
I
have to express right away that I personally had a hell of a time with
this film. The film opens up with a mysterious Asian women walking around
a scrap yard. The car salesman that lives nearby notices the women looking
at a car. He instantly leaves his girlfriend, that he was just groping,
in order to sell the car to the strange lady. As soon as he comes within
five feet of the Asian she begins a strip tease. The gullible car salesman
falls for her luring deception and gets blasted. Instantly his girlfriend
picks up a gun (that is conveniently right next to her) and begins chasing
the murderer of her boyfriend. The salesman’s girl goes from chasing
the killer to being chased by the killer. The movie takes a fun turn
as prostitutes get involved. They all head to an amusement park and
hookers get clipped one by one. Before the salesman’s girl became
a target, she expressed she wanted to write a book about her life. She
even stopped while she was being chased to add to her memoirs. The fact
that she did this while she was running away from a lady on a killing
spree and teaming up with whores, kept a smile on my face. I won’t
divulge whether or not the salesman’s wife makes it back to the scrap
yard okay. I felt like I was for an exciting chase movie between the
two.
Basically
this film is part mystery, part slasher with a gun and 100% Revenge.
The entire movie relies on the pay off and I really felt like it wasn’t
going to happen for me. The killing scenes where a little redundant
but the vibe was always different because the killer always went to
unique locations. For a while I felt like she had something against
the art scene. After the scrap yard/ amusement part massacres she took
out art dealers, photographers and dancers.
The
back of the DVD box may lead you to believe that the killer is ghost
but the film never gave off that vibe. The killer is very cold and one
of her victims mentions that she gives of a dead vibe but the killing
was very real.
The
film is artsy but it definitely has a popcorn movie appeal as a central
character just kills a bunch of motherfuckers. The reason is satisfyingly
presented at the end of the film in order to surprise the viewer. The
killers signature clue is leaving behind a toy replica of her car at
the scene of the crime. Cops are involved in the movie and only show
up to put up caution most the time. One of the cops is really into solving
the crimes and the other is more laid back as he seen it all, and on
top of that he is retiring.
To close this review, I must say that the film is filled with Rollin’s trademark beautiful women and reminiscent shots of his earlier work. I loved Tiki Tsang’s performance as she was cold, attractive and a killer with reason. The technical aspect goes back and forth from great to lackluster. Some of the squib action was great and then other time blood were just thrown on characters for their close up. This is a very small gripe as this film is much more a revenge thriller that a splatter horror movie. Again the repetitiveness of the kill scenes may feel overdone after a while but the killer did manage to pop out of nowhere a couple of times.
I
actually really hope Rollin fans give this film a chance. I thought
it was cool that every character in the film seemed to have a weapon
in arms reach. It was refreshing to have an attractive and intelligent
killer wipe out a cast of beautiful women, scumbag men and seemingly
innocent people. This isn’t an exhilarating action film as it is more
a film about a women who carefully sets up her victims. Throughout the
film every victim mentions her “American Car” while showing some
remorse before their demise. I stuck with the film and I was pleased
with the answers offered in the subtle ending. At the beginning she did her killing quickly but as time went on it seemed she wanted her victims to know why they were being eliminated.
The
film is accompanied with a 25 minute Documentary on the celebrated director
Jean Rollin. He discusses his love for film, his version of vampires
and his hesitant leap into porno films. The documentary seems like something
ripped off of television but its informative and it shows lots of clips
from his work. I am not quite the Jean Rollin expert but I look forward
to catching his work on more upcoming DVD’s. This DVD is presented
in full screen and I don’t believe the film is remastered. Still I
enjoyed the experience and found this 90 minute film to offer a lot
to a lot of different fans. Fans of Femme Fatale films, revenge tales
and by the numbers slashers might enjoy this unless they want Americanized
action. It should be noted that this film is actress Tiki Tsang’s
only performance ever on film. She was subtle and had the cold appeal
I love to see in revenge films. It also helps that this film is an absolute
original.
***