L'Enfer des armes

I love the heroine of this movie. She, a beautiful teen-age sister of a cop, is in fact a fiery, sadistic psychopath who dominates hapless (and spineless) threesome of students and forces them to participate in her reckless criminal scheme.

Even though the heroine is totally amoral, and sadistic etc., we can't but root for her because she is fearless and puts up a lone fight against..., against everything. She is motivated by dark and formless anger, and she controls (or tries to control) three students through fear and greed. This relationship between the girl and the threesome is the most interesting aspect of the film.

Their dangerous game leads to the involvement with organized crime (the triad?) and to the dire conclusion. The last twenty or so minutes of the film is truly gruesome.

The other characters in film are pretty two-dimensional --- the villains are mere killing machines, and the cop, the brother of the heroine, is also rather stereotypical loner cop. But the dangerous and out-of-control spiral of the four main characters is riveting to watch.

This one is a punk movie made by a young and (very) angry filmmaker, as dark as dark goes ; not one character is redeemable in this story where a bunch of amateurs killers suddenly brushes with the real stuff. The finale in the Hong Kong cemetery (already featured in John Woo's movies) is prominent remains breathtaking. A masterpiece, but be warned : this is strong stuff that grows up on you, the movie equivalent of music by Skinny Puppy, Korn or Nine Inch Nails. One of my favorite ever (It even was theatrically released in France as "L'enfer des armes" - "Hell by weapons", which describes it perfectly

DANGEROUS ENCOUNTERS OF THE FIRST KIND is a searing political thriller and an unforgettable debut from first-time director Tsui Hark. The storyline follows a fan of amateur anarchists who decide to terrorise Hong Kong by setting off home-made bombs in various places such as a cinema. Their fortunes take a turn for the worse when they meet up with a young girl who proves to be even more of a maniac than they are, and when they steal a wad of Japanese cash their adventures turn deadly.

Be warned: I would have given this film a higher rating if it wasn't for the real-life animal cruelty that plagues the production. In order to show us that the protagonist is a psychopath, Hark has her committing real-life cruelty by torturing mice with pins. These are horrible scenes and a bit with a cat, although less realistic, is equally disturbing.

Otherwise, the film itself is fine: a slow start, plenty of tension, building to a breathtaking all-out climax set in a hillside cemetery. The cast give effective performances, particularly seasoned pro Lo Lieh, thankfully not cast as a bad guy for once but instead the cop brother of the main character. Scenes of the main characters going on bombing rampage were censored by nervous distributors but they remain the most interesting part of the production. Watch out for the soundtrack, which borrows heavily from the likes of Jean-Michel Jarre and the music from DAWN OF THE DEAD.

This is an interesting oddity if ever I saw one. It starts off admittedly lousily with a number of sequences that appear completely unconnected and which make little to no sense – so much so in fact that I initially was under the impression that this was a cut and splice film ala Godfrey Ho!

However, don't turn off just yet for things do pick up admirably as it goes on.

The basic story concerns three nerdy students who during a night of drunken revelry accidentally run over and kill a pedestrian. This act is witnessed by an strange and somewhat sadistic girl who's brother happens to be a cop. Following the incident the girl (who tortures mice in her spare time!) bribes the students to aid her indulge in her criminal fantasies or else she will inform the police of the fateful nights events.

Matters take a dramatic turn for the worse when the group of would be miscreants inadvertently take possession of some Japanese bank orders which are the property of some particularly sadistic American militia sorts. Added to this the Triads get wind of the scheme and want a piece of the action for themselves. The end result is pretty gruesome and riveting stuff, especially the movies climax which is handled with some not inconsiderable flair by the movies director.

Fans of shock and exploitation cinema should certainly give this a go….just don't expect a sequel anytime soon….

Dangerous Encounters of the First Kind is wild. I kind of found it engaging and maybe entertaining (not sure if that's the right word) but it also might be easiest to respect/admire than enjoy in the traditional sense. It's about three wannabe terrorists who are also kind of losers, and then a more ruthless girl catches onto the stuff they're doing, and she kind of pushes the entire group to do worse things. Then things get more chaotic, they make a lot of enemies, and the level of violence/death just increases as it goes along.

It's blunt, but it does leave me feeling more than most movies that could be described as simple. There is a quality to it that makes it special, even though I didn't like all the decisions it made creatively or content-wise. It's definitely meant to unravel and feel chaotic, and looking back, that whole structure is easier to appreciate, but it did leave me wanting a bit in the moment.

It's a tricky film to talk about, and a trickier one to recommend, but it was something different and I liked it enough for that alone.