Robotrix (1991) Movie Review

Robotrix (Woman Robot) is an action/sci-fi film from Hong Kong and directed by Jamie Luk Kin-ming for the prolific production company Golden Harvest. It stars Amy Yip Chi-Mei (She Shoots Straight, Erotic Ghost Story, Inspectors Wear Skirts 2 and 3), Chikako Aoyama, Hui Hiu-Daan and David Wu (In the Line of Duty 5). It's a very typical Robocop rip off with a female android working for the police force and hunting down criminals.

Evil inventor Ryuichi Yamamoto is turned into a psychotic cyborg killer and kidnaps a middle eastern prince. On his way out, he shoots down policewoman Selina Lam, whose brain is put in the body of a female android in order to catch the villain. Yamamoto begins a streak of murders and has to be stopped by two mechanical heroines, created by scientist Dr. Sara.

This delirious and sexy trash flick features a lot of the typical Hong Kong exploitation tropes like sleazy characters, deranged sequences, comedic relief, graphic violence and sexuality that's borderline insensitive and an extravagant scifi (sometimes fantasy) aspect to it. When it's all said and done, I can say that it's somewhat routine.

The fights are hyperbolic and exaggerated to the max, there’s also some nice choreographies with wires and good special effects when it comes to both gore and cyborg prosthetics. There is explicit sexual violence in this movie, it´s mostly crude and shown without subtlety, so be warned because it could clash with the campy tone of the rest of the film. The scifi angle is played quite straight but with some humor regarding the side-characters, the silly cops who are after the killer. 

Aside from some nice art direction, good sets, neat stunts and technically impressive feats here and there, it's not one that's mandatory. I think it's often dumb and dated with its mishandling of this strange mix of harsh subjects and lighthearted science fiction/action tropes. Like Robocop without the consistent tone and more focused on being exploitation.

Recommended for Hong Kong action cinema fans and perhaps those who seek a weirder flick than average. 

Bubblegum Crisis (1987-1991) OVA Review and Retrospective - Episode 3: Blow Up

In this episode, GENOM (the evil corporation seen before) tests and tries out a new boomer, a combat model capable of causing great destruction. Priss is warned by Linna about this combat boomer and both drive to the battle area where the boomers are having a shootout with the A.D Police. They are aided by Nene and Sylia. All of the girls had a night of bad luck.

Priss finds a lonely boy and waits for his mother to arrive. She cares for the child and tries to support her hard working single mother, who lost her husband and home. Priss is also stressed out and lashes out against Linna. Mason, a fiendish GENOM executive, plans to launch his attacks at the knight sabers; he also tries to evict people out of their houses using his threatening boomer bodyguards.

As the building is being demolished, an accident occurs and the mother of the young boy is killed. Priss then tries to take matters into her own hands by using her exo-suit, but the girls catch up to her and break their code in order to help her.

This initiates a battle between the knight sabers and the deadly combat boomers. 

Here we have some of the usual virtues and flaws seen in the show. Since the animators had no idea if the most current episode was going to be the last one, their stories tended to be sort of awkward and the narrative would repeat some of the same beats and scenarios and their resolutions wouldn't be as definite as they should have. 

This episode has solid animation work and fun character writing moments, but the core dramatic and emotional impact feels a bit stale because of it's very limited runtime, I wish they delved more into Priss' friendship with the boy and the mother, but I gotta say, the little amount of information we get is enough to give it a sadness and melancholy that sort of makes it work regardless.