this one doesn't get an audio post. no michelle yeoh this time, the lead is cynthia kahn, who is rad and does a bunch of flying kicks. there's also hiroshi fujioka, better known as segata fucking sanshiro though he's kind of like the most obvious jobber i've ever seen in a movie like this.
this movie's got a couple comic scenes early on but it's darker and more brutal than royal warriors and yes madam by quite a bit and has a hell of a weird vibe. which honestly works in its favor a lot, there's some really cool staged arty scenes, especially the jewelry/fashion show thing about five minutes in, and some stuff that's kinda goofy in comparison to other movies but kinda fits in right alongside that (like the sex scene pretty early on). and the action carries that sense as well, so those scenes tend to not feel like other hk movies we've seen either. there's not as much tension or anticipation, a lot of things just kind of abruptly happen without much buildup or foreshadowing. it feels way more like dream logic a lot of the time, which is honestly fascinating but i really don't even know what to make of it. in terms of the action choreography and cinematography/editing i'd be inclined to rate it pretty low compared to a lot of the others we've watched, but it was kind of a fun trip as a whole like zu: warriors from the magic mountain. where it feels sort of stupid, probably at least a little influential, and pretty fascinating in the ways it breaks from a lot of what i've come to expect in film
also this has gotta be one of the least sexist of these i've seen but there's kind of absurd levels of chinese-japanese racism lol