| A different Moon Lee vehicle but seeing as it partly replays the opera scene from Once Upon A Time In China and features the ghost/man love story that A Chinese Ghost Story made popular, it's hard to look at The Revenge Of Angel as a true original. In the role usually reserved for Joey Wong, Moon plays Angel, a peking opera performer that dies in a fire at the hands of local thug Chan Ping (Chung Faat - Spooky Encounters). 20 years later, fresh opera performer Siu Man (Lau Ji-Wai) finds the spirit of Angel and falls in love. With him and several others of the opera troupe on her side, Angel can finally plot her revenge...
Played almost totally straight (a gag at the very end concerns flashing your underwear to break Taoist priest's concentration), director Yeung Kuen (Seeding Of A Ghost) doesn't play out the otherworldly romance particularly well, pushing for emotions in the most sappy of ways (think stock, manipulative score). It's Hong Kong cinema being slightly more ambitious but in the end drawing a "storyline" merely as an excuse for fights and effects. The latter it does as standard as you'd come to expect from the era but the action choreography is well done. Standouts includes a skirmish onboard a ship heading for the afterlife where Angel's servants turn against her and the ending involving spells and weapons is rather noteworthy. Wu Ma and Alvina Kong co-stars. |
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