Plot: What’s it about?
To be honest, you don’t want to watch Martial Angels for a complex, engaging storyline, as you’ll be very let down indeed. Instead, you should Martial Angels to sit back and relax, soak in the hot ladies and enjoy the ride, overlooking the flawed storyline. But I know you readers will still want some kind of synopsis, so I will provide one here. Keep in mind however, this is a pretty simple film and is not geared toward thought provocation, though it could provoke some sort of reactions, to be sure. The basic story starts with a pair of burglars who meet in action and some sparks fly, but the two soon break up and move on. The female burglar is Cat and she soon meets up with some other female burglars, seven of them to be exact. When her former partner ends up in trouble and needs help, Cat and her newfound friends have to take action, before it is too late. She is forced to steal a top secret product in exchange for his life, but of course, it won’t be that simple. As factors shift and alliances are formed & broken in quick fashion, who will emerge on top?
Martial Angels has finally been released in the U.S. and while the disc is a simple port of the Deltamac edition, I am still pleased to see this issued here. As you can tell from the cover artwork, this one is loaded with gorgeous women, from Shu Qi to Sandra Ng to Kelly Lin to countless others, so this is a visual feast, to be sure. I liken Martial Angels to the feature film edition of Charlie’s Angels, but this movie has a minimal budget and as such, isn’t as flashy in terms of special effects. In truth, Martial Angels is mindless fun and while that doesn’t appeal to us all, a lot of viewers love these kind of movies, without a doubt. I had a good time viewing the picture and when I screened it for some friends, most of them had fun also, though some complained about the storyline & characters. As with most actions film (including American ones), you have to overlook plot holes in this flick, but that is to be expected, I think. The pace is fast, the action is decent enough, and of course, the girls are hot and if you ask me, Martial Angels is well worth a look.
Her performances often divide audiences, but I think Shu Qi is a gifted worker and if she was given better roles, she could prove it more often. As it is, she usually gets flighty roles and of course, her youthful good looks are a perfect match for those roles, so she plays them to the complete hilt, very cool. But her facial expressions and pouty lip irritate some viewers and I can understand that, but I could never tire of watching Shu Qi in action. In Martial Angels, she has her typical role and while isn’t given much room to showcase her talents, she looks excellent and manages to squeeze in some real acting at times, though not too much. You can also see Shu Qi in such films as Visible Secret, A Man Called Hero, Gorgeous, The Storm Riders, Sex and Zen II, and The Blacksheep Affair. The cast also includes Julian Cheung (Best of the Best, The Island Tales), Sandra Ng (Royal Tramp, Operation Pink Squad), Kelly Lin (The Tricky Master, The Legend of Zu), and Teresa Mak (Mermaid Got Married, Easy Money).
Video: How does it look?
Martial Angels is presented in a 1.85:1 widescreen transfer, which is not enhanced for widescreen televisions. Although some retailers list this as a full frame transfer, it is in fact in widescreen and while it is not anamorphic, it’s better than full frame, to be sure. The image here is cleaner and sharper than expected, with minimal print defects, but still looks a little washed out. The colors look good, but seem to be muted at times, though not to an extreme degree. The contrast is even and well handled, but again, some scenes don’t seem to be as stark as they should be. Even so, this is a very good visual effort, so fans should be quite pleased indeed.
Audio: How does it sound?
This disc contains Dolby Digital 5.1 surround options in Cantonese and Mandarin, as well as subtitles in English or Chinese. I used the Cantonese track and it sounds good, but since the budget here was slim, it isn’t as explosive as I expected. This is due to the nature of the movie and not the audio track, as there simply wasn’t the large scale mayhem I counted on. But still, this track packs some punch when it needs to and that’s all you can ask from any release, I think. The dialogue is clean and well presented, but the English subtitles leave a lot to be desired. I don’t speak Cantonese, but the broken English used is awful, especially when it comes to names and such.
Supplements: What are the extras?
This disc includes two of the film’s theatrical trailers.
