Killer Lady
AKA: Lady Killer
1996
Director: Chun Ren
Stars: Sylvia Chang, Chin Kar-Lok, Dick Wei, Shing Fui-On
From the title and beginning bits of Killer Lady, I thought it might turn out to be a decent girls-with-guns flick, but alas, it's just another badly-done cheap action movie. The film's slim plot has Sylvia Chang as a sort of reverse vigilante -- she takes out crooked cops, because her parents were killed by policemen. Though besides the beginning and end scenes, Sylvia doesn't do much. Most of the dirty work is done by a group of generic guys, Chin Kar-Lok being one of them. Eventually, Sylvia and the boys hatch a plan to double-cross smuggler Dick Wei to get some cash, but the plan gets complicated when some people from Sylvia's past come back.
I have the feeling that Killer Lady could have been a good movie, but it falls apart in the execution. Sure, the plot, script and acting are all pretty much crap -- but this is a low-budget quickie we're talking about here. I would normally be able to forgive some monetary shortcomings for the action, but this is ridiculous. How cheap is this film? Well, all the Mark Gor wannabes running around in black suits apparently couldn't find any dress shoes to match the suits, because they're all wearing sneakers. More damningly, Killer Lady looks as if it was edited with a blunt pair of scissors. There is little continunity between scenes, and the fight sequences really have no rhythm. Oh, and the video also sports some of the worst subtitles I have ever seen. One badly translated line stands out and sums up Killer Lady well: "This is sucks!" Indeed.
RATING: 4