Ci hu wei long

Taiwan is beset by a criminal gang of kidnapping extortionists! Wealthy people everywhere live in fear. To protect himself from this scourge - Chang, son of a Shopping Mall owner, employs two female Martial Arts experts to protect himself and his family.

That is the set-up! The film itself is something quite different though. Most of the running time is spent on the relationship between Chang and his shopaholic (though good-hearted) wife Anna. Chang's slavish devotion to his fathers business has put a serious strain on their marriage. He could really need a break. Meanwhile, the newfound boyfriend of Chang's secretary possesses a startling resemblance to the Shopping-Mall heir himself...

Cynthia Khan and Yukari Ôshima play the bodyguard-duo Butterfly and Rose. Despite receiving top-billing, their collective screen-time is less than 10 minutes. What's more, their scenes are almost completely divorced from the main narrative itself. They handle the action, while the rest of the cast have to deal with the comedy and drama.

This is all-in-all a rather unremarkable, mediocre film. The storyline and action is serviceable enough to watch. Nothing about it is overtly bad, just uninspired, and the disconnect between the action scenes and the rest of the narrative is palpable to be sure. I give it a 4, though a rather strong one at that.

4/10