| Taiwanese variant of various efforts that turned up in the 70s such as The Last House On The Left and I Spit On Your Grave (although ultimately more patterned after Abel Ferrara's Ms. 45 reportedly) but Girl With A Gun is definitely more subdued, which turns out to be its greatest weakness. Attention is spent on Liang Pi-Ho (Ying Hsia admirably trying to add subtle life into the material), mute since childhood after losing her parents and why she snaps into murder mayhem with the titular gun. In her case, it seems like a half-assed robbery and a mild (for the genre) attempted rape is enough to randomly scatter bullets. Liu Ga's script speaks of literally a lack of faith (a fairly poignant moment involves Liang watching a deaf-mute group doing "He's Got The Whole World In His Hands") and director Richard Chen certainly tells us something. Not enough however. Because cheap tricks such as repeating the theme song 20 times in the film, inverting colours to suggest whatever and lack of gritty effect hinders Girl With A Gun almost completely. Select moments, in particular Liang's final act of violence towards the end may be chilling but late good work doesn't give the film buoyancy. A lifeless Alan Tam co-stars. |
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