Rating: ***
Review Date: 2/1/14
Cast: Chen Ping, Yueh Hua
Wanfei's (Chen Ping) sister is hospitalized after being drugged with heroin and raped by a nasty drug dealer. She cries "I hate drugs!" and embarks on a personal mission of revenge to kill the bastards who were responsible. Posing as a hooker with a drug addiction, she gets closer and closer to her target, but the sacrifices that she's forced to make take their toll on her mind and body. Things go terribly wrong towards the end, but she eventually manages to storm the bad guy's house and unleash hell upon anyone unfortunate enough to get in her way.
It's essentially a Hong Kong remake of Jack Hill's "Coffy" (1973), and the exploitive nature of the material allows the film to be chock full of sex, drugs, violence, nudity, corruption, and vice. Chen Ping is pretty and her action scenes are raw and brutal. She's not a powerhouse fighter and is often overwhelmed by her male opponents, but she puts up a good fight and always manages to escape. The drama is a bit contrived and Wanfei's hot-tempered cop buddy (Yueh Hua) is annoying at best. His character doesn't really add anything to the plot, but he still gets star billing for some reason. The film is a slow starter and I would have given it a 2-star rating if not for the explosive finale, where Wanfei picks up a shotgun and starts blowing people away with reckless abandon. It's not as bloody as similar Japanese fare, but I still found it shocking, and the ruthless intensity of Chen Ping's performance is very satisfying.