“Angel The Kickboxer” (1992)

(Dir. Godfrey Ho)

This film is a cut-and-paste montage of brief Yukari fight scenes and footage from a Cynthia Rothrock picture “Honor and Glory” - another Filmswell production credited to director Godfrey Hall (presumably another pseudonym for Philip Ko).   With a plot vaguely connected to stolen nuclear weaponry and banking fraud, Robin Shou travels to the USA to work with Cynthia Rothrock.  A  male Japanese contract killer performs a series of hits in both the USA and HK.  A combination of confused plot and poor subtitles makes the story almost incomprehensible.  Yukari, as usual, is superb in her brief scenes that really have little to do with the main plot.  She, playing a cop, together with Robin Shou eventually arrest Waise Lee’s character who is involved in the banking fraud subplot.  Favorite line (Yukari):  “So you want me to beat whenever I see you.”

A 2, B 3, C 2, D 1, E 3, F 1  (12)

(Art Dragon Film Production Co. HK, Dir. “Stanley” Wing Siu)

Cynthia Khan is a Mainland Chinese police officer who travels to HK in pursuit of a case.  There she is befriended by Moon Lee.  They eventually discover they also have a romantic involvement with the same man (Waise Lee) who is a fugitive from the Mainland.  Yukari plays a Japanese agent who joins forces with Michiko Nishiwaki (playing Moon Lee’s sister-in-law) in search of a missing painting containing World War II Japanese secrets.  Despite a promising plot and superb cast, the bulk of this movie concentrates on Moon Lee and Cynthia Khan’s common interest in Waise Lee, and the efforts of an HK police detective to protect them.  Yukari’s appearances are brief cameos only.

The story threads interweave in the final fight, which is quite well done - as are several earlier bouts, including one in a gym between Yukari and Michiko.  Yukari’s best scenes are actually part of a brief cameo during her pre-operational training, while wearing traditional Japanese garb.  Favorite line (Yukari):  “Want to die?”

A 1.5, B 4, C 1, D 2, E 2.5, F 1.5  (12.5).  Fight Scenes

(New Treasurer Film Co., Dir. Hsu Hsia)

Trashy, flashy and fun, this girls-with-guns movie pits two bumbling HK female detectives, Feng (Moon Lee) and her partner Grace, against a serial sex murderer.  Assigned to work undercover as nightclub hostesses, they become targets for their boss Mr. Chung, who is actually the murderer.  His boss, Bee, is a racketeer involved in arms smuggling.  After double-crossing and killing a Japanese gang, Bee hires a Japanese contract killer (Yukari) to hit his partners and former gang boss so he can take over the entire operation.  She takes them out with darts and a garrote.  When the Japanese strike back, he also hires her as a bodyguard, over the protests of his wife and partner (Sophia Crawford).  Feng and Grace get in the middle of the gang war, and attempt to stop Yukari.  When Feng loses her gun to Yukari (who’s holding a shoto to Grace’s neck), she also risks losing her job.

In trying to track down the elusive contract killer, Grace attempts to pump Chung for information and goes to his home on a date.  He changes into his gear (a leopard skin bathing suit) and ties her up preparatory to assaulting her.  By chance, Yukari arrives at the door.  When Chung answers the door dressed in this manner, brandishing a whip, he invites Yukari to join his sexual antics.  This is a bad mistake for him.  She takes in the scene with a single glance.  Suddenly, all expression falls from her face.  This chilling transformation can only be described as uniquely Japanese.  Inscrutable doesn’t capture the essence.  It’s the face of death.  Chung still doesn’t recognize it.  He’s dead in less than a minute, executed by strangulation with his own whip, after being bloodied up by having his face smashed into a glass table.  Feng and Yukari confront each other downstairs, but the killer slips away again.  Amazingly, considering what she’s been doing, Yukari’s character turns out to be a Japanese Interpol operative.  After Grace is killed by Bee, Feng and Yukari join forces to defeat Bee and his new Japanese partners, in a confrontation at a warehouse.

Despite the implausible plot and low budget action, this film is quite engaging and entertaining.  The sexism is so outrageous that when the women strike back, their targets richly deserve what’s coming to them.  Yukari is magnificent as the black trenchcoated assassin, with several brief but superb fights.  She also briefly appears wearing leather, head to toe.

A 2.5, B 3.5, C 4, D 3, C 3.5, F 3  (19.5)  Highly Recommended

(Joe Siu International Film Co., Dir. Wong Che Keung, aka Benny Wong)

A fine cast that includes Yuen Wah, Moon Lee, Sibelle Hu and Sophia Crawford seems wasted on this slapstick comedy.  Moon Lee and Yukari play a pair of masked bandits known as Saint Hero who steal several art treasures.  Sibelle Hu portrays a parody of a tough cop investigating the thefts.  Unfortunately, unlike most action comedies, this movie has no redeeming action scenes.  Yukari performs just as unconvincingly as the others, but is additionally subjected to an inflating breasts sight gag.  Remarkably, this movie has the same director as “Dreaming The Reality” and “Angel Terminators II.”  The only trace of his influence is in Yukari and Moon’s physical romping and some brief shoe fetishism.

A 2.5, B 1, C 1, D 1, E 1.5, F 0  (7).

(New Treasurer Film Co., Dir. Lam Zin Wai)

In yet another HK police drama, Yukari plays a detective who is kidnapped and held hostage by a team of Mainland agents led by Waise Lee.  Called The Golden Corps, they are chasing a traitor who is attempting to sell stolen gold in HK.  Despite a promising plot and cast, the action is sparse and much of the story involves the comic antics of both The Golden Corps and Yukari’s HK police colleagues.  An extended gambling sequence (by which The Golden Corps attempts to raise money to hire and informant) is distracting.  Yukari spends a considerable amount of time tied up with a sock stuffed in her mouth, and also flirts with Waise Lee.  The movie is somewhat redeemed by an incongruously bloody final shootout.  Favorite line (Yukari):  “I always wear men’s clothes.”

A 2.5, B 3, C 2, D 2, E 2, F 1.5  (13).  Fight Scenes

(Regent Film Ltd., Dir. Philip Ko)

After Waise Lee, in a cameo role, arrests the Philippino gang leader Torres in HK, he is extradited to the Philippines, escorted by Inspector Dragon (Robin Shou) and Yukari.  On arrival Torres escapes with the aid of corrupt police officers.  Yukari doesn’t have much to do until she and Robin Shou confront Torres and his gang.  She has a brief but excellent fight wielding a baseball bat, with nice combination kicks.  But she is stabbed to death by Torres only halfway into the movie.  Dragon then teams up with a Philippino police officer played by Philip Ko.  Together they take on a series of gang members, until eventually killing Torres in a final confrontation.  Yukari only has an expanded cameo role, with most of the action involving Robing Shou and Philip Ko.  The editing is choppy, complicating an already confusing story.  Unfortunately some of the action scenes alternate rapidly with comic elements that seem out of place.

A 1.5, B 3, C 1, D 1, E 2.5, F 1.5  (10.5).

(My Way Film Co., Dir. Philip Ko)

Robin Shou is a detective sent to the Philippines to extradite a drug dealer Lo Tat, played by Phillip Kao.  This Philippino movie is seriously flawed by incongruous goofy comedy principally involving King Kong.  He is capable of better than this.  Simon Yam makes an appearance as Robin Shou’s deceased partner.  The footage appears to be culled from another production.  Yukari doesn’t make an appearance until the second half of the movie, but when she does her very brief action scenes are explosive.  The final confrontation at the drug dealers’ ranch is only fair, but does feature Yukari’s pole fighting skills.  The dubbed Cantonese version is marginally more watchable than the dubbed English version.

A 2, B 3, C 1, D 1, E 2, F 1  (10).

(Jia’s Motion Picture H.K. Co., Dir. Shum Wai)

When Moon Lee’s brother is killed in fixed kickboxing bout she seeks revenge by challenging his opponent, Billy Chow, to an underground match.  The winner’s purse can help save her struggling gymnasium business.  Moon Lee’s character paralyzes Chow in another dirty match, setting in motion another cycle of vengeance.  This time Chow’s cousin (Yukari) kidnaps Moon Lee’s friend and assistant (Mark Cheng), and severs his spinal cord to provoke Moon Lee into a re-match with her.  Lee kills Yukari in another underground match.  Most of the other principals then die in an ensuing fight in an abandoned building after Yukari’s husband refuses to pay up on the bet on the match.  This movie is set in the seedy world of compulsive gambling and fight fixing.  The fight scenes, although implausible, are particularly brutal.  Favorite line (Yukari):  “I will kill her myself.”

A 2, B 3, C 2.5, D 2.5, E 4, F 2.5  (16.5).  Recommended

(Filmagica Production Ltd., Dir. Chen Chi Liang)

A young Hong Kong detective Chung Ao from the anti-smuggling unit it sent to Shenzhen where he discovers information about the criminal Lin Wei.  Chung follows Lin Wei’s mistress Ling to him, and interrupts his attempted murder by his police inspector partner Hai who is seeking revenge for a murdered partner.  A female undercover Public Security officer, Su Erh (Yukari) in turn tails Chung but is shot in a movie projection booth under ambiguous circumstances.  Yukari is barely recognizable in a wig.  Ling, who is a witness to these events, is deaf and mute.  Chung is taken into custody on suspicion by Commissioner Kung (Sammo Hung).  However, he and Ling escape from a prison van, still handcuffed.  As she is the only person who can exonerate him, Chung flees with Ling.  After he is injured she takes pity on him and the pair travel by bus to her duck farm in the country.  Chung gradually falls in love with Ling in a gentle, well filmed story of a doomed relationship.  Lin Wei returns, and Chung arranges a meeting with Commissioner Kung.  Kung uses Chung as bait.  Kung’s trap works, and both Lin Wai and the corrupt Inspector Hai are killed.  Appearing in only a cameo part, Yukari looks fabulous in Chinese police uniform.  But blink, and you’ll miss her.

A 0.5, B 0, C 0, D 3.5, E 2, F 3  (9).

(Joe Siu International Films, Ltd., Dir. Wong Chung, aka Benny Wong)

After opening with gratuitous soft-core intercourse, followed by the killing of the heads of a criminal gang seeking control of Thailand’s drug trade, things get a little better.  In an early role, Carrie Ng leads a Thai police task force and issues a lot of orders while posing in a rather striking paramilitary uniform!  Moon Lee and Yukari are sent into the jungle as undercover operatives running a sting operation.  Eventually they run the gang to ground, ambushing a river opium convoy amid a string of double-crosses.  Although hundreds of rounds are expended throughout the movie, the gun play tends to be formulaic.

Once again Yukari is relegated to a secondary role, taking a beating on several occasions.  Later in the film she appears wrung out and lacking spirit - an effect paradoxically enhanced by military camouflage clothing.  As usual most of her fight scenes are grimly fought with pain and bleeding - lacking the exuberance afforded to Moon Lee.  Yukari’s stunt work and facial expressions are excellent, however, with better than average camera work during her fights.  She finishes one opponent with a ridge hand strike to the throat.  However briefly she appears, no one else fights like her.  Watch also for her physical strength as she plows ahead in the river scene at finish of the film.

A 2, B 3, C 1, D 2, E 2.5, F 2  (12.5).  Recommended

(Dir. Lan Nai Kai, aka Nam Nai Choi)

Consider how many actresses could convincingly appear in an all-male cast playing the most vicious of four brutally sadistic male enforcers in a futuristic men’s prison.  In addition to skinning two men and forcing a third’s face into a meat grinder, this character must torture the hero and cultivate drugs.  As a final touch, the part requires kicking a dog to pieces and stuffing one of its organs into an air tube, as well as repeatedly beating up Fan Siu Wang who’s built like a champion weight lifter.  The fact that Yukari not only does all this convincingly, but is able to remove gender entirely from her seductively evil transsexual character Huang Chuan, both attests to her considerable (and unusual) talent and elevates the movie with an additional layer of implication.

The plot is probably familiar.  Ricky (Rikki) is unjustly convicted of murdering the killer of his girl friend Ying.  In a privatized prison he quickly alienates the authorities who attempt first to subdue him, then kill him, through cell block enforcers known as the Gang of Four.  Ricky has learned unconventional kung-fu from his uncle, and is capable of superhuman acts of strength.  He uses these to mangle his opponents in a series of horrifically graphic confrontations.  Body parts, intestines, and limbs are all on display.  Huang Chuan’s smirking superiority (“I’ve hit your heart’s fatal sinus.  You’ll die soon”) or sheer viciousness (“Now I’m going to cremate you”) are compelling.  Although Yukari does not have much total screen time, she uses what she has very well.

Although she does fight this is not really a martial arts movie.  It is probably no coincidence that this adaptation of a manga is a Japanese co-production.  The Japanese print was reportedly the uncut version.  A recent English-dubbed release does not do the voices or script adequate justice, and a subtitled version is worth the effort to locate.

A 2.5, B 2.5, C 4, D 3.5, E 4, 3.5  (20).  Highly Recommended

(Dir. Wong Che Keung, aka Benny Wong)

Hong Kong police superintendent Law (Gordon Liu) is sent to the Mainland to intercept and arms smuggling operation headed by Charlie Tan.  Tan’s younger girl friend (Yukari) is actually the daughter of a Party official and appears to be using Tan as a means of escaping from China.  When he fails to deliver, she switches allegiance to his bodyguard and lookout man Eddie (Mark Cheng).  Together, they kill Tan, hijack his arms shipment, and attempt to sell it in HK.  Two deals are disrupted by the police, who are assisted by an Interpol agent (Sophia Crawford).  The couple eventually die in a gas explosion on a junk, caused by Law’s girl friend who they had taken as a hostage.

The treachery and futility of this lifestyle is quite well presented, and the characters are portrayed in more morally ambiguous ways than is usual in actioners.  This is no surprise, since the same director was responsible for “Dreaming The Reality.”  The pace lags in places, however, and there are too many sentimental interludes with Law’s family.  Yukari’s character veers between subservience to the men with whom she is associated, and sociopathic violence (including speaking directly to Law’s girl friend as she is stabbing her).  Her action sequences are crisply directed.  Watch for some excellent combat shooting, as well as Yukari demonstrating a steady hand in a tight corner with an AK-47.

A 2.5, B 3, C 2, D 2.5, E 3, F 2.5  (15.5).  Recommended

(Mandarin Video PTE Ltd.)

Yukari plays the Taiwanese granddaughter of deceased master gambler Chow.  Neither she nor Mark Cheng, who befriends her, are successful gamblers during a trip to Macau.  Her grandfather’s spirit escapes, chased by spirit guardians, in an attempt to improve his granddaughter’s ability to continue the family tradition.  After entering the world in a scene copied from “Terminator,” his spirit enters the body of a mentally retarded relative of Mark Cheng called Pai Pai who has just been killed in a traffic accident.  Both Pai Pai’s family and rival gamblers attempt to kidnap the resurrected Pai Pai who has developed extraordinary gambling powers.  At one point Yukari shoots seven men in quick succession during a fight at an abandoned steel plant.  The final confrontation involves a high stakes poker game between the rival “King of Gamble” and Mark Cheng.

As with several Taiwanese productions, spirits and slapstick alternate jarringly with action sequences.  Yukari appears quite lovely in this film, with her trademark very short hair and rather pouting mannerisms.  Fortunately, her headstrong, combative character also soon surfaces.   Despite some nice kicking by Yukari and solid moves by Mark Cheng, the fight scenes are poorly directed - with protective padding visible in the actors’ clothing.  Favorite line (Yukari):  “You are too much, son of bitch.”

A 3, B 2, C 2, D 1.5, E 2, F 2  (12.5).

(New View HK Film Co., Ltd.)

This Taiwanese film is seriously compromised by a story line involving a female student who is writing a thesis on the sociology of prostitution.  She goes undercover to gather data and is raped by a drunken customer, who is also a gang member and pimp.  The lethal mixture of goofy comedy, bad taste and soft core porn scenes contrast unpleasantly with Yukari’s brief appearances - which she plays straight, with considerable venom.  Her change of facial expression on discovering her dying sister is chilling.  Her acting is at least an arrow of sunlight into this murky territory.  In a separate thread Yukari is one of two surviving daughters of a man killed by a rival gang.  As an adult she returns to seek revenge and find her sister.  The two plot threads converge in a brothel, as she discovers her sister was a prostitute murdered by the same man who raped the student.  Yukari’s fight scenes early in the movie are brief but excellent, with crisp, athletic form, and pole fighting with multiple opponents.  There are several additional fight scenes, but the final confrontation is poorly planned, directed and filmed.  Overall, the results are disjointed and unsatisfactory.  Favorite line (Yukari):  “No pain no gain.”

A 2, B 3, C 1, D 1, E 2.5, F 1  (10.5).  Fight Scenes

(Dir. Simon Yun Ching)

Simon Yun Ching works his magic again, in this reprise of “Dreaming The Reality.”  Although superficially different, with a gritty “street level” look and lower production values, “Angel Terminators II” is nevertheless on an emotional par with “Dreaming,” and is probably Yukari’s finest performance.  Sibelle Hu is again cast as a (relatively) stable figure, playing an HK detective.  Her male partner tends to be ordinarily cautious, while she is rash and impulsive. These contrasting qualities eventually undo both of them.  We discover that his inner vulnerability is a mixture of love and guilt concerning his adult daughter “Bullet” (Yukari), who has evidently identified with her mother - who died in prison.  She blames her father, and won’t speak to him.  Worse, she has become involved with a Triad gang and has been incarcerated.

Her youthful friends - the other principal characters - are a mildly delinquent group with all too typical weaknesses.  Her friend May is eventually lured by an offer of a film role, and is then drugged and raped while being videotaped.  May’s boyfriend “Turkey” then rejects her.  “Bull,” a shy young man with a stammer, has the misfortune to become infatuated with “Bullet.”  She almost completely ignores him, and spends almost every available moment with “Chitty” (Moon Lee).  Chitty, who is cast as a more superficially demure character, is actually lying to her uncle about staying enrolled in education.  Her uncle, in turn, has an old man’s pride and overestimates his own physical prowess - harking back to his days as a streetfighter.  Then there are the Triad gang members, portrayed as smoothly handsome yet sociopathic young men, whose thrusting greed warps their judgment.

Yukari’s character, “Bullet,” destabilizes all these fragile characters when she is released from prison.  This movie presents Yukari in the full flood of her dark energy.  From her opening scene when she thrusts her middle finger into the face of the Corrections Officers, her rage sweeps everyone away, bumping downstream to their destruction.  As in “Dreaming,” the principal dramatic tension involves two couples - Sibelle Hu’s character and Bullet’s father on the one hand, and Bullet and Chitty on the other.  There is electricity between the two women.  Leaving a karaoke bar late in the evening, the following exchange takes place between them, while May and Turkey embrace drunkenly in the background:  Bullet - “You say?”  Chitty - “O.K., I’ll see you home later.”  Bullet - “What did you say?”  Chitty - “Nothing!  I ask you to sleep with me today.”  Later in the film they playfully grab each other:  Chitty - “I have no money!  Do you want my life?”  Bullet - “Yeah, give me your life.”

In this film it is Yukari’s brittle character who is moved by emotions from the past that she does not fully comprehend.  Too shy to sing with Chitty at the karaoke bar, she will nevertheless fight anyone, anywhere.  Her anger is volcanic, and Yukari’s portrayal is truly fearsome.  Eventually, and inevitably, she alienates everyone who has tried to befriend her.  After losing a job waiting tables over a confrontation with a customer, Bullet eventually steals on impulse.  Unfortunately, what she steals is jewelry that is already the stolen property of a Triad gang headed by “Mad.”  After a series of outstanding street fights between Bullet, Moon and their friends, and Triad gang members, Mad’s gang kidnap May and their other friend “Chick.”  The final cycle of destruction wrought by Bullet’s lack of impulse control then consumes everyone.  Chitty’s uncle attempts to rescue the hostages, and all three are killed.

When Chitty hysterically breaks down and blames Bullet, Bullet stands passively while Chitty flails at her.  Despite this, in the heat of her emotion Chitty’s rejection is total, and Bullet immediately surrenders her own life in a nihilistic gesture by attacking Mad’s gang in the street armed only with a petrol bomb and short sword.  This scene is chilling.  Filmed in slow motion with a disembodied soundtrack of Yukari screaming, she kicks, slashes and hacks her way through several gang members in the middle of a street.  Their blood covers her face.  In a suicidal charge with a slow-motion car fire in the background she is gunned down by Mad himself, who also brutally shoots the hapless Bull and her policeman father.  After this, the final confrontation between the survivors has had the emotion drained from it.  Mad and Turkey are killed, Sibelle Hu’s police career is finished, and Chitty is convicted of manslaughter.  As in “Dreaming,” costume is an important part of this movie.  From her suede ankle boots to pants emblazoned with “Slut,” Yukari’s leather-jacketed, tattooed persona is a fabulously seductive yet untouchable presence.  Favorite line (Yukari):  “Want a whore?  Just ask your mother.”

A 4, B 4, C 4, D 3, E 3, F 3.5  (21.5).  Highly Recommended

(Dir. Kenneth Lu)

A young woman, Sin Yun, dates Wu Tian - a gangster.  He drugs her and has intercourse, then turns her over to his gang.  When she resists, they beat her to death and dump her body in Lake Tian.  Her spirit returns to haunt Wu Tian.  The ghost also contacts her sister and enters the body of another young woman who has been killed.  Yukari and Dick Wei have cameo roles as cops investigating Wu Tian.  All they do is show up and start shooting at him and his gang.  Yukari speaks perhaps two words.  After being attacked by Sin Yun’s sister, Wu Tian is finally shot to death by the police.  This Taiwanese movie is filled with relatively graphic soft-core pornographic scenes (Category III), to which the martial arts action is incidental.  It’s worth noting that while just about every other female actor is depicted having sex, Yukari gets shot instead.  For its type, the film is better than most.

A 0, B 0.5, C 0, D 3, E 2.5, F 2  (8).

(My Way Film Co., Dir. Philip Ko)

Yukari leads an Interpol/NBI investigation of a weapons smuggling organization with ties to Japan, but operating in the Philippines.  “Albert” is a macho Manila detective whose wife was killed by the gang.  Philip Ko briefly appears as a gang member who is killed by the NBI team during an attempted kidnapping.  After his partner and a bystander are killed, Albert takes a surviving witness to his mother’s country home.  The location is betrayed and the homestead attacked.

Albert and Yukari then confront the gang at their hideout.  While some of the fight scenes are spoiled by wire work, other sequences are better than average for Philippino action movies.  The final fight is quite well done, but would have been even better had they left out the wires.  The Cantonese version of this movie appears to have the most natural dialog and script, with a soundtrack apparently inspired by “Terminator.”

A 2.5, B 2.5, C 2, D 2.5, E 2.5, F 2  (14).

This quite poignant and well acted movie gets better with a second viewing.  It pits two women’s affection for their male partners against their better interest.  One, a nightclub singer, befriends a fugitive from a gang, while the other - a Japanese played by Yukari - is befriended by an HK detective investigating the case.  The men’s subsequent conflict with the gang eventually draws both women in and leads to their deaths.  The nightclub singer is thrown from the window of her apartment, while Yukari is stabbed with a metal rod during a fight.  The final fight scene is classic Yukari - all guns, legs and flashy high kicks - as well as being quite bloody.  Although shot on videotape, this movie is quite well acted and has good location photography.  More drama than actioner, the fight scenes are not especially well choreographed - although Yukari is quick and athletic in her fight opportunities.  Yukari’s character spends much time appearing fairly dressily attired.  Given her powerful form, she appears rather out of place in a dress and heels.

A 3.5, B 3, C 2.5, D 3, E 2, F 3  (17).  Recommended

(Golden Harvest, Dir. Tong Kwai Lai)

Michelle Yeoh stars as a Mainland police officer sent on an official mission to HK.  There she discovers that her former fiancé, played by Yu Rong Guang, is actually involved in the robbery of a bank vault.  During the opening credits Yukari appears as a member of a Japanese terrorist group attacked by the Chinese police during a failed hostage taking operation.  Yukari is shocked on the chest with a portable defibrillator by Yeoh’s character, and has the opportunity to make a harsh comment.  She also fights briefly with Yu Rong Guang, displaying some nice combination kicks.  This film has a good cast and solid action sequences, although the pace lags a little in places.  There is also an embarrassing cameo by Jackie Chan in drag.

A 1, B 3, C 0, D 3.5, E 3.5, F 3  (14).  Recommended

(New Treasurer Films, Co., Dir. Albert Lai)

More of a drama than an action movie, Cynthia Khan and Moon Lee are successful police officers and buddies.  Unknown to Khan, Moon’s character May remains infatuated with Khan’s fiancé Wilson.  When May kills him in a jealous rage and frames Khan for the murder, Khan flees and seeks the help of Coco - a punk car thief played by Yukari - whom she had previously arrested.  As May spins out of control she attempts to kill anyone connected with the case - including a fellow police officer.

Highlights include Yukari’s tomboy character sprawling on the hood of a pickup, and disrobing then diving into a water-filled metal tank with her legs chained in order to win a bet.  A flashback scene in which Coco knifes her ex-boyfriend and his lover is one of several unusually cruel and pointless killings.  Another is when May repeatedly (and slowly) shoots Wilson to death.  The acting is better than usual, but the action scenes are relatively subdued.  It all ends rather unhappily, with an unsatisfying final fight leaving unanswered questions about whether any of the principals survive.  Favorite line (Yukari):  “I know you need smacking.”

A 3, B 1, C 3, D 3, E 2, F 3  (15).  Recommended

(Filmswell/Jumbo Plain Ltd., Dir. Philip Ko)

Although Yukari has a lot of screen time in this Philippino action comedy directed by Philip Ko, it’s mostly wasted.  Zorbak is a cheesy alien who is pursued by a Martian cop to Earth.  When Philip Ko’s cop character Benny is wounded in a shootout with the Black Dragon Gang, his colleague Lux (Yukari) seeks to investigate the alien who appeared at the same time.  She eventually breaks the case using Ador, a suicidal gay man with AIDS, to attract Zorbak, who derives energy from his victims.  Viewers should expect a high quotient of very unamusing, homophobic gags - although some of this prejudice is actually directed toward Lux for associating with someone with AIDS.

The action in incomprehensible and ridiculous.  The police eventually move in to arrest two gangs in a separate action thread.  The shootout is not worth waiting for.  Zorbak arrives, prompting the final confrontation with more homophobic sight gags.  The most positive thing about this movie (perhaps the only positive note) is Yukari herself, who looks fabulous in black futuristic police garb complete with combat boots, body armor and sporting a sawed off shotgun in a quick draw hip rig.  One of her poses in the hospital corridor after Benny has been shot has her trademark facial expression that could blister paint from the wall.  Unfortunately, that’s all there is.

A 3, B 1, C 1, D 0, E 1, F 0  (6).

(MeAh Production Co., Dir. Lam Wuah Chuen)

Yukari’s cameo appearance in this mediocre Category III soft core pornography suggests she would take just about any part.  The plot involves two spirits who escape from the Underworld and inhabit the body of a man and woman.  Using sexual contacts they prey on mortal victims, sucking energy from them and killing them in the process.  The ghosts are eventually dispatched by a priest using a sexual ceremony involving a detective investigating the murders and his girl friend.  In an almost unrelated thread Mark Cheng plays an antique dealer with problems involving ghosts or spirits, while Yukari (with clothing firmly in place) briefly appears as an exorcist.  There are only a few poorly executed fight scenes in this film.

A 1, B 0, C 0, D 1, E 1, F 0  (3).