Final Edge
2001
Director: Jimmy Lin
Action director: Phillip Ko
Stars: Ken Wong, Lily Chung, Law Kar-Ying, Yau Ming, Phillip Ko, Lily Lee, Samuel Leung
I was pretty hyped to see this movie -- Cat III manistay Lily Chung making her return in yet another blood-soaked flick... what could go wrong? Well, I neglected the fact that this was yet another shot in the Phillipines no-budget affair slapped together by schlockmeister Phillip Ko, and so Final Edge ends up being one of the most boring Cat III movies I've ever seen. In fact, I can't really see why the movie is rated as such; there's not so much as even a bare breast or an exploding body part.
At any rate, the movie has Lily (who does look really damn good) as a crime boss trying to help her brother (Samuel Leung) make it big in the fashion business. One of her rivals (Phillip Ko) sees this as an opening to try and take over her territory, and the killing begins. Well, actually, it doesn't. For a Cat III Triad movie, there is a severe lack of action. There is a fairly nifty ending shootout, but it's too little, too late. If you were expecting a good script or solid acting or even nice production values to help things along, then you're barking up the wrong tree. Phillip Ko's movies usually look like they were made for the price of a Big Mac value meal, and Final Edge is no exception.
There are some decent things in Final Edge, such as some nice eye candy from the female leads and a good downbeat ending, but overall, this is sub-par even for a cheap action movie. If Ko and company had concentrated more on delivering the action instead of some half-ass story, then we might have had something here. As such, even die-hard girls-with-guns fans will be hard-pressed to find much anything of value with this film.
RATING: 4
A review for the DVD of this movie can be found here