REVIEW: ‘Angel on Fire’ (1995)

ANGEL ON FIRE is one of the last in a string of gradually diminishing girls-with-guns features from Hong Kong and neighboring territories that were made popular by film franchises like YES, MADAM and THE INSPECTOR WEARS SKIRTS. Cynthia Khan, one of the more popular stars of this action sub-genre teams with veteran stunt actress Yeung Pan-pan under the direction of classic kung fu heavy Philip Ko for a lesser spin on the non-stop urban violence of Hong Kong classics like RIGHTING WRONGS and POLICE STORY.

I wouldn’t go so far as to call him an auteur but Philip Ko definitely has an all-encompassing hand in the production ranging from writing and co-starring to direction and action choreography. What he has produced is far from perfect yet he’s worked long and hard enough in Hong Kong alongside legends like Jackie Chan and Yuen Wo-ping to at least adequately mimic the work of these superior action filmmakers. Unfortunately, this film, like so many in the genre, adds nothing that we haven’t already seen performed better elsewhere.

The film is poorly structured with the first half being light on action and the second being non-stop action involving running martial arts duels, gun fights and vehicular chase sequences.

The plot is about as routine as it gets. It involves the theft of a Buddhist relic by a pair of thieves, two criminal organizations desperate to claim it for themselves and a trio of Interpol agents out to stop them all. As the lead agent, Khan tracks the thieves to Manila and spends most of her time with a clownish cabbie. He is undoubtedly played by a local Filipino actor of some notoriety.

The pair goes through clichéd, light comedy sequences that lead up to an underground prize fight between the cabbie and a vicious black fighter, played by the martial arts-trained British actor Winston Ellis. Ellis was first discovered by one of Jackie Chan’s scouts which led him to become one of a handful of Western stunt actors lucky enough to have worked in Hong Kong while its action film industry was still in full swing. The fight sequence isn’t all that exciting but Ellis returns later for a more thorough and entertaining match-up against Yeung.

Ko plays one of the two thieves and ends up crosses fists with Khan. His choreography is influenced not only by the Jackie Chan and Corey Yuen style but also the Yuen Wo-ping wirework style and therein lies the problem. Ko uses quite a lot of wirework, particularly to dramatically enhance the movements of Khan. It’s unrealistic enough to belong in a period kung fu movie like IRON MONKEY and doesn’t belong in this movie.

Khan starts out looking weak in her movements but gradually warms up to a more commanding physical performance. She’s more skilled than the attractive female nemesis she’s matched against who portrays Ko’s thieving partner. It’s somewhat amusing to see that Khan almost never wields a gun yet isn’t afraid to charge into any gunfight to spar with opponents.

A lack of adequate pre-planning is quite evident in the randomness of many of the scenes. I would say the film has about 20 minutes of an actual script and the rest appears to have been made up as the production went along. One of the most random scenes I have ever witnessed occurs as Khan and her cabbie friend attempt to chase down Ko in a car. They somehow manage to get themselves literally in the middle of an unrelated gunfight between bank robbers and local police. In other words, Ko directs two unrelated chase sequences that run into each other. It’s just as ridiculous as it sounds. Later, the viewer is treated with gratuitous explosions during the finale as an airplane drops insane amounts of bombs on a village for no particular reason. It’s as if the filmmakers were handed a stockpile of dynamite for the film, randomly blew up some shanties and then spliced the footage into the film for visual appeal.

Genre fans may recognize another Westerner in the film, Mark Houghton. He’s a student of Lau Kar-leung who co-runs Lau’s kung fu school. Houghton plays another baddie and gets into a brief match with the third Interpol agent whom I wasn’t able to identify. Like the other wire-enhanced fights in the film, it’s nothing to get excited about but I’ve seen worse.

Yeung Pan-pan, despite being possibly the oldest screen fighter among the cast performs the best looking moves. She’s more acrobatic than Khan and is able to perform cool cartwheel kicks and similar feats of dexterity. What I don’t understand is why her character is sidelined for much of the movie. I get the impression that some executive decisions were made to get more local Filipino talent involved, perhaps in exchange for funding and location use.

Fans of female screen fighting action may want to give this film a try, although don’t expect much from skilled fighters Cynthia Khan and Yueng Pan-pan until the second half. There isn’t much else to recommend regarding ANGEL ON FIRE. It’s basically a less enjoyable rehashing of ’80s Hong Kong action with generic gunplay and exaggerated wirework tossed in.