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Anita
Mui is Wonder Woman, a superheroine in the Hong Kong of the future,
who has been called upon to stop the wave of kidnappings of male
infants from a local hospital. The perpetrator is the Invisible
Woman (Michelle Yeoh), who has been forced into working for an aging
supernatural eunuch with a scheme for world domination. Maggie Cheung,
meanwhile, is the Thief Catcher, a high-priced mercenary hired to
recover the baby of the police chief. The three women ultimately
join forces in a struggle for survival.
Although utilising the hospital sets left behind from John Woo's
'Hard Boiled', this is clearly a big budget production. Containing
the three biggest names from modern Hong Kong cinema the film has
a comic book feel about it and the cinematography, lighting and
production design in uniformly excellent. The film requires that
you suspend disbelief for an hour and a half and partake in a visual
feast that defies logic. For example, being a Ching Siu Tung film
things literally fly across the screen including motorbikes and
people! The actors are clearly enjoying themselves and Maggie Cheung
has the best role as the wise cracking Thief Catcher. Anita Mui
and Michelle Yeoh have more serious roles and also pull them off
well. The fight scenes are more down to the use of wires but this
only adds to the overall mise-en-scene of the film. Directors Johnny
To and Ching Siu Tung also manage to create a taught narrative and
the world in which these characters exist in is brought to teeming
life. Some of the special effects are slightly dodgy (such as the
stop-motion skeleton) but this is to be expected in early nineties
Hong Kong films and can be ignored as the whole film has a very
hyper realistic aesthetic.
Overall a very enjoyable film that feels it has had a lot of time,
effort and money put into it. The three leads are all very good
and the direction is solid. But remember that before you watch it
you may have to be ready to ignore the rules of gravity and not
take anything seen on the screen too seriously.
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