Bang

Stars Darling Narita and Peter Greene. Narita is an actress down on her luck who masquerades as a policewoman for a day. Her acting is pretty good, but she miraculously is not killed by any of the criminals with whom she comes into conflict. Credibility is strained. Nevertheless, the movie accurately shows with wry humor how it can happen that people treat us according to who they think we are. In cast credits, Lucy Liu is mis-identified as Lucy Lui. An inauspicious beginning for a actress who appears to be poised for stardom.

An entertaining if not so plausible tale, of a young lady who resorts to impersonating a police officer (to escape being sexually assaulted by a L.A motorbike cop. if you do not think too much of the indecent proposition (that probably happens quite often), the rest of the fantastic plot falls nicely into place. A side part to the chief actress, is the very wonderful Peter Greene and here seen as a derelict, tramp like character. He's one of those few actors like Keitel, or Nick Cage, where a director can let him sort of free-wheel through a performance:; delivering such unique lines and facial expressions. Here lifting the movie with his charged persona.

The only memorable things about "Bang" is that it features a female Asian protagonist in a non-stereotypical role and its use of cinema verite techniques. That said, the movie meanders about without any sort of coherent plot or message. At times, I felt as if the filmmaker was making the story up as he was filming it.

Essentially "Bang" is all flash and no substance.

Well, you can´t say really it´s a B-Movie, more a good solid independent flick. Mainly the scenes are from the streets of L.A, the good and the bad parts. The main actor is this Asian-heritaged woman, who got the clothes from a police-officer and following that she cruised around with his bike, diving so to speak into L.A´s street life, with its gang-shooting, relationships, homelessness etc. A bit sad but also it got humour in it. Quite recommended!

This 1995 film by Ash (Ashley Baron-Cohen related to the comedic actor, Sacha Baron-Cohen) was pioneering in light of today's climate of police accountability. This filmic production almost unseen by the mainstream media since it before social media hyping and as an indie film.

The film was bold, although it used art house tropes it definitely flips the perspective on LA cops. It indirectly looks at LA's gender, race and gang divisions. The pace and humor of story was before full-feature films by his contemporary peer, Guy Ricthie and later films like 2006's "Crank".

It's film that runs on speed and the power of this film relies on having non stars that make characters credible. It earned a 1998 Independent Spirit Award for the main debut actor: Darling Narita but also the film has an early appeareance by then unknown, Lucy Liu! Peter Greene is also a small but supporting character.

It should be said that this came before the critically acclaimed "Traffic". This film which may be hard to find, it a hidden gem if you are into indie styled stories of urban culture!

Highly recommended!