I've been on a Brigitte Lin movie streak lately, and I'd never seen this one before, so I watched it...and then watched it again...oh my god. Completely surreal. It's like some kind of live action video game (you know, those levels where you have waves and waves of enemy minions flying in to attack you and you do some cool move and stuff goes all explodey!) mixed with idiotic low comedy in between the fights. Most of it is utterly stupid (and the computer geek, played by Dicky Cheung, is the most irritating character ever) but I admit to laughing at times. And the women change their costumes for every scene. Brigitte's outfits must be seen to be believed! Those hats! Ha ha ha ha ha! The whole thing is weirdly compelling. Even the music is hypnotic.
The plot, such as it is: Black Panther (Alan Tang) is hired by a cop (who's actually working for the villain Blood Wolf) to steal something from the police evidence vaults. Black Panther rounds up his gang of specialist assassins (Brigitte Lin, Tony Leung Ka-Fai, Simon Yam, Carrie Ng, Jennifer/Ming-Chen Chen) for the job. Black Panther, Blood Wolf, and Brigitte's character were all once students of the same master, but had a falling out (love triangle, obsession over some magical panther-head saber, 'Master liked you better', yadda yadda yadda). Wacky antics ensue. (I was especially amused by the three women attempting to use the "beauty/feminine wiles strategem" on the fat cop. Brigitte kicks ass, of course, and the others are like "how come you always win!?". She looks so smug!)
It's all completely silly and over the top (but didn't you always wonder what flying swordsmen types would look like in a modern setting?), but fun to watch. The action scenes are amazing. Just fast forward over the most annoying "comedy" bits. I'm giving it a bonus star for its pure insanity.
