video cover

Beauty Investigator

1992

Director: Lee Tso Nam

Stars: Moon Lee, Yukari Oshima, Sophia Crawford, Kim Chi Gei, Billy Chow, Billy Ching, Melvin Wong

Moon Lee and Kim Chi Gei play a pair of bumbling cops who are given one last chance by their beleagured boss (Melvin Wong). They must go undercover in a hostess club and track down a "psycho killer" who likes to kill club girls. It turns out the boss of the club (Billy Ching, along with his mistress Sophia Crawford) is a major arms dealer who just screwed over the Yakuza (led by Billy Chow). Smelling a big case, Moon and Kim being to investigate Ching, during which they encounter a vicious Japanese bodyguard (Yukari Oshima) and the secret beind the psycho killer.

Beauty Investigator felt like it could have been a much better movie, but it wastes way too much time with just plain dumb comedy. I'm a fan of dopey humor if it's done right, but the stuff in Beauty Investigator just gets ridiculous at times and undermines the more serious parts of the film. Thankfully, the action here is done well. It's nothing extraordinary, but it's done better than your average low-budget action flick. And this is about as low-budget as they come -- Moon's secret weapon to use against Billy Ching is a very cheap looking wrist missle launcher which looks like it shoots out bottle rockets. But when the gadgets are put aside, the fights in Beauty Investigator are good, if a bit short. Of particular note are a couple of brawls between Moon and Yukari, as well as a brutal matchup between Yukari and Sophia Crawford.

This isn't a classic of the girls-with-guns genre, but it's a good way to kill ninety minutes, especially if you are a fan of Moon Lee or Yukari Oshima.

RATING: 6.5

Back to Movie Review index