Hong Kong Cinema

Angels 2

  • Made: 1988
  • Aka: Angel 2, Fighting Madam 2, Hong Kong Police Madam 2, Iron Angels 2
  • Box Office: HK $6.8m (# 36 in 1988)
  • Format: VHS Video
  • Release Date: 22 Jan 1996
  • Company: MIA
  • Length: 83 mins
  • Picture: 16:9 widescreen
  • Sound: DD2.0 stereo
  • Language: Cantonese w/ English subtitles
  • Extras: None
  • Classification: 18

Director:

Teresa Woo

Cast:

Alex Fong, Moon Lee, Elaine Yu, Karinna Andrews, Nathan Chan, Gary Sui, Yuen Tak

Action Choreographer:

Stanley Tong

Angels 2 - Sequels are a favourite way of cashing-in in Hong Kong cinema, and never need to be directly related to the films that came before as any excuse is given for the opportunity to tap into success. Nevertheless, Hong Kong sequels arguably fare better than the Hollywood counterparts and Angels 2 is no exception.

Plot:

The Angels are a special agent team consisting of Alex, Elaine and Moon, and this sequel kicks off with a decent hostage rescue sequence with quick gunplay and some good high kicking. Then as a reward the Angels go on holiday to Malaysia. After their airport cabbie gives way to a Rolls Royce, Alex recognises the name of the owner and hijacks the cab to give chase. A brief but well-choreographed fight later, and Peter Kam, the rich philanthropist, is introduced as an old university buddy of Alex. Peter invites them to stay with him, and at dinner the same evening he introduces Marco, another old friend who's in the CIA. When the three boys visit a bar, Alex starts a ruck after chatting up a singer that the bar's boss is interested in, resulting in another entertaining but short fight.

The next day Peter shows the Angels his palm oil fields, but elsewhere Marco discovers that it is a cover for a guerrilla army. He is discovered - car chase! He is captured and tortured, and it is revealed that Peter is a would-be dictator with his own private army and a soft spot for Hitler. After Marco goes missing, his bosses warn Alex. After some snooping Alex confirms the truth, which is bad for Elaine who has taken a shine to Peter. Elaine wants to see for herself, so hitches a ride under Peter's helicopter. She hears Marco get whacked and then gives herself away. Putting up a hearty fight she is eventually captured, leading Alex to call in to the agency for help and is sent Karina, a local Malaysian Angel. With that, and the help of two Malay operatives, the Angels tool up and jump on a chopper to take on the entire terrorist army in the jungle.

Film:

Oddly, Angels 2 is sold by its cover as a babes-and-bullets feature, one of the many category 3 films that came out of Hong Kong in the 80s that offered some nudity along with the violence, the most well known of which is probably Naked Killer. The two half-naked women with shotguns on the cover (who aren't even in the film) certainly point to this, but thankfully Angels 2 is a much better film than first impressions would suggest, especially for a sequel. Chock-full of gunfights, explosions and hand-to-hand combat, Angels 2 is probably the only action film to feature a bawdy Snow White musical number.

There are unsurprisingly lots of clichés, like throwing away your gun when it's out of ammo, and the slow-mo climactic one-on-one, but happily there is a lot of inventiveness in the action sequences including a stealth scene where a platoon is taken out with crossbows and blow-darts, and one spectacular stunt that involves jumping from a tree house in a 60 foot tree just after it gets hit by a bazooka. The martial arts on offer are all lightning fast and impeccably choreographed throughout and are testament to the skill of the leads (and their stunt doubles). Whilst this is hardly the best action film out there it does the job admirably, rarely slowing down enough for you to catch breath once it hits the finale. In a nutshell Angels 2 is a lot of fun.

Disc:

Only released in the UK on the musty, old VHS format, Angels 2 is unsurprisingly on the blurry side and bereft of any extras. However, it was one of the titles graced with a Widescreen, subbed release alongside the usual pan-and-scan dubbed effort.

Overall:

Angels 2 is a pretty good entry into the usual 80s Hong Kong action fodder stable. With enough inventiveness to keep it fresh even today, you could do worse in the search for a fast-paced, mindless action feature.

Ross

webmaster@hkcinema.co.uk