Body Weapon [1999]

Amazon.co.uk Review

Beginning with a savage murder and gang rape, Body Weapon (1999) seeks to combine psycho-thriller, romantic drama and martial arts action into a provocative 90 minutes. Chiu Man Chuk follows up The Black Sheep Affair (1998) as one of two Hong Kong detectives in love with the same woman, Ling (Angie Cheung). The urgent need to solve the introductory crime is soon forgotten while the romance is settled and Ling marries the lead's best friend. That said friend predictably ends up dead; less obviously the "heroine" deals with being raped by taking some very strange lessons in revenge from an unhinged transvestite. Both the psychology and plot mechanics of what follows are unbelievable at any level, the outrageous finale even translating Ripley's disrobing at the end of Alien in the most misogynistic of situations. The identity and motivation of the chief rapist/killer make no sense in relation to what has gone before and for a Hong Kong crime film there is very little action. The best that can be said is the stars give as good a performance as they can from very poorly conceived and exploitative material. The following year Chiu Man Chuk reunited with director Aman Chang for the action comedy Fist Power which was much better received.

On the DVD: The anamorphically enhanced 1.77:1 image is good, coping with the many night and low-light scenes very well. Disappointingly, the sound is functional two-channel mono for both the Cantonese English subtitled soundtrack and the laughably clumsy English dubbed alternative. The "music promo" is one of Hong Kong Legends' own specially-made trailers, and is accompanied by more trailers for a further seven films. Also included are the original theatrical trailer and a photo gallery. Two minutes of poor-quality video show Chiu Man Chuk demonstrating some wu shu moves, while a four-minute interview conducted at the same time via a translator for French television does little more than reveal the star to be a pleasant chap. The text biographies of the two stars are good, though all the features relating to Chiu Man Chuck are also available on the DVD of the far superior The Black Sheep Affair(1998). --Gary S Dalkin

Customer Reviews:

NOT A VERY GOOD HONG HONG FILM.......2007-08-18

Aman Chang's Body Weapon (1999) stars Angie Cheung as an attractive and incredibly sexy police woman, who gets married with one of her colleagues only to find herself almost beaten to death and her husband killed on their wedding night. She becomes remorseless vigilante chick with the help of a homosexual freak (played memorably by film maker Clarence Ford, the director of many classics like Naked Killer and Iceman Cometh), who teaches her the secrets of "the body as a weapon", and another cop in the station, who was also a close friend with the killed cop and likes Angie very much, too. What follows is violence, revenge and murder with huge speed, but in the end, it all means nothing.

The moral of this film seems to be that revenge if you have been wronged and revenge good. No more about this film's philosophical levels since this is just exploitation in the form of sex and violence. The plot and script are often very bad and almost amateurish, as things just happen without any explanation (i.e. the girl finds the killers by just going to the street etc.) and it is all there just to show many fight scenes and action packed chases. The sex/rape scenes are pretty explicit and also S/M oriented and this film is pretty full of sleaze all the way. The UK video release has been cut over 3 minutes to tone down the sex and rape scenes, but I watched the uncut Hong Kong version which has these scenes intact. Some even say that the cut UK version makes the film actually more enjoyable and noteworthy compared to the uncut version!

The film is pretty close to Naked Killer in its tone and style, but Naked Killer is much more "restrained" and enjoyable and all the camera angles are there for purpose and are used more cleverly than in Body Weapon, which sow them all the time everywhere so they become totally gratuitous and lose their impact. There aren't any segments or images in this film that camera would be in normal position and not twisted or behind some glass, filter etc. Still this technique creates pretty bizarre atmosphere with the very dark lightning of the film. Especially the breath takingly fast last segment in the store house and the chase before it is very dark and without any real light, and so pretty nightmarish. The ending is also very manic and almost unbelievable in its rage and speed. Forget the plot, story or some deeper level in the film and screenplay, just try to enjoy and understand the visual sides and stylish elements of the film, but still this isn't as "cool" as it wanted to be.

Body Weapon gets 5/10 from me and the director could probably do better. He definitely can MOVE and use camera; if he only had better screenplay and sense of real stylish cinema, which doesn't mean that camera is twisted and moving all the time; he could ask Clarence for help for the start I think. For fans of Asian hyper insane cinema only.

A very poor Hong Kong movie!.......2001-04-02

Being a fan of Chui Man Cheuk and his graceful and stylish Wu Shu martial arts skills I thought 'Body Weapon' would be as good as his earlier movies such as 'The Black Sheep Affair' and the awesome 'The Blade'. However I was extremely disappointed. This has to be Chui's worst movie to date and easily the worst movie in the excellent Hong Kong Legends series. A category 3 movie 'Body Weapon' is a Wong Jing production so you almost know what to expect! The plot is completely weird and totally bizarre, the acting is really awful and it is unnecessarily violent. Even the fighting is well below par compared with other martial arts movies. There is no doubt that Angie Cheung is absolutely gorgeous but gratuitous sex and nudity make not a good film - unless that's what you're looking for in a movie! I can highly recommend 'The Blade' which is easily one of the best movies ever produced by a Hong Kong studio and shows Chui's formidable fighting skills.

Could do better than this........2001-02-27

I bought this DVD because it was in the excellent Hong Kong Legends series. I had seen previews of it on other DVD's in the series and it looked OK. It's a category 3 movie with some good fight scenes but the plot is bizzare. There is basically a guy in a gimp mask who kills people but it's quite easy to guess who it is. Compared to other movies in the genre, this is poor although its worth seeing it for the gimp and the gay guy who teaches the woman how to use her body as a weapon.

Average customer rating:

Body Weapon [1999]
Starring: Chiu Man-Cheuk , Elvis Tsui , Chiu Man Chuk , Stephen Au , and Pinky Cheung
Director: Aman Chang
Manufacturer: Contender Entertainment Group
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000FWGVTC
Release Date: 2006-08-28

Body Weapon - Special Edition [1999] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

Average customer rating:

Body Weapon - Special Edition [1999] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Angie Cheong
Manufacturer: Tai Seng Video Marketing
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: 6306416471
Release Date: 2001-07-17

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