Hong Kong Girls With Guns

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Welcome to my web page devoted to the female ass kickers of Hong Kong Cinema! Now, I assume most of the people reading this are familiar with female warriors, which is why you're looking at this page right now! For those of you that aren't, and are wondering what this is all about, let me give you a little background. The Girls With Guns(GWG) is a movie genre that originated in Hong Kong in the late 80s. These films featured women as the main protaganists, usually playing the role of a cop or a member of some "elite crime fighting force." These woman were portrayed as intelligent, tough, and capable as any man, while being sexy and sensitive at the same time. But don't be fooled by their looks, they're willing to kick butt if it means getting the job done! Obviously these films got the name "Girls with Guns" as the women in them often employ heavy firepower to take down the bad guys. More often than not, though, the women have to rely solely on their martial arts skills to be victorious. That is the major attraction of GWG films, seeing these women employ their fighting ability to wipe the floor with the bad guys!

The villians these women face are usually fall into one of four categories: (1)Powerful crime boss, (2)Renegade government agent/army officer, (3)Terrorist, or (4)Standard criminal pyschopath. The bad guy can be a combination of some or all of the these categories. These villians are usually at the top of the criminal heirarchy and almost always employ a large army of goons with which to oppose the heroines. Consequently, the gwg's have to shoot, stab, punch, and kick their way through these thugs, at great odds(sometimes as many as 20 goons to every 1 GWG!--although the fighting females easily make short work of them while only suffering minor injuries), before taking on the head bad guy. the climax of these films usually consists of the the heroines facing off with the lead villian in an extended martial arts battle. The lead villian is no pushover, however, possessing martial arts skills equal or superior to the female heroes, who often have to take a severe beating before gathering their strength and putting him down for good. However, many times the main bad guy isn't a guy at all, but an equally tough woman who is usually more than a match for the female hero(es). To see these female opponents duke it out utilizing all their martial arts skills is quite the awesome spectacle.

"Angel"(1986) was the first GWG film to come out of Hong Kong. Angel was inspired by the TV show "Charlies Angels", except Hong Kong filmmakers took the idea of female crime fighters and made it 10 times better! Ironically, the recent "Charlie's Angels" movie was heavily influenced by Hong Kong Cinema, but more about that later. Angel was immensely popular, and began a new genre in Hong Kong cinema, and spawned a whole slew of imitators, a lot of them containing "Angel" somewhere in the title. These films varied in quality, from fantastic, to marginal, to the very, very bad. The popularity of GWG films spanned from 1986 until around 1993-4, when by this time audience interest began to fade. These films were considered low-budget, even by Hong Kong standards. But that doesn't keep them from being entertaining! There are wild shoot-outs, lots of explosions, and, most importantly, excellent martial arts scenes with women kicking ass! Which meant these movies were a breath of fresh air to a jaded action film fan like me. It's hard to pinpoint exactly what it was that made them so attractive to me. Maybe it was the intense action. Perhaps it was the blistering martial arts. Well, a lot of it has to do with the martial arts. Whatever the reason, the simple fact is they have an energy and excitement that simply doesn't exist in most American action films. Hollywood films may have bigger budgets and better special effects, but Hong Kong movies give you twice the thrills at half the cost! Of course the main reason to watch these films are the fantastic, ass-kicking actresses. Instead of being props for the male hero to rescue, these women can handle themselves, and don't think twice about fighting bigger, stronger male opponents. In most cases the actresses are doing all the fighting and performing their own stunts. Due to this fact, many of them have been seriously hurt while making these movies. I get much more enjoyment out of these movies knowing the actresses are really performing the action, and have a lot of respect for them because they're risking they're necks to entertain me.

American action movies that feature strong women characters like those in the Girls with Guns genre are few and far between. The most prominent is Sigourney Weaver's character of Ripley in the "Alien" movies. Probably the best female character in the lead role of an American action/sci-fi movie. Linda Hamilton in "T2" was pretty damn good too. I also have to give an honorable mention to Carrie Ann Moss, who played Trinity in "The Matrix", for her convincing portrayal of a female warrior. But what else do we have? Pamela Anderson in "Barb Wire"? I don't think so! There's the horrible "Black Scorpian" on the Sci-Fi channel. You''ll definetely destroy valuable brain cells watching that piece of crap. Bridget Fonda wasn't bad in the "La Femme Nikita" remake "Point of No Return". However, Hong Kong made it's own version of "La Femme Nikita", "Black Cat" starring Jade Leung, which is arguably a better movie than "Point of No Return." And, I'm sorry, but I'll take Jade Leung over Bridget Fonda any day of the week! Fox's "Dark Angel" has the hot Jessica Alba kicking ass, or at least her stunt double anyway! It's fairly obvious that Jessica is being doubled in most of the action scenes. The show's OK, but certainly not up to the level of excitement and intensity of a GWG film.

The closest the U.S. has come to making a GWG film is the lame-ass "Charlie's Angels". Why does it come close to being a GWG film? Well, It's got the team of women kicking ass and it's got Hong Kong style martial arts, all the ingredients you need for a GWG film. Too bad the movie sucks! Ironically, Charlies Angels the movie borrows heavily from HK movies, which borrowed the idea for the GWG type films from the original "Charlies Angels" TV series!It's obvious the creative team behind CA probably watched a few hundred HK action movies, and got a lot of their ideas from there.(And I'm not saying Hong Kong movies have never "borrowed" from western films, because, believe me, they have!) Whereas Hong Kong films took the idea of a female crime fighting team and put they're own spin on it by adding martial arts and their own brand of action, "Charlies Angels", on the other hand, offers nothing new. I have to admit, the female stars looked pretty good in the martial arts sequences--and why is that?--Because fight choreographers from Hong Kong directed these scenes. American films pretty much suck when it comes to staging martial arts sequences--due to the fact there is no large pool of talented martial artist actors or choreographers in America to draw upon--so the only option is to import talent from Hong Kong. What we're left with are kung fu scenes, while great by American standards, are nothing that hasn't been done 10 times better in a "real" Hong Kong film. Even so, without the martial arts, "Charlies Angels" would have been a complete piece of garbage. The rest of the movie is filled with bad jokes, uninspired comedy, and a plot you can see coming from a mile away. Not one original idea in there! So, besides gawking at Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz, and Lucy Lui, the only reason to watch "Charlie's Angels" is for the martial arts. Thank you, Hong Kong, for salvaging our crappy American production from complete disaster! But people flocked to "Charlies Angel's", which means I'm either nuts, and it really is a good film, or that the American movie going audience has extremely low standards. Why can't American filmmakers produce a good, serious GWG-type film? My dream would be to see a big budget GWG film with a decent plot and characterization, and of course great action and martial arts choreography. Such a production would require hiring the right director who understands the material, a good Hong Kong fight choreographer, and actresses who could handle the action and look convincing. All these elements would have to be just right, or else it would be a disaster! American cinema fails more often than it suceeds when trying to integrate the Hong Kong style into it's movies. However, movies such as the "Matrix" prove the styles of Hong Kong and Hollywood can be combined successfully when the filmmakers know what they're doing. An Hollywood GWG film certainly would be something that American audiences have never seen before. Judging by the box office success of "Charlie's Angels", it's a type of movie that people would accept and want to see. The genre may be dead in Hong Kong, but I think it could find new life in American cinema. Too bad it will never happen!

This website is intended to be a fun introduction to the GWG films and the women that star in them, so don't expect deep, thought-provoking analysis. I have, however, provided biographical information and pictures of the actresses, as well as brief reviews of some the movies I've seen. I've only concentrated on five actresses for this web page, but they are in no way the sole stars of GWG films. Other notable fighting females, such as Sibelle Hu and Chingmy Yau, as well those whose careers never quite took off but deserve mentioning, such as Jade Leung and Joyce Godenzi, aren't covered on this website as of yet. When time and my schedule allows, I intend to update these pages to include some of these other actresses. Until then, I hope you enjoy the Hong Kong Girls With Guns Page!