The story opens with a raid on an opium field as the military attacks with a vengeance and leaves everything decimated. The people behind this lucrative enterprise are not too happy with this sudden turn of events so they meet to decide on a course of action. Madame Sue (Yukari Oshima) wants them crushed and reveals a plan of action that everyone agrees on. Soon, agents involved in the operation are dying all over the place and Madame Sue's boss believes it's affecting business. He warns her but Madame Sue is determined to teach them a lesson so the killings continue.

Meanwhile, the Army discusses how best to counteract this wave of killings. A CIA operative (Alex Fong) explains to the General of the Army who is behind the killings. Alex suggests he hire a group known as the “Iron Angels” to sort out the problem. The General agrees and the Iron Angels are brought in. The Angels consist of Moon Lee, Elaine Lui, David Chiang, and Hideki Saijo.

I've never seen ladies come any tougher than Moon Lee and Yukari Oshima. These two are extraordinary ass-kickers. And when they finally face each other it's brutal. That's not to say the film solely relies on the end fight scene between Lee and Oshima, but it's one of the main highlights.

The film is obviously made on a lower budget and it shows. But when it comes to the action sequences, it's simply mind blowing. One of the highlights is a rescue operation for Alex after he is caught trying to infiltrate Madame Sue's property. The team crashes into her house with a vengeance, killing bad guys and blowing stuff up.

While the action scenes are brilliantly filmed, other elements are mishandled such as the comedy involving Elaine Lui. Lui seems to be stuck with the role of an airhead who thinks of nothing more than shopping and doing as little work as possible. As hard as she tries, Elaine can't seem to make the character likeable. The film suffers as a result because the comedy elements don't work. In spite of these flaws, ANGELS still holds up as a film to be seen. It should also be regarded as the first official "Girls with Guns" film that spawned its own sub-genre.

One of the best examples of the "girls-with-guns" genre, Angel packs in tons of action of both the kung-fu and gun-fu variety. The script's not going to win any awards, and the pace could have been tighter -- but overall this is a great action film, propelled by Moon Lee (who plays one of the Angels) and Yukari Oshima's excellent performances. Oshima, in particular, is spectacular as a sadistic villain in the movie. Her performance alone is reason enough to see this movie -- when you add in that she's in some inventive action sequences featuring exploding shirt buttons and acid-squirting bracelets, then you have the makings of a good night's entertainment. The only bit I could have done without is Elaine Lui's ditzy performance as the money-hungry, bumbling Angel. According to the documentary Deadly China Dolls, Lui didn't feel comfortable doing action scenes, and it shows. She sticks out like a sore thumb.