Naked Weapon: Quick Takes

I pray and hope that Media Asia and writer/producer Wong Jing weren't aiming for the A-market with their English language actioner Naked Weapon. If so, dear oh dear...how far up your own bottom can you be? Although lessened a little on the turkey scale when screened with the Cantonese dub, this new millennium re-thread of the Naked Killer "concept" (only featuring a tad of exploitation "goodies" including brutal violence and rape) is astoundingly poor, even overall in the department that matters (I.e. Ching Siu-Tung's involvement as action director). With a leading duo of ladies photographed quite NOT so beautifully as you would need (look at Anya in Sharp Guns. Now THERE she made an impression), any bonding or drama is seriously flat with the acting not taken up above the material by director Ching.

The action, an obvious nod to out of this world, high flying spectacles a la the 90s rely mostly on the non-martial arts performers that even the old days had no qualms about doubling extensively. However back then there was favourable effect and impression to be found when obviously faking that the stars weren't doing fighting. While admirable to push Maggie Q and Anya, it means no props to the execution. There's one neat sequence here set at the house of Cheng Pei-Pei's where Ching combines his actresses and doubles to fine effect but the end tally for Naked Weapon is that of devoid of energy and insistence to make the action work. Take a look at So Close instead where Corey Yuen managed to find the workable vein for the trio of his ass kicking ladies. What really is Wong Jing's Naked Weapon is a shallow mess in intent but he's not able to work magic from that simple goal either. Co-starring a wooden Daniel Wu, a feisty Li Fei and Andrew Lin.