Angel Terminators 2 (1992)

I have watched enough Girls with Guns/Chicks with Kicks flicks now to have realistic hopes and expectations. Characterization is frequently limited to a name (often the name of the actress) and a job description, that’s it. So Moon Lee often plays Moon, cop or cop-adjacent ass-kicker, end of character bio. At their best, the plots provide a connective tissue between action scenes, and might occasionally add some emotional stakes. At worst, the plots are convoluted or full of tangential scenes that drag the movie down. That is why I was surprised and delighted that Angel Terminators 2 gives some of the usual GwG actresses actual characters and emotional beats I cared about in a story that tied its many characters and threads together (while still delivering hard-hitting action throughout). This might be my favorite GwG movie so far.

Angel Terminators 2 was directed by Tony Lou Chun-Ku (Killer Angels, Dreaming the Reality) and Chan Lau (actor/stunt coordinator with few other directing credits). It is a sequel in name only, with seemingly none of the cast or crew from the first movie involved. If you remember how Angel Terminators ended… yeah, that would be tough to sequelize. What it does share with the first film is a surprising focus on character relationships and drama. In the first one that mostly felt like a way to fill out the runtime and up the sadism to make the female characters suffer for shock value, but this film feels like it really cares about its characters even as it puts them through the wringer. 

In typical Hong Kong fashion, the movie opens with a blistering and bloody shootout/chase. Big Aunt (Sibelle Hu, Dreaming the Reality), partner Bao (Jason Piao Pai), and their fellow police officers pursue robbers and both sides suffer losses before two of the criminals escape. I immediately noticed the directing was a cut above the usual GwG fare with a cool tracking shot following Big Aunt running through the restaurant.

Cut to a martial arts competition or practice. Chitty (Moon Lee) demonstrates her skills in a match I wish was slightly less sped up. We are introduced to her gang of goofy friends. They all go to pick up their friend Bullet (Yukari Oshima), who is being released from prison. Also waiting outside the prison are Big Aunt and Bao, who turns out to be Bullet’s estranged father that she wants nothing to do with. Meanwhile, violent gangster Brother Mad (Chi Yeung-Wong) meets up with and kills the surviving robbers from earlier for a bag of valuables.

Our youthful gang goes out to a bar, drinking and carrying on. I was introduced to Oshima with her memorable villain turn opposite Moon Lee in Iron Angels. Then I saw them as “sisters” raised to be assassins in Dreaming the Reality, who end up fated to fight. At this point I have built up enough affection for these actresses that I was actually excited when they were going to perform a karaoke song together here, and then disappointed when the movie cut away! That’s ok, as a consolation prize we get to see them wreck some dudes they talked shit to in the bar. It ends with the gang going full Michael Jackson on the dudes’ car and running away when the cops show up. At this point I should probably mention that Bullet spends a large chunk of the movie wearing pants that say “slut” all over them. She looks great.

Then comes the scene where I started to realize this was different from other HK/GwG flicks I have been watching. Chitty and Bullet share some beers and a neon-lit rooftop conversation. They reminisce, bust each other’s balls, and argue about their lives like old friends do. It's a short scene, but it's a nice quiet character moment that looks great, the kind of thing that gets left out or done in a perfunctory manner in many action movies.

mood

Bullet did a bid for her old low-level criminal boss, but he has no intention of repaying her. In fact, the piece of shit messes with her by trying to get her to sell Chitty into sex work. Bullet snaps, throws a pool ball in his face and beats up his thugs. Girl, I get it, but you aren’t in the prison yard anymore! Brother Mad meets with the big boss Uncle Chie and proceeds to be a flashy, disrespectful young whippersnapper. Big Aunt and Bao show up investigating the dead robbers, and Mad asses it up some more and directs them to question Uncle Chie. 

The gang visit Chitty’s loveable Uncle Tiger Wan (Lo Lieh). Over food and drinks he tells animated stories about how he got his many scars. Thankfully everyone is falling asleep by the time he is about to take his pants off. Later there is another sweet scene of Chitty forcing money on Bullet. That gets interrupted by Bullet’s boss and his thugs attacking and demanding a large sum of money.

One of the girls in the friend group had disappeared after a shady job opportunity, having been drugged and forced into escort work. The gang sees her out with some men disoriented, and after some frustrating (but probably accurate) victim blaming and slut-shaming, they eventually figure out what happened to her. The gang go to a mall storefront to retrieve the tape of their friend being raped while drugged that was being used to blackmail her into escort work. In the chaos, Bullet grabs the bag of stolen jewels Brother Mad left in the same office. They don't even make it out of the mall before Brother Mad shows up at the worst possible time and a chase ensues. Two of the gang get captured and Brother Mad demands his bag.

SPOILER ALERT FOR THE LAST ACT AHEAD

This is a Hong Kong flick, it is inevitable some or possibly all of these characters are going to die. So when Uncle Tiger goes to exchange the goods for the two friends and they are all killed, I was not surprised. What did surprise me was that it actually takes a beat to deal with the emotional impact, and I even got misty eyed during the scene where Chitty finds out the news. Moon Lee throws herself into Chitty’s despair and rage at Bullet for causing this, yelling and crying and collapsing. In a second Chitty loses her uncle and spurns her best friend, and Lee completely sells the moment, making me feel Chitty’s pain. Oshima also shows the pain and regret on Bullet’s face that quickly turns to determination. She knows what she has to do. The scene changes to some of the criminal gang standing around on the street, then there is an incredible cut to Bullet running and screaming while wielding molotov cocktails!

holy shit

Her roaring rampage of revenge is enthusiastic but ill-conceived, and after she maniacally molotovs and machete murders multiple mooks she gets taken out by Mad. Bullet’s dad shows up just in time to cradle her dying body and get shot himself. Boa tells Big Aunt that Brother Mad can’t get away with this. 

Big Aunt, Chitty and somehow still-surviving friend Turkey all show up to take down Brother Mad. He is in the middle of an arms deal, supplying more cannon fodder and two lady bodyguards for Chitty to rumble with. After an exciting series of shootouts and fights, they have Brother Mad dead to rights. Big Aunt is going to take him in, but Chitty shoots him in the back. Big Aunt handcuffs Chitty, freeze frame. But wait! Chitty is sentenced to 3 years in prison, and we cut to Big Aunt meeting her after she is released. Aunt quit the force and invites Chitty to help at her mahjong school. The guards tell Chitty not to look back, and she and Big Aunt both give the arm grab “up yours” gesture, freeze frame for real this time. I love the out of nowhere Hong Kong freeze frame endings that range from complete bummers to inappropriate gags. This one actually felt like a welcome moment of hope, defiance, and catharsis that even calls back to the earlier scene when Bullet was released. RIP the rest of the gang, Uncle Tiger, Boa, and most of all Bullet. You’re throwing molotovs at angels now.

GwG Stats:

Leading Ladies (and how many movies I have seen them in):

Moon Lee (6), Yukari Oshima (3), Sibelle Hu (2)

MVG (Most Valuable Girl): This is a tough one. Moon Lee gets more action scenes and genuinely moved me with her emotional breakdown… but I gotta go with Yukari Oshima. She is so goddamn cool in this. I loved her scowl and barely contained anger, and the image of her with those molotovs will be burned into my memory forever. I don’t know if she has any other roles this strong, but this one alone permanently elevated her to legendary status in my mind. A badass bitch for the ages.