Her Fatal Ways 3

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AKA: Her Fatal Ways III

Year of release: 1992

Genre: comedy

Director: Alfred Cheung

Action director: Dion Lam

Producer: Alfred Cheung

Writers: Keith Wong, Alfred Cheung

Cinematographer: Tam Chi-Wai

Editors: Kwong Chi-Leung, Yu Jun

Composer: Richard Lo

Stars: Carol Cheng, Chan Chung-Yung, Alfred Cheung, Anthony Wong, Lok Wai, Michael Lee, Wong Man, Eddie Ng

Rated II for mild violence

DVD available for purchase at www.hkflix.com

HKFlix

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Her Fatal Ways 3  Her Fatal Ways 3

Her Fatal Ways 3  Her Fatal Ways 3

For western viewers of Hong Kong movies, there are certain elements of them that can perhaps never be fully understood, much less enjoyed. Her Fatal Ways 3 is a prime example of this. Even to someone like your friendly neighborhood reviewer that has watched hundreds of HK movies, the fairly dense cultural references displayed here present a major stumbling block to any sort of real enjoyment of the proceedings that could be had.

Perennial favorite Carol "Dodo" Cheng returns as Nan, a dedicated Mainland officer who is tasked with supplying security for a politician, Li (Michael Lee), who wants to make one last trip to Hong Kong to hook up with his first true love. With her trusty assistant, Sheng (Alfred Cheung) in tow, Nan sets out to make Li's journey safe, but runs into obstacles from officers from Taiwan (Chan Chung-Yung) and Hong Kong (Anthony Wong), who are both worried about the potential effect a wandering politician might have on their area's tenouous connections with the Mainland.

As a writer and director, Alfred Cheung often concentrates on the divisions between class and race in the Chinese culture. Sometimes, it can work very well, such as his under-rated 1988 Sammo Hung picture Paper Marriage. But here, everything feels a bit too obviously piled on and forced.

It's pretty obvious that Cheung has a particular point to get across here, and it comes with all the subtlety of a warm shot of Jagermeister. Even discounting the obvious pitfalls a western viewer might encounter in watching this sort of thing and trying to interpret it, it doesn't help matters that there are several jokes (such as Nan acting like a bumpkin on a plane flight) that are recycled wholesale from the previous entry in the series.

Despite its' Her Fatal Ways 3 isn't a total loss. Some of the jokes, particularly a gloriously mangled karaoke sequence, are actually very funny, and there's a solidly-made action sequence thrown in near the end. But these parts are, unfortunately, too small addtions in the overall scheme of things to overcome the barriers present here to native English speakers, not to mention those out there who are not fans of 1980's style "very loud" Cantonese comedy.

RATING: 4