(sees tagline) Strange, I don't remember Hard Boiled having so much explicit rape in it...
Angel of Vengeance is a 1993 Taiwanese Exploitation Film starring Yukari Oshima and Alex Fong.
Both a revenge thriller and whorehouse drama at the same time, Yukari Oshima stars as Lori, a triad enforcer and fighter who must bust her sister Betty after she was sold to a prostitution ring. Unfortunately for the audience, despite having Action Girl icon Oshima as the titular Angel, the movie decides to focus on Betty's fate as a prostitute and being pimped out to clients, while Lori tries her best to expose the syndicate's activities with the help of a cop, Inspector Wu (Alex), culminating into a fight scene against the syndicate's enforcers. Which is too little, and too late, because all that happens in the last 10 minutes of the movie.
Can be considered a Spiritual Successor to Brave Young Girls, another whorehouse drama also starring Oshima, although in the other movie Oshima isn't related to the prostitute characters.
Troping of Vengeance:
- Action Girl: Lori, the titular Angel. Played by Yukari Oshima who allegedly spends two weeks on the set, given she was busy filming a bunch of other action movies the same time she’s making this film (see below).
- Advertised Extra: In a way, Yukari Oshima’s character, Lori, is focused in the posters, trailers, DVD covers and promotional materials, to the point of having the movie’s title referring to her character, but she was pushed to the sidelines for most of the movie and doesn’t get to have any action scenes (bar a really short Action Prologue) until the last 10 minutes.
- The fact that Yukari Oshima made 9 movies in 1993, including Lethal Panther, Angel Terminators, Beauty Investigator, The Avenging Quartet, and Super Cop 2 might have something to do with it.
- Bait-and-Switch Credits: The movie opens with a gang war, followed by Lori marching up to the mansion of a triad kingpin demanding for her sister where she beats up a bunch of thugs, before the opening credits segues into the film… which is then revealed to be a slow-paced whorehouse drama with barely any action for most of the second and third act. Thankfully the last ten minutes of the movie rectifies that mistake.
- Blatant Lies: The movie’s very tagline, which declares it to be a "hard-hitting action-crime thriller in the vein of Hard Boiled and Naked Killer ". The movie isn’t a thriller, contains less action than the first 12 minutes of Hard Boiled, its gratuitous nudity isn’t played for fanservice unlike Naked Killer and the film itself is mostly a gritty, tedious drama with unfunny comedy and tasteless rape scenes peppered in-between as Filler.
- Blood from the Mouth: Lori and Wu both ends up bleeding from the corner of their mouth after barely escaping getting blasted by flung dynamites during the rock quarry fight.
- Catch and Return: A variation; in the climatic rock quarry fight, the huge balding Giant Mook tries to kill Wu and Lori by flinging dynamites at them, but Lori managed to kick one of the flung dynamites back which blows up a handful of mooks.
- Cane Fu: Used by the henchwoman, who beats up Wu with her cane and tries doing the same to Lori.
- Covers Always Lie: The above pictured poster (from the re-release) features Lori and Wu (Oshima and Alex) in leather motorcycle jackets, which they were never seen wearing in the film. Also the poster is obviously taken when Alex Fong is older, probably from the 2000s, since in the film itself he doesn’t sport a massive beard like above. Not to mention the burning, exploding background suggesting the movie would be loaded with explosive action (which it isn’t).
- Deadly Dodging: A variant in the final fight; after Lori beats up several mooks in the quarry leaving half a dozen of them lying on the floor, semi-groaning or inconscious, the Giant Mook then tries to assault Lori with his dynamites. Lori dodges, causing most of the mooks she beat up earlier to get caught in the blast.
- Disney Death: The bald Giant Mook, who ends up getting kicked into a pier by Lori and somehow dying after falling in water (he’s not shown for the rest of the movie after taking the plunge, and given he’s a henchman with quite a prominent role in the movie it’s odd that he somehow disappears just like that. Or maybe he’s the mouse).
- Fan Disservice: Hmm… where to start? The sub-plot about a prostitution ring pimping whores to customers? Barely-clothed women being abused physically and sexually by men against their will? A man’s naked ass shown while forcing himself against a woman?
- Giant Mook: Boss Wang Pan’s number two, a huge, balding henchman who fights Lori one-on-one in a David vs. Goliath battle.
- Gratuitous Rape: Roughly once every ten minutes. Involving either Betty, or random extras playing prostitutes.
- Handicapped Badass: The blind henchwoman serving Wang Pan. Also a Blind Weaponmaster given her skills with her cane.
- Human Pincushion: In the opening gang war scene, a bunch of triads inexplicably had bows and arrows with them, which they then use to nail opposing gangsters on the spot with arrows.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice:
- Wu fighting the blind henchwoman ends with Wu impaling her using her own cane.
- The fate of Wang Pan, when Lori kicks him backwards into a horizontal wooden beam held by Wu.
- In a Single Bound: Wang Pan can somehow use his qi powers to make him literally float just by jumping, allowing him to beat down Lori and Wu with ease. Taking him down eventually takes quite some effort.
- A Man Is Always Eager: Discussed by one of the mooks working for the prostitution ring, regarding the hookers they’re about to pimp out to their clients.
- Overly Long Gag: Does having one rape scene every ten minutes in a movie counts?
- Punch! Punch! Punch! Uh Oh...: In their first confrontation scene, Lori fights the bald Giant Mook and repeatedly tries hitting him in the gut, only for him to smirk, grab her and flip her aside. She gets better in their rematch in the climatic final battle.
- Rape as Drama: The movie attempts this, but given the frequency of its occurrence throughout the film’s running time (to the point of being an unfunny Running Gag) it clearly didn’t work.
- Recycled Soundtrack: The movie literally doesn't have a single piece of original music.
- The opening and closing credits literally lifts the score from the Vampire Princess Miyu OVA.
- Some of the film’s numerous rape scenes are peppered with the Halloween and A Nightmare on Elm Street soundtrack in the background.
- The jazzy theme from Hard Boiled shows up more than once as well.
- Red Light District: The main setting of the film, since the villains are running an illegal prostitution ring and Lori is trying to bust her sister out from their syndicate.
- Secondary Character Title: While Lori is the titular Angel of Vengeance, she spends much of the film in the sidelines investigating the prostitution ring and only gets two action scenes for herself, while most of the film focuses more on Lori’s sister Betty.
- Shout-Out: One of the Mook Lieutenant Lori fights has a shocking wave of flowing white hair, which makes him look quite like Eunuch Tsao from the previous year’s New Dragon Inn.
- Sinister Shades: On the Blind henchwoman. She's never seen without them.
- Throw Down the Bomblet: In the climatic final battle, when Wang Pan witnessed his men getting beaten up by Lori with ease, he ends up resorting to flinging dynamites at her in a desperate attempt to take her down. Lori managed to turn this back against him, see Deadly Dodging.
- Undercrank: Used in most of the fight scenes, and it shows. The scene with the cane-wielding henchwoman is particularly (and unintentionally) hilarious.
- Wire Fu: Used in Wang Pan's fights to make him literally fly across the screen to beat up Lori and Wu.
