She Shoots Straight (1990)
Directed by: Corey Yuen
Written by: Barry Wong, Corey Yuen, Kai-Chi Yuen
Starring: Carina Lau, Joyce Godenzi, Pik-Wan Tang, Tony Leung
AKA HUAND JIA NII JIANG, ROYAL FAMILY FEMALE WARRIORS, LETHAL LADIES
HONG KING
AVAILABLE FROM: 18th SEPTEMBER, from EUREKA ENTERTAINMENT
RUNNING TIME: 94 mins
REVIEWED BY: Dr Lenera
The Huang family are virtually a family of cops. Sisters Chia-Ling, Lai, Yu and Ye all work for the law, as does their brother Pao plus Uncle Po. Po’s new wife Mina is also a policewoman, but Lai and especially Ling are jealous of all the attention she’s receiving, which gets worse when Mina gets a promotion after showing her mettle and skill whilst protecting a fashion show against a gang of robbers. Meanwhile dangerous Vietnamese criminal Yuen Wah escapes from prison and with his sister Ying heads for Hong Kong to rob a nightclub. The girls have to pose as “nightclub girls” as part of a plan to trap the crooks. The latter are thwarted, but Ling is suspended for poor conduct, causing her to hate Mina even more, while Wah swears revenge….
While this might sound surprising considering all the Hong Kong movies I review, I’d never even heard of She Shoots Straight, let alone seen it, but I’m ashamed of myself, because this is a strong mixture of action and family drama, quite reminiscent of the In The Line Of Duty movies but less interested in fighting though just as interested in stunts until the final section where, as in Eastern Condors, the shift from guns to fists seems surprisingly natural. What it isn’t heavy on is plot, that being even simpler than usual, but the thing is rather emotional, with one particular scene that certainly got the Doc feeling sad as well as surprised, but in a happy way, that he was so caught up in the power of the moment. I don’t want to give that much away, though clever readers may work it out after they’ve read more of this review [I suppose I could have kept things brief but I’m the Doc] because one particular event around half way through comes as a real shock, but it involves two people who’ve just found out that somebody they love dearly is dead but have to attend a family party and pretend that nothing’s wrong. The scene is excellently played by the performers concerned and becomes almost excruciating as other characters unintentionally say things which trigger them but they don’t want to let it show. Eventually the truth comes out and some may find the emotion overdone but I pleased that we were allowed to truly feel a killing. I loved most of the varied action in this movie, but it’s that sequence which may stick with me. “Most” you ask? Well, its leading lady Joyce Godenzi may run and leap with both enthusiasm and skill, but she’s obviously not a fighter even though producer Sammo Hung, who was going out with Godenski his future wife at the time, no doubt put her through some training to try to make us think that she is.
We begin a bit poignantly with a voice of a woman talking to her dead husband, then a Fourth Wall-breaking joke in a film that only has some small bits of humour, with Inspector Hung [who else but Hung] and a lady at a wedding and we think that they’re the ones getting married until they realise that “the leading characters are here to let’s move”, letting Inspectors Mina Kao and Huang Tsung-Pao come to the fore. It is indeed a wedding, and their wedding, but not everyone in the Huang family seems that happy about it. Mina’s three sisters are jealous of Mina, though Ju their Mother seems fine about her. There seem to be a lot of police present and we soon learn why – the four sisters are all cops as is Tsung-Pao. It’s perhaps little wonder then, at the event, that Superintendent Lau gives Mina instructions on her next case which she has to begin the following day. In fact three girls set off to guard this fashion show against some villains who they know are going to steal a princess who’s in attendance there – and this isn’t the first instance in this film of people having information about something though we aren’t told exactly how. That sequence from The Armour Of God which has also been imitated elsewhere is clearly leant on here as the bad guys preparing and approaching is intercut with the show, but we don’t get a massacre because Mina, Ling and Lai are around, though they don’t seem particularly observant. Gas canisters are thrown in and we now get the first action sequence – in fact it’s more several action sequences stringed together. Our ladies fare fine but Ling is unhappy that Mina and Lau get promoted but not her. Mina and Lau are a happy couple, though she doesn’t want kids yet and won’t sleep with him unless he wears a condom, even though the Huangs, especially Mother, want kids. Now we get the obligatory un-PC moment which won’t bother fans of these films but probably wouldn’t make it in if the film was made today; Lau uses a pin to make holes in the condom. The rascal!
Even though some bad guys got away, which leads us to believe that they will turn up again, it turns out that the whole fashion show episode was unrelated to our main plot. as we’re introduced to the imaginatively named Yuen Wah played by Yuen Wah, already showing his acrobatic ability as he climbs up a pole before swinging on a rope over a high barbed wire fence into the sea. He and a few helpers including his sister Ying go to buy some guns, but the deal goes wrong and a shootout ensures. Meanwhile the police have come up with the oft-used in these films plan of having their team of female operatives [all young and pretty of course] pose as “nightclub girls” [somewhere between prostitutes and normal women who chat up men] to protect a club against more thieves, and of course it’s an excuse for us to see guys groping them, in fact here one sleazy bloke says he’ll masturbate right there and then seeing as Ling won’t do it for him. Ling had objected to this mission, though she does her best in the ensuring mayhem, but ets a suspension anyway, for reasons I’m not sure of. She responds by losing it in front of Mina, repeatedly calling her a “mongrel” [okay that’s two bits that probably wouldn’t get in today but it’s an insult and Ling is angry] and even attacking her before Pao gives her a slap, saying “you’ll realise it was right to hit you” [okay that’s three but I do feel that sensitive types should be warned!] and Hung comes up to seemingly offer her his handkerchief though doesn’t actually do so until he’s repeatedly wiped his nose in what is perhaps the best comic bit in the film, nicely underplayed. Ling begins to write a letter of apology to her brother and sister-in-law, but then goes off to meet a caller who says that he has information for her, even though it’s pretty obvious that it’s a trap. Tragedy strikes, and differences will have to be settled if death can be avenged and the bad guys taken down.
Director Corey Yuen’s knack for exciting and diverse action is still well in evidence. It gets off to an incredible start with the fashion show attack, with Hung obviously having insisted that Godenzi be showed off as much as possible, immediately doing lots of climbing, swinging and jumping though edits make it obvious that she’s not really doing a lot of it. However, she’s still doing some things, and one can still admire the stunt work and the way things never seem to end as gunplay turns to road chasing, with Mina jumping from a car into a bus and then out the other side of the bus onto another car, then soon after that driving a motorbike through an explosion. She’s super-heroic, perhaps too super-heroic, though things don’t get quite as over the top. The nightclub shootout is chiefly that, a shootout, but some of it is in infra-red. Then in a park we get our most surprising set-piece, as Mina, Ling and Pao are assailed by a variety of Viet Cong-style traps; well I suppose it makes sense, seeing as Wah and his team are Vietnamese, but they’d have had to be quick and secretive making them in Hong Kong unless they somehow brought them over from Vietnam. Fighting finally kicks off when Mina and Ling battle the villains aboard a ship, Carina Lau wielding two machetes and Godenzi a hammer. Godenzi gets to fight Wah, and it’s disappointingly brief seeing what we’ve seen Wah do elsewhere; possibly that was for the best, but then maybe Lau, also not a trained martial artist but d wields her swords with savage power, should have done it. Things seem to wrap with as soon as Hung joins the fray, but then it kicks off again, a motorbike chase leading to Goddenzi facing off againast Agnes Aurelio. It has some memorable highlights, with wirework not holding back the brutality, but because Aurelio is so good at martial arts, it doesn’t entirely convince despite the efforts of fight choreographers Yuen, Man Hoi and Yuen Tuk, though it’s perhaps fair to say that some may find it more thrilling because Godenzi seems in so much danger, so there is that.
I perhaps shouldn’t criticise her too much, because she does her best, obviously performs some things that are still impressive such as kicking a burning piece of paper, climbing through things with dexterity and very nearly getting ran over by a motorbike, and does have enough acting chops to pull off the dramatic aspects of her role, even though Lau gets the showier moments. Most importantly in terms of the drama side of things, the two ladies perform extremely well opposite each other which makes their bumby relationship convince even if initially it seems a bit odd that Ling should dislike Mina so much right from the offset. Leung is rather low key and almost wasted in an early role, but then it’s largely the women’s show, and not just Godenski and Lau’s. It’s perhaps a shame that Lai doesn’t contribute to the final action, while the other two sisters we hardly get to know, but this is more than made up by the character of Ju, the sisters’ mother, who’s voice is the first that we here, then is introduced visually by her cleaning her husband’s gun, which perhaps makes it not that much of a surprise when she eventually joins in the action but it’s very cool anyway . Pik Wan-Tang brings a lot of quirkiness to the part which one almost wishes would be even larger even if might have detracted from our two main characters. Meanwhile Wah plays perhaps the nastiest of his bad guys; not content with giving somebody a bloody death, he then blows up the corpse! Kong Theatrical Trailer (2:38, in Cantonese with optional English subtitles)
Yuen’s action directing quite possibly reaches its peak here, creating a perfect balance between letting us appreciate the mayhem and enhancing it through editing; slow motion is excellently used while certain moves we’re allowed to enjoy three times. But he also shows an early knack for drama which may surprise in this well-rounded and rather classy production
Rating: 
SPECIAL FEATURES
Limited Edition O-Card slipcase featuring new artwork by Darren Wheeling [2000 copies]
1080p HD presentation on Blu-ray of the original Hong Kong theatrical cut from a brand new 2K restoration
This is possibly the best looking Hong Kong release from Eureka since Wheels On Meals. Okay, the film isn’t as nice visually due to a more muted colour scheme and the less interesting Hong Kong locations, but everything is just co clear and the colour balance virtually perfect.
Original Cantonese mono audio
Optional English dubbed audio
An average example of its kind, with minor characters sometimes sounding a little silly.
Optional English Subtitles, newly translated for this release
Brand new feature length audio commentary by Asian film expert Frank Djeng (NY Asian Film Festival)
It’s great that Djeng can now add to his introduction the fact that he’s a co-producer of the terrific decumentary Enter The Clones of Bruce Lee, about the insanity that was Bruceploitation. This is the usual packed track from him, and like me he likes the melodrama and feels that it makes the film a bit special, though I was a bit disappointed to hear that my favourite scene which I enthused about was actually a copy of another in a TV series featuring Tang in a very similar role, which itself was based on a scene from a really old Tung Dynasty story that’s often been filmed. More amusing is to hear that a minor role was performed by an actor who made 152 films and usually played policemen in them. Hong Kong cinema sure liked to typecast. There’s not much information around on this particular movie, but Djeng keeps things interesting even if he doesn’t really need to keep doing the same potted biographies.
Brand new feature length audio commentary by action cinema experts Mike Leeder & Arne Venema
Leeder and Venema are so lighthearted that it’s easy to forget that they give out so much information about subjects that mat bnot be that related to the fi;m but which are alwaysa of interest and often relate to Hong Kong life; here we learn from Leeder that we at last have a car chase which doesn’t jump all over the place and makes sense in terms of location, while Venema tellls us that Hong Kong TV had advertisements sayng things like “be nice to foreigners, do not put snakes in their drawers”! Later on Leeder tells us that he recently saw two martial arts teachers fighting in the street! The track might be the duo’s jokeyist yet, but wouldn’t you want to watch a film like this with them? Also worthy mentioning is that theres’ so littlev repetition from Djeng’s track, even less than usual; maybe some comparing goes on, but it’s still a considerable achievement.
Filmmaker Valarie Soe on “She Shoots Straight” [7 mins]
This and the next special feature aren’t listed, so they must have been very recent additions. Obviously answering questions, Soe says how she was surprised by how much this film focuses on family, how it seems that the filmmakers tried to make something that stood out and was more “respectable”, and how having a female screenwriter wouldn’t have made much difference. Soe seems to both like and admire the film.
“Shooting Locations” [12 mins]
A typical “then and now” location comparison, but they’re always nice to watch, aren’t they?
English opening and closing credits [2 mins]
Trailers
Reversible sleeve design
A Limited Edition collector’s booklet featuring new writing by James Oliver [2000 copies]
A rather unsung highlight of Hong Kong cinema, “She Shoots Straight” comes with the usual fine Eureka presentation. Highly Recommended!
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