THIS is the third in the 'Naked' Series, and my first time to it, and I'm glad to say that I hope it will be my last.
There's been a lot of talk recently about the impact of movie violence on society, especially in light of the cinema shooting in the US, but audiences are in for a bigger shock if they see 'Naked Soldier'.
There are three female killers, and each gets to display her prowess with ruthless efficiency. The first one slices off both of her victim's arms and then cuts through his spine from top to bottom. Yikes.
The second kicks beats her boxing victim to a pulp and then sticks a knife into his head.
The third, the heroine, just shoots to injure her victims. Whew.
Violence is normal in Hong Kong movies, so director Marco Mak feels the need to up the ante and resorts to extremely violent martial arts to draw in the audience.
He must be a big fan of Tarantino's Kill Bill as he stages a few women-on-women violence with gusto.
With the violence angle out of the way, we can delve a bit deeper into the dysfunctional family theme in this flick.
The crippled female leader of the assassins encourages her killers to call her 'mum'. She recruits them by knocking off their families and brainwashing the orphaned kids into thinking that she's the only family they have in the world.
The martial arts policeman, played by Sammo Hung, loses his daughter to 'mum'. Twelve years later, we see him with an adopted, tomboyish daughter.
In a weird way, this flick is about a lost kid reuniting with her family, even though the film goes to hell and back to show us that.
There's been a lot of talk recently about the impact of movie violence on society, especially in light of the cinema shooting in the US, but audiences are in for a bigger shock if they see 'Naked Soldier'.
There are three female killers, and each gets to display her prowess with ruthless efficiency. The first one slices off both of her victim's arms and then cuts through his spine from top to bottom. Yikes.
The second kicks beats her boxing victim to a pulp and then sticks a knife into his head.
The third, the heroine, just shoots to injure her victims. Whew.
Violence is normal in Hong Kong movies, so director Marco Mak feels the need to up the ante and resorts to extremely violent martial arts to draw in the audience.
He must be a big fan of Tarantino's Kill Bill as he stages a few women-on-women violence with gusto.
With the violence angle out of the way, we can delve a bit deeper into the dysfunctional family theme in this flick.
The crippled female leader of the assassins encourages her killers to call her 'mum'. She recruits them by knocking off their families and brainwashing the orphaned kids into thinking that she's the only family they have in the world.
The martial arts policeman, played by Sammo Hung, loses his daughter to 'mum'. Twelve years later, we see him with an adopted, tomboyish daughter.
In a weird way, this flick is about a lost kid reuniting with her family, even though the film goes to hell and back to show us that.