A gritty and sometimes goofy Taiwanese martial arts revenge flick. As usual with these movies it has more than one title, one of these being The Nude Body Case in Tokyo but it was originally titled Woman Type Revenge.
It was directed by Tsai Yang-Ming, who is responsible for other movies that could fit the blog such as Phoenix the Raider (1982), The Greatest Plot (1977) and Dragon Gate (1975). It stars the beautiful and skilled Yang Hui-shan, who has experience in the genre as she debuted in Five Pretty Young Ladies (1975) and also starred in the previously reviewed Deadly Silver Angels (1984) but she has many more credits, appearing in classics of action chick flicks like the fantastic Golden Queen's Commando (1982), The Country of Beauties (1981) and The Challenge of the Lady Ninja (1983). In 1987 Yang left the film industry to work on her glass art but movies like this one keep her cinematic legacy alive.
The film revolves around Lingling, a kung fu lady and dance teacher who learns of the death of her friend and travels to Japan, to find her friend's sister (Meifeng) since she has been kidnapped by evil drug lords who force her into prostitution. We see Lingling investigating the whereabouts of Meifeng and saving her from the bad guys.
I will say that this is a very good movie overall. It's fast paced and goes by very quick, the choreography is quite solid and while the story is trite the script and the performances manage to make the characters likable and the plot keeps building up to a last third that's very exciting. The cinematography is good, they make splendid use of widescreen with its large framing and the shots are carefully composed, they achieve a beautiful look, particularly during the snow scene near the end.
However, there are also some rather silly moments. Like when the kidnappers are handling some girls and it's just two guys (without weapons) pushing a bunch of girls around who could easily run or fight them. I know they aren't fighters and that they are probably stuck there anyways but it does seem too preposterous to suspend your disbelief. There's also a funny sumo scene that has Rocky music playing over it. I will say the main heroine doesn't even get an eye-patch until an hour into the movie, so the poster lies a little bit but her attire and her look are very iconic during these last sequences.
The second half is a super energetic and well directed stretch, ending in some of the best set-pieces in Taiwanese action cinema from the eighties. The appearance of the girls is pretty memorable and the battles are constant. Overall, I can recommend it to anyone looking for a neat little revenge picture. It doesn't offer much new but it's mostly entertaining.
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