitude and mad bumps that made that B-list cheapie more watchable than anything else Ko has made.

However, even on the most miniscule of budgets, Phillip Ko usually manages to put together some decent action sequences, and Angel on Fire certainly has that in abundance. Even though Ko didn't have much of a budget to work with (this production is yet another of his that was shot in the Philippines) and no real big stars to speak of, he manages to create an entertaning no-brainer action flick. Don't get me wrong. You're not going to confuse Angel on Fire with anything even near the top tier of Hong Kong action movies, but if you enjoy movies you can check out with some beer and trash-talking friends, then Angel on Fire is right up your alley.

As for the story, it's chewed up and reconsituted crud that has Melanie Marquez as a model-turned-thief who steals some sort of "precious object" (as specified by the craptacular subtitles, which somehow adds to both the cheese factor and enjoyment of the film) from a Buddhist temple. She double-crosses her boss (Phillip Ko) and heads to Manila to sell the object to another bidder, where she is also pursued by cops from both Hong Kong (Cynthia Khan) and the Mainland (Sharon Yueng).

The exposition has that "edited with a butcher knife" feel of Godfrey Ho's movies. Characters come and go and there are a lot of subplots that are never really fully dealt with; Sharon Yeung's character, in particular, has an odd habit of just popping into the movie and then leaving. Plus, there are a lot of gweilo characters that just come on for one scene and disappear -- it seems like they almost were just finding tourists and paying them a few bucks to be in this movie. Despite the schizophrenic way the film plays out, the action is good enough to warrant a viewing, unlike Godfrey Ho's films, which just come off as slightly warmed-up poop. At any rate, if you're some sort of movie snob, then stay far away from Angel on Fire. But if you have a soft spot for good-looking women kicking ass, you could do much worse than this.

(review from www.hkfilm.net)