Stone Age Warriors
I sincerely hope that Nina Li and Elaine Lui received
combat pay for performing in this amazing adventure film directed from
Stanley Tong. The things Stanley put his two female stars through in the
jungles of New Guinea boggles the mind. This film is like The Perils of
Pauline on speed. Headhunters, snakes, scorpions, Komodo Dragons, raging
waterfalls and numerous killers all pose constant threats to the two women.
In the opening scene a group of treasure hunters
are searching through the jungles of New Guinea when a tribe of natives
sets upon them. In a brutal, violent and gory fight it appears that all
of the party are massacred.
Switch back to HK where Nina Li is getting
lambasted by her boss for giving the head of the party – Tanaka – a life
insurance policy. I don’t know too many insurance agents that would go
into the deepest jungles to make sure their client is really dead, but
Nina does. First though she stops off in Japan and teams up with Elaine
Lui who is the daughter of Tanaka.
Off they merrily go to see if they can locate
Tanaka. Nina Li in her fashionable red hat cuts quite a sight among the
natives and fauna. Before too long they literally find themselves in the
middle of a tribal war, but they are saved by Fan Siu-Wong – the guy from
the Story of Ricky. He does some astonishing fighting in this film and
I am perplexed as to why he has such a short filmography.
The film then goes into overdrive for the next
forty-five minutes as the three of them survive one near death experience
after another. It’s a terrific roller coaster ride – full of action and
thrills. Elaine Lui gets her share of great fight scenes while Nina Li
acts more as a comic foil, but is also knee deep in the fun.
I’ve wanted to see this film for quite a while
and it lived up to its reputation. In an interview, I recall Tong saying
what a difficult shoot this was and I can certainly imagine why. He also
said that for the most part it is the actresses doing their own stunts.
If you watch this film, that fact will amaze you.
