Pink Force Commando (1982) Movie Review

Pink Force Commando (Hong fen you xia, Ninja Fighters, Pink Force) is an action adventure martial arts Hong Kong film directed by Kevin Chu (Chu Yen-ping). It stars Brigitte Lin, Sally Yeh, Chung-You Chang, Yang Hui-Shan, Chun-Chun Hsu and Hao-Yi Liu. It is sometimes considered to be a semi-sequel to Golden Queen's Commando (1982) by the same producer and crew. It's also a film that collects a variety of mixed components from fantasy and genre cinema as a whole.

Three female bandits steal a great amount of gold and some time later the other two find out their leader, Jackal, has used the money for her own pleasure and businesses. She has paired up with her Nazi Commander lover and now wants her old partners dead.

Like Golden Queen's Commando here we have a mixture of genre components and narrative scenarios that are mishmashed, taken from other movies and then put into a blender, only to change the protagonists of the stories to a diverse group of action girls dressed in striking and contrasting outfits in order to be easily identifiable. This time we have the usual thugs but also Nazi officers, cowboys, Klansmen and magical heroines as well, it's a seemingly never-ending list of bizarre mashups that pay off in one climactic grand battle. 

As I mentioned before, the movie takes not only inspiration from stuff we have seen in other movies but it also features a variety of scenes taken directly from Golden Queen's Commando and spliced into the movie in a haphazard manner, always in a manner so clumsy that the quality of the footage itself is mismatched and contrasts highly from the footage that's original to this movie. Scenes like the card game trick, the primal wrestling match and the drunken samurai's humiliation were put into the movie but they come out of nowhere and have really nothing to do with the rest of the movie, seeming completely disconnected from their original context. Not only that but we also have music that's stolen from movies like The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), Conan the Barbarian (1982) and even Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970). The former and the latter movies being scored by Ennio Morricone isn't a surprise since Queen's Commando did this as well, so at least these two flicks have some bangers music-wise.

The storytelling is about as flawed as you would expect but also eclectic and fun for a film made under such a weird production process and carefree attitude. The plot takes insane twists and detours to the point where a good amount of it becomes nearly incomprehensible and borderline ludicrous once the footage from Queen's Commando shows up to confuse you even more. I wouldn't want to be the poor bastard who watched this movie before Queen's Commando and without any clue as to how this film was made because that must have been a truly strange experience. Nothing is well glued and events rarely connect coherently, you pretty much have to put together the entirety of the film in your head, being able to identify the important moments and plot points by the way the film conveys which point of the story you are technically in, for example, you know you are at the climax because there's a great battle with two opposing armies about to take place.

I gotta say that by having much of the same cast we are able to witness some badass performances by the actresses and the wonderful stunt work during the fights. The leading ladies from this movie are not that interesting as characters, when compared to a very solid and perfectly defined roster of tough girls like the one from Queen's Commando, but the core idea of the movie is quite interesting as a jumping off point to then stick a good amount of crazy scenes after the introduction.

It's a fun time if you know what you are getting into. Only recommended for Z-grade actionsploitation film fans.

Slayers Excellent (1998-1999) Anime OVA Series Review

Slayers Excellent is a comedy fantasy anime OVA series directed by Hiroshi Watanabe and written by Keiko Watanabe, basing his scripts on light novels by Hajime Kanzaka. The cast includes Megumi Hayashibara, Maria Kawamura, Sho Hayami, Aya Hisakawa and Kumiko Watanabe. Released from October 25th 1998 to March 25th 1999, it was the very last Slayers prequel series during this time and it was one of the last gasps of the franchise as it was squeezed by executives ever since 1995.

With this one being a prequel the first episode, Laberynth, shows how Lina and Naga met. Naga interrupts Lina's meal at a diner by making it blow up in flames, revealing that the busty sorceress is obsessed with the little redhead and wants to forcefully become some sort of rival to her. The angry villagers want the girls to inspect some haunted ruins where a vampire lives. In the second episode, A Frightening Future, Lina becomes the bodyguard of a spoiled princess and stages a fake kidnapping to teach her a lesson but Naga ruins things by defeating the false bandits. In the third and final episode, Lina-chan's Lovely Makeover Operation, Lina and Naga face off once again after two rival fashion designers engage in warfare.

Excellent excels at the combination of goofy antics and fantasy-adventure quests and worldbuilding. The first episode is such a pitch perfect introduction to the entire Slayers franchise that it can actually be a good first impression if this is your first exposure to the show, even if it is one of the last classic entries. The interactions between Lina and Naga are better than ever, with every comedic moment revealing something about them and the nature of their relationship. The jokes all land since they also show us a facet of the characters and even expands upon what we already thought we knew about them, like seeing Naga with shoulder spikes that she would later remove for example.

The tightly written episodes, specially the first one, really wrap everything in a nice structure that lets the humorous factor infect every plot beat, but never actually becoming intrusive as the payoffs to these jokes are exactly what create the fabric of the world and tone of the franchise, so if a climactic battle has to be cut short for a laugh, then it's more than valid considering that the writers made sure the action department already did its job at building the tension only to be released in a comedic way, so it's relieving either way.

It kind of feels like they knew this one was gonna be the last one, certainly the last one in the mini-series because not only does the final scene encapsulate what is charming about these characters but also gives Lina a moment that ultimately conveys how much fun she has even though the antics can irritate her from time to time she always has a great time, and so do we.

This is a very nice "until next time" that the franchise did before going on a temporary hiatus and coming back later in the following decade. It's one of my favorite Slayers series and the one I first watched back when I got started in the franchise. I think that if you are new to Slayers it will charm you and make you a fan. Worked for me, at least. Highly recommended.