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Hong Kong is on the verge of being taken over by the Reptoids, a race
of shapeshifting, reptilian monsters that is supposed to be especially
bloodthirsty, but the police has formed the anti-mosnter-squad to stop
them. When it is found out that the Reptoids are flooding the city with an
especially dangerous drug, Happiness, that evaporates its consumers
within hours, top squad agent Lung (Leon Lai) is told to stop Yuen
(Tatsuya Nakadai), the man believed behind Happiness, by any means
possible. But when Lung asks to be teamed up with his friend Ying (Jacky
Cheung), his boss (Yuen Woo-Ping) bluntly refuses, since Ying is
half-human- half-reptoid. Lung takes Ying along anyhow ...
At Yuen's place, Lung to his fgreat surprise finds Gayle (Michelle
Reis), his ex-girlfriend, but also a reptoid (if a well-meaning one). But
to Lung's dismay, she is now the girlfriend of Yuen ...
However, it soon turns out that Yuen is not really the man behind
Happiness, on the contrary he is a legit business man who has a vision of
reptoids & humans living together in peace ... too bad though his son
Gwei (Roy Cheung) thinks pretty little of these ideas, is more interested
in selling happiness to the humans & ultimately overthrows his father
& leaves him & his girl Gayle to die ...
What follows is a series of otherworldly shoot-outs between the squad -
headed by Lung & Ying - on one side, Gwei & his reptoids on the
other, during which Gayle is raped & drugged with Happiness by Gwei,
both she & Yuen are captured by the squad, & Ying, believed to
have betrayed the squad's plans to Gwei, is fired from his job, but starts
a steamy affair with his colleague Loh (Carman Lee) ... but of course it
was really Loh who has betrayed the squad's plans ...
Ultimately though, Lung & Ying free Yuen & Gayle, & as a
team the four take on Gwei & his men in a fight on the roof of a
skyscraper, a fight that involves massive airplanesurfing & falling
off (& to) the building. During the fight, Ying turns into his reptoid
form, but refuses to let out the beast in him, even if he knows this si
the only way to save his life. Instead he makes the ultimate sacrifice
& gives his blood to Gayle, who is on the verge of dieing from
Happiness, & only his blood saves her now.
In the end, Ying is dead, but Gwei is beaten, & Gayle decides to
leave Hong Kong with Yuen, since his vivion of peace between humans &
monsters has failed miserably. Only Lung is left behind as the hero of
the day, but he just cannot enjoy his victory.
Let's face it, the story of this film, a mix of Blade Runner, Alien
Nation, a bit of Alien, with
large portions of martial arts thrown in, is not all that great - actually
it's rather cheesy - but seen as a succession of set pieces that combine
martial arts & massive shoot-outs with futuristic settings &
bizarre monsters (years before the Matrix-series did pretty
much the same to lesser effect), the film is quite impressive as well as
highly entertaining (the airplane surfing scenes alone are worth the
price).
What's disorienting though: Michelle Reis' character calls for quite
some (action-)scenes done in the nude, but she obviously refused to fully
undress (which is common for Hong Kong actresses of some fame), ao the
direction goes to a great length to - coinicidently - cover up or just not
film her breasts, behind or pubic region ... which seems to be a cire
compromise since it destroys the rhythm of quite some scenes &
furthermore seems totally corny.
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amazon.co.uk
amazon.de
eThaiCD.com
find Wicked City at adultvideouniverse.com
