Mission of Justice (1992)

Posted in Reviews by - January 23, 2016
Mission of Justice (1992)

Mildly diverting double-header reuniting Angel stars Moon Lee and Yukari Oshima as top cops sent undercover by police chief Carrie Ng to thwart an opium deal in Asia’s Golden Triangle. Betty Mak plays style-conscious femme fatale Miss Yie, who pulls back her long skirt to reveal her high-heeled feet of fury, and orchestrates a drop-off with Tommy Wong and Chan Lau in the Thai mountains. Moon and Oshima casually work undercover from their hotel wearing Aztec throws and paisley dungarees as if they’re at a yoga retreat, until the film takes to the jungle and the duo vanish from the picture. Their absence is palpable as the film instead centres on the unpleasant and claustrophobic dynamic within Tommy Wong’s gang as they rape and argue their way through cheap rural filming locations, before the girls return in camo gear to blow up half the rainforest. There is great joy in seeing the leading exponents of the so-called ‘Girls with Guns’ sub-genre back together, and the film is never in danger of failing the Bechdel test, but the charm factor certainly drops during the film’s second half. Incidentally, a word should be said on the number of gweilo cameos from famous Brit-kickers – namely Sophia Crawford, Mark Houghton and Gary Daniels – who all make tiny appearances.

This post was written by
Editor and creator of Kung Fu Movie Guide and the host of the Kung Fu Movie Guide Podcast. I live behind a laptop in London, UK.

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