image courtesy of www.sensasian.com
Rating:
8
Year of release: 2002
Company: Jing's Production
Genre: action/exploitation
Running time: 92 min.
Director: Ching Siu-Tung
Action director: Lau Chi-Ho
Script: Wong Jing
Producer: Wong Jing
Cinematography: Choi Sung Fai
Editor: Angie Lam
Music: Chan Kwong Wing, Ken Chan
Stars: Anya, Maggie Q, Daniel Wu, Almen Wong, Jewel Lee, Cheng Pei Pei, Andrew Lin
Rated IIB for sexual content, violence, language and drug use
Related links:
DVD review
Anya pictures
Wong Jing biography
Movie Review index
Main Page
This DVD is available for purchase at www.sensasian.com
Naked Weapon
Maggie Q (left) and Anya. Image courtesy of Media Asia.
I'm sure long-time readers of this site know of my love for Naked Killer, and so when this "update" (yet another Wong Jing term for "recycling") was announced, I was pretty hyped. I will admit I was a bit skeptical when Ching Siu-Tung was announced as the director; I am a huge fan of Ching's work, but, quite honestly, it didn't seem like his kind of movie. Thankfully (or through Wong Jing's long-known laziness), Ching let Naked Weapon become his own movie.
Sure, it has Wong Jing's touches all over it -- most notably the lebsbian love triangle subplot -- but, at its' heart, Naked Weapon is a kick-ass femme fatale action movie, something which has been sorely missing over the last few years from both Hong Kong and the US. Even though many filmmakers have crapped out a copious amount of half-ass attempts at the genre, it took Wong Jing to get off his duff and actually work on a movie to breathe some life back into it. Compared to recent attempts like Ballistic: Ecks vs Sever (featuring the highly over-rated Lucy Liu), Naked Weapon is a nice callback to the "golden age" of Hong Kong movies (or even just action movies in general), where ass-kicking females were the norm, not some cheesy gimmick.
Almen Wong. Image courtesy of Media Asia.
Don't get me wrong -- the hook of seeing babes like Maggie Q and Anya in skimpy outfits and beating ass is definitely a major attraction for this movie. But, unlike most female-oriented action movies nowadays, Naked Weapon takes itself seriously (even though some of the circumstances in the plot are, quite frankly, absurd to say the least), and the end result is a much tighter movie. Unlike junk such as Charlie's Angels which get lost in dopey comedy or lame attempts to be cool, Naked Weapon takes a simplistic approach -- show hot women kicking ass and throw a bit of sex into the mix -- that works very well.
Sure, not everything's perfect. The acting (which is all in English) isn't the greatest, the script is laughable in points, and some of the special effects aren't that great. But, I will say this (and I'm sure some people will question my santity or sobriety): Naked Weapon is the best movie of 2002. I went in expecting a somewhat "dumb" action movie with some T&A thrown in, and it delivered. In this day and age of films that try to be Citizen Kane while looking like Kangaroo Jack, it is really refreshing to see a movie that fully delivers the goods that action fans want without the pretentious BS clouding far too many productions nowadays. Even though a lot of HK fanboys will snub this movie as too "low-class", Naked Weapon comes highly recommended if all you're looking for an action movie that actually has some, instead of a bunch of tossers wanking off in front of a blue screen.
