Movie Review: Martial Angels (2001) directed by Clarence Ford
Cat (Shu Qi) grew up in an orphanage with seven other girls. As adults, they have become a heist gang known as the “Martial Angels.” Five years ago, Cat met international jewel thief Zi-Yang (Julian Cheung) when they were after the same target and the two fell in love. Two years ago, Cat broke up with Zi-Yang because he just wouldn’t stop stealing despite having become ridiculously wealthy. Nowadays she’s a secretary for a software development company.
Just when Cat’s bestie Octopus (Kelly Lin) drops by for a visit, they’re confronted by criminals working for Russian mob boss Paracov (Ron Smoorenburg). It seems that Zi-Yang failed to complete a job he’d been contracted for, and the Mafiya is now holding him hostage to force Cat to do the heist. Time to get the gang back together!
It turns out that the company Cat is working for has developed a new anti-virus program codenamed KTV, that is supposed to be kilometers ahead of anything else on the market. Paracov wants the source code of that program so his mob can learn and exploit its weaknesses. Cat leads the Martial Angels in a plan to steal that code, while simultaneously scheming to trick Paracov so that she can free Zi-Yang without destroying her current love interest, her boss at the company.
This early Twenty-first Century action movie was at least partially inspired by the film version of Charlie’s Angels, and features a bevy of attractive young women. There’s some decent action scenes, and it’s always fun to watch heists in action.
Early on, it’s discovered that the crew will need either the fingerprints of Fred (Jing Wong), one of the executives of the software company, or an explosives expert that can get them past the fingerprint lock. Monkey (Sandra Kwan Yue Ng), a horse racing aficionado who happens to resemble Fred’s deceased wife, is assigned to get his prints–made more difficult as he’s a “wait until marriage” kind of guy. As a backup, the team “negotiates” with Bone (Terence Yin), a horndog who’s interested in the shy Spider (Amanda Strang), who has zero reciprocal interest.
Both situations are played somewhat for laughs, but Bone’s sexual harassment of Spider comes across as much creepier as she’s clearly traumatized by it, while Fred is not actually averse to Monkey’s come-ons, just trying to stick to principles. The movie plays Bone doing something good towards the end of the movie as “see, he’s not a bad guy” but no. It does not make up for the earlier parts.
There’s a bit of “idiot plot” here as the movie script relies on Cat being too emotionally involved to notice several gaping holes in the story.
Oh, and it suddenly turns out most of the movie is taking place during the Christmas season.
Content note: In addition to the sexual harassment subplot, there’s quite a bit of violence, some bloody, as the John Woo-style gunplay breaks out. There are some fanservicey shots of the female characters, though nudity is avoided. A couple of homophobic remarks.
Overall: An okay Hong Kong action flick, mostly to be watched for your favorite actresses who’ve been in better movies. If you’re watching this with a date, check their tolerance level for sexual harassment subplots.
