The Avenging Quartet

But if your idea of entertainment is watching Cynthia Khan kick the stuffing out of people, this will be 90 minutes well spent.

My rating reflects the good and bad here, in that as fighting/action movie goes, this one is pretty decent. The fight choreography is well and brutally executed by the titular quartet of acrobatic fighting divas. There is the usual mix of car chases (and wrecks), explosions, gunfire, actual fire and property destruction, all appropriately calculated to excite and terrify. And the story pulls multiple and diverse antagonists into an intrigue plot built around a search for a McGuffin painting. 6/10 so far.

The four principals acquit themselves adequately as well. Cynthia Khan was never much of an actress, nor was Yukari Oshima. But who cares? Both were great athletes and look great in their fight and stunt scenes here. Moon Lee played her usual pixie/brat role (one she eventually got so tired of that she left the business) with her usual squirrelish energy. Michiko Nishiwaki, was, as always a strong screen presence in limited screen time. Being underused seemed to define her career, which was a shame. Waise Lee is the glue that holds it all together in a complex and ambivalent role as an artist with conflicting loyalties. Overall, good work by a cast very familiar with this sort of exercise.

The English dub drags the rating down significantly, however. The Cantonese dialogue could not possibly be as bad as is represented here, nor could the original vocal performances have been as cringe inducing. I had to shut the dvd off a few times, as the dialogue was that distracting. And the plot seemed a bit overstuffed, with unnecessary and gratuitous punch-ups thrown in to pad the action in a way that caused the movie to meander. The commonest rating by viewers above is a 5/10, and that is around where my sentiments fall. A good showcase for fans of the girls-with-guns genre but a bit sloppy in execution and badly dubbed.