Better Late Then Never

Am I Missing Something?

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Fan Yin (Angela Mao) kills her parents' killer, but there is corruption between the killer, a gang that runs the prostitution ring and the police, and she is ordered to be executed. Fan Yin asks her friend and police officer Wong (Byong Yu) to avenge her and her parents' death.This movie has more sexual material than other films of its kind, but maybe that is just the influence of the 1970s. Of course, the plot revolves around a prostitution ring, so I guess it is not completely gratuitous.The film has been called "a martial arts potboiler" and is said to rely more on its shock value and salacious material to sell itself than its fighting scenes. That may be true, but it is not without its good fights (one even before the opening credits) and it is a welcome addition to DVD with some decent subtitles. This film may appeal to the kung fu fan who was brought to the genre by Quentin Tarantino.

The movie starts out with Fan Yin's (Angela Mao) execution scene. She has short scene in the beginning where she kills her parents' killer (and later returns as detective "Fan Hwah" from the Central Police Bureau). There's corruption between the gang that runs the prostitution ring and the police, and she's ordered to be executed. Fan Yin asks her friend, and police officer Wong (Byong Yu) to avenge her, and her parent's death.The prostitution ring is working inside a place called "Association for the welfare of young girls". It's supposed to be a legitimate organization, but there're all sorts of hedonistic activities going on inside the building. Detective Wong goes out to collect the evidence, and crush the prostitution ring.The movie is about police corruption, gang prostitution, and fair amount of skin exposure for this type of film. The story is pretty good, and Byong Yu puts in a good performance.Young Sammo Hung appears as detective "Tiger" in this film.Story driven movie that has more than few good looking women, and few good action sums up this movie. Golden Harvest had high quality production, and this movie's quality is above average for a movie of this type. It's not a kung fu action movie as you might expect from the casts, but is still a pretty good movie.

"I like women to hit me. Feels good."The Association is filled with weird moments such as that comment, but is often too talky to be a fully satisfying King fu pic. Byong Yu's character is a no nonsense member of a Chinese police force, committed to breaking up an underground prostitution ring. Over the course of an hour and a half we are treated to: 1) Exploding skulls during the opening credits sequence. 2)A rapist who has his eyeball ripped open with broken glass. 3)A group of satanists performing an abortion by having a white woman in a red gown, surrounded by flames, dance around the pregnant woman to a gogo music soundtrack. 4) The hero fighting a blind man (we see only the whites of his eyes).As exciting as all that might sound, we have to put up with twenty minutes worth of boring dialogue in between each of those choice moments. There are also some lame romance scenes in which lovers run through the woods to sultry Love Story style music with harpsichord. I purchased the film for $2.00 on the Norstar Home Video label at The Kingsgate Mall in Vancouver.