Dead Target
If a film full of rampaging elephants and nude
transsexuals don’t do it for you – then what about a film full of nude
elephants and rampaging transsexuals? This low budget action film hits
just the right notes of goofiness and action with a large element of total
weirdness thrown in just for the hell of it. It all adds up to an enjoyable
romp along the lines of Stone Age Warriors, Hero Dream and the Perils of
Pauline.
In this case though it is not Pauline who is constantly
in danger of losing her life, but the very appealing Sharon Kwok, who appeared
in a number of low budget films during the 90’s and has a great inviting
smile. She was married for a time to Chin Sui Ho – and he brings his fine
martial arts skills to this film as well. Oddly enough, two years later
he also starred in Hero Dream which also has loads of transsexuals running
about often in a state of undress. Recently, Chin was in the papers for
being caught while surreptitiously filming underneath women’s dresses in
public with a camcorder – but I am sure appearing in these two slightly
perverse films had nothing to do with his little hobby!
Sharon receives a letter from her grandfather
who lives in Thailand asking her to visit him and to bring along a charm
that is the key to recovering a precious Royal Crown that was buried decades
earlier. In fact though, the grandfather is a captive of an evil Gweilo
– who wants to steal the treasure himself.
On the plane, Sharon first runs into Chin and
he continues to show up at other opportune times throughout the film to
beat up some bad guys. As soon as Sharon lands in Bangkok, she begins a
riotous roller coaster ride through the sex trade in Thailand as she is
continually on the run or in the middle of a fight. While being chased
by the Gwielo and his many minions, she wrecks a Go-Go bar (in which the
scantily clad girls help beat up the bad guys), hides in the middle of
a transvestite nightclub show (in which various transsexuals are shown
in various states of development!), ends up being mistaken for a massage
girl and is put in the display window, has to jump into a less than clean
river from a moving train and falls out of a coconut tree. All along the
way, she is getting whacked around – but also giving out some good whacks
as well. Of course, her character is an aerobics instructor and we know
how tough they can be!
But I haven’t even mentioned the elephants yet.
Right out of an old Tarzan movie, she saves a baby elephant from drowning
– and then when she is surrounded by the villains – the baby leads the
other elephants back to protect her by stomping, gouging and using their
trunks to de-masculate the bad guys. None of this will make you a better
person – but it has a certain uniqueness and sense of nuttiness that should
appeal on some weird level to nearly everyone!
My rating for this film: 6.5