Naked Weapon (2002)

Tied for the best movie I have ever seen

Great Film overall

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

this movie has hot babes, and hot action. That's the good part. The bad part is some woeful dialogUE, and an unconvincing lurch into a romance of sorts. Believe me, i have nothing against movies following unpredictable patterns if they work. See the host as a very good example. But here, and I guess because of the bad dialogue particularly in an ice cream trunk sequence. the action sequences are the only things of merit. Thankfully there are enough of them to make watching this movie worthwhile.

This movie begins with a female Chinese assassin named "Theona Birch" (Marit Thoresen) getting out of a car at a hotel in Rome. Once she gets to her assigned hotel room she then has sex with the occupant before killing him with her bare hands. After that she also kills the guards waiting outside of the hotel room but is subsequently killed while attempting to drive off. As it so happens, the assassin worked for an Asian woman named "Madame M" (Almen Pui-Ha Wong) who recruits young girls at around the age of twelve and trains them on how to fight and kill at her own special camp on a remote island. After six years of intense training the young women are then tasked to kill each other with only three women by the names of "Charlene Ching" (Maggie Q) "Jing" (Jewel Lee), and "Catherine" (Anya) managing to survive. Afterwards, they are given one last brutal lesson by being raped and then sent on their respective missions. However, the CIA is aware of them and one specific agent named "Jack Chen" (Daniel Wu) has made it his personal mission to track down Madame M and abolish her organization--and Charlene is his main target in that regard. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this film had its good points and bad points. It started off pretty well and the action definitely kept things moving along at a brisk pace. Likewise, Maggie Q, Jewel Lee and Anya certainly didn't hurt the scenery in any way. On the other hand, the script was in need of serious improvement, the acting was mediocre and some of the scenes were much too silly and far-fetched. All in all then, while I don't believe that this was a bad film necessarily, the faults were just too obvious to be ignored and because of that I have rated this movie accordingly. Average.

This film bloody kicked arss. It was one of the coolest films i have like ever seen. It was the best film made by asians and i just couldn't believe hoe good the acting, stunts, fight scenes and killing was. By far this is the best film about assassins i have ever seen.It did seem a little bit sad at some bits but not many. It did seem to be a lot like charlies angels except the way they fought seemed a lot more violent. The fight scenes in this film were like the most awesome fight scenes i have like ever seen.It was good seeing all this blood, all this sex scenes in it and all these guns. The acting by maggie q was like the best i had like ever seen.

OK, if you can stomach exploitation flicks then this is probably going to be OK for you. I have to get that out of my system first and foremost. I didn't know at the time of purchase that this was by the director of Naked Killer, if I had, I would have avoided it.Naked Weapon is dire and sleazy for an hour then kicks into high action gear and the last half hour is alright. In fact, it's good enough that if it was half an hour of a decent film it could elevate that film to greatness. What's troubling is that everything that the last half hour implies violence and sex wise is shown graphically and tastelessly in the first hour.I've seen the murkier side of Asian cinema more than I'd like to have seen during various research assignments for my film-studies degree (if anyone mentions Overfiend again I'm leaving the damn country lol), so I wasn't shocked by the fact that Naked Weapon contains rape and violence directed solely towards women, with no consequences to be seen, but I was pretty disappointed. The film was hugely successful on release and yet despite high budget gloss is more reminiscent of 70s smut like Golden Ninja Warrior or the nastier end of the Blaxploitation era than the cutting-edge action movie it's hyped as. The violence and misogyny has no point, no tact or context and whereas movies like Ichi the Killer and Dead or Alive use disgusting footage to shock the viewer into thinking, Naked Weapon's nastiness is just there, hanging out and waiting to shock the unexpecting viewer. For a more detailed look at it all, you might want to check the forum thread 'RE: Rape Scene?' it covers most bases.If you want a good contemporary hong kong movie watch Purple Storm or Hard Boiled, cos this isn't it. What it is is an ugly exploitative throwback with a few good fights in it, and I'll be chucking the DVD next time I'm on a clean out.