Phantom Agent (China 2018)

Rating: *
Review Date: 4/27/19
Cast: Liu Xiaoqiao

A Japanese World War II treasure is hidden in China and three keys are required to open it. A Chinese agent named Wang Xinyin (Liu Xiaoqiao) steals two of them and is left for dead by a Japanese assassin. She somehow survives, but has no memory of her former life. Unfortunately, Xinyin's recent modeling work catches the attention of the Japanese bad guys who are still looking for the keys, and they send a group of hitmen out to find her. If only she hadn't chosen such a high visibility career in her new life! A little adrenaline and torture start to spark her old memories, and it doesn't take long for Xinyin to turn the tables and kill everyone who's after her.

It's a really terrible movie, but thankfully it's only a little over an hour long. It boasts a Category III rating, which is baffling because it doesn't contain any sex, nudity, or graphic violence. The tiresome and overly predictable plot suffers from bad acting, lousy action, frustrating camera work, and embarrassingly awful visual effects. We're talking early 90's CGI work here. Simply appalling and totally unnecessary. The movie is full of painfully stupid moments, with the most ridiculous one being a scene where Xinyin navigates through a grid of security laser beams by looking through a glass of wine. Seriously? And why was there a bottle of wine next to a booby-trapped corridor in the first place? Also, don't get me started on the whole "let's wait until there's only three seconds left before we defuse the bomb" moment, which had me yelling at the TV in stunned disbelief. The production has no redeeming qualities, and even though Liu Xiaoqiao has a handful of nice looking beauty shots, she isn't compelling enough to make it worth watching.