Devil Girl 18 (1992)

**SPOILERS**

I have seen very little of Go Nagai’s Devilman anime outside of the OVAs released in the late Eighties/early Nineties.  I do have, but haven’t watched any of, the anime from the Seventies (looking forward to it, though).  I also have the original Mazinger Z series, although I have to admit that I’m a bit disappointed that the US version Tranzor Z (a show I watched on television as often as possible back in the Eighties) is not available.  I’ve also never seen any of the Cutie Honey series, but I am interested (who wouldn’t be interested in a naked female superhero?).  I love Nagai’s work, however.  He melds horror with science fiction with sex in a way I find gripping.  His characters go through some serious crap, and you’re never sure who’s going to come out on the other side, even the main characters.  It’s funny that, for how much I claim to admire his work, I’ve seen such a small sampling of it, but love is like that sometimes.  So, why such a scattershot, seemingly unrelated introduction to a film like Lam Wah-Chuen’s Devil Girl 18 (aka Mo Neui 18)?  Because the film itself is scattershot and seemingly unrelated to itself.  It also has the word “Devil” in the title.

Two demons (one male, one female) escape from Hell and travel to Earth.  There they possess the corpses of a duo of criminals (also one male, one female), and set about sucking the essence of forty-nine people who are “extremes of masculine and feminine” for some purpose which you will never fully understand (but rest assured, it’s bad).  Meanwhile, Nurse May Liou is tending to the comatose (but hardly braindead) Jay Lee, an antiques dealer who has some experience with ghosts and demons (and gender identity swapping).  May is engaged to Inspector Philip Kao, who is kind of/sort of investigating the trail of bodies left by the demons.  And there’s a Taoist priest with a chubby apprentice (named, of course, Fatty) who keeps giving grief to a horny ghost who enjoys possessing young men’s’ bodies and engaging in marathon sex with prostitutes.

Possession is one of the more interesting things going on in this film, and that’s mostly due to the implications of what that means for the possessee.  The loss of control, of identity, is something truly scary.  It’s a scenario many people experience (or variations thereof) in their worst nightmares.  Of course, said possessions, particularly in films of this ilk, also imbue the victims with special superpowers.  For example, the horny ghost, while in corporeal form, has a cock the size of a baseball bat (shown by having the actor literally wave a baseball bat from between his legs, mercifully only in silhouette) and the sexual stamina of a dildo.  The demon couple have more conventional superpowers, like shooting bolts from their fists and having champion-level martial arts skills.  But in either case, the needs behind the possessions are selfish in nature.  The horny ghost can’t make love in his normal state, and he wants to feel women’s flesh.  He doesn’t think about how he bankrupts his victims with his proclivities.  The demons desire to remain on Earth, and if they don’t complete their mission, their human bodies will explode (or something).  Humans are never possessed in films purely for observational reasons.  This only makes sense, since otherwise there wouldn’t be much of a story in any of them.  But we relate, because our bodies and minds are sacrosanct, and the violation of them, their possible obliteration, is horrifying on a gut level (in much the same way as the sympathy pains we get when characters cut themselves or step on a nail).

More prominent than that aspect here is the idea of the power that sex and the desire for pleasure hold in this cinematic world.  Being a Category III film (and I’m not entirely sure why, considering how staid many of the sexual components in the film are when they’re not being played for laughs), sex plays a huge role in almost every scene.  When the demons are introduced in Hell, the female attempts to entice her guard into letting her go free in exchange for sex.  The female criminal on Earth (pre-possession) seduces the only other male member of the gang right in front of her boyfriend.  May dresses in sexy lingerie and shows Philip some tit, but refuses to go all the way.  The pros at the brothel gyrate and squeeze their boobs for their clients (but mostly for the camera).  The female demon seduces a nightclub owner before sucking his essence (which is self-explanatory in its connotations) and exploding his head (also self-explanatory).  Fatty only comes into his own (more or less, but mostly less) after he tries to lose his virginity at the brothel (there’s an iron bra involved).  The big climax (ahem) involves characters engaging in sex (guess which two characters) in order to depower the demons, and this is the most important instance of them all.  The male demon steals the essence of females, the female from males.  They are separated in this aspect, as well as in their not touching each other in a sexual manner (or not that I can recall).  By joining with each other through sex, the protagonists combine their essences (they also do it on a table decorated with the yin and yang symbol, underscoring the interconnectedness of the feminine and masculine opposites), and in this unity prove themselves more powerful than the antagonists.  

And yet, for the inherent potential present in the film’s sexual features, both they, and the film on a whole, are simply wasted effort (and, to be frank, the effort doesn’t even seem to really be there, anyway).  Now, I know absolutely zero about the background of this film’s production, but I feel confident in stating that the producers got their hands on some footage from several other films and just built what story they could around it (and Godfrey Ho wasn’t even involved, to my knowledge).  To wit: while he’s in the hospital, Jay spends the whole time with bandages covering his face.  All of the scenes where we can actually see him are in flashbacks (which have sweet fuck all to do with the sex demon narrative), and at no time in these sequences does he interact with any other character from the main story.  Speaking of which, if you go into this expecting a Yukari Oshima film (as I did), prepare for disappointment.  If the actress is in a collective five minutes of this film, that would be a lot.  Sure, it’s always nice to see her, and she does get to do a little fighting, but it’s not nearly enough to raise the level of this movie even one iota.  There are also scenes clearly taken from older films that are jammed into this film just to provide a bit of cheap action.  All of which brings me to the film’s “humorous” attributes.  There’s something to be said for juvenile-level slapstick and off-color jokes, but Devil Girl 18 has some of the weakest, most groan-inducing comedic moments ever put to film.  This isn’t entirely unexpected, because the funny bone of many Hong Kong films does tend to be rather oddly misplaced, but it also doesn’t make them work any better.  Also, the way the movie shifts between the funny scenes and the more serious scenes (which are, admittedly, still pretty goofy) really made me wonder just what the fuck Wah-Chuen was going for, or if he even cared at all.  I’m positive, in his heart of hearts, only he knows for sure.

MVT:  I like the base storyline, because it had real possibilities, none of which come to fruition.

Make or Break:  When the “funny” music kicks in, and Nurse Liou is instructed to smell Jay’s breath for stinkiness (hint: it’s not he that stinks), you know you’re in for a long haul.

Score:  4.5/10

Angel Terminators 2 (1993)

One of the fascinating things about words (aside from the power they can wield; I do believe they can be mightier than the proverbial sword) is their ability to be misunderstood.  I’m not simply referring to the varying extents of people’s vocabularies and the confusion that can cause.  I’m talking about the misinterpretation of words, and how people react to such misinterpretations.  For example (and I am completely stealing this from local radio personality John Webster, so if he happens to be reading this [which is doubtful], thanks and sorry), if you say, “throw the cow over the fence some hay before you leave,” the syntax is funny, first because of the mental image it immediately conjures (throwing a cow over a fence, at least momentarily), and second because we know these words don’t go in this order, and we love to laugh (however lightly or cruelly) at the mistakes of others.  

Another way misinterpretation can be a positive is in its ability to inspire.  A great many writers mis-hear phrases, and it stimulates something in their brains that ignites an idea for an essay or story (I’m thinking specifically here about Harlan Ellison as the first author from whom I heard this [as the impetus for his story Jeffty is Five], but I also think it’s one of those innate skills/quirks of scribes, seasoned and neophytic).  This leads into this week’s film, Tony Liu Jun-Guk and Chan Lau’s Angel Terminators 2 (aka Huo Zhong aka The Best of the Lady Kickboxer), which is one in an avalanche of Hong-Kong-produced films whose English subtitles are so literal they’ve become a trope in and of themselves.  You get such gems as, “You shall be responsible if I suffer loss today,” “You come only now?” and “Hey, you’re nut.”  This oddity doesn’t detract from the quality of the better-made Hong Kong films, but it does add a layer of fun to both accomplished and less polished efforts alike.  Thankfully, this film falls in the former category. 

After cops Great Aunt (Sibelle Hu, who wears sweat pants almost exclusively while on duty) and Bao (Jason Pai Piao) bust up a robbery, they head on over to the local prison.  Bao’s daughter Bullet (Yukari Oshima, who also wears some tragically baggy pants throughout the film) is being released, but she wants nothing to do with her old man.  Bullet’s best friend Chitty (Moon Lee, who we first see wearing a sweatsuit, notice a trend here?) and a gaggle of friends show up and take her into their care.  But vile gangster Mad (Anthony Cho Cheuk-Nin) entangles himself in all of their lives, and the only way out is through blood.

One of the things this “girls with guns” film has at its heart is a theme of bonds between people (like a great many Hong Kong movies).  Great Aunt and Bao are tight as partners.  She is the loose cannon, while he is usually the voice of reason (though he can certainly handle himself in a fight).  It’s a trait she admires in him, and she looks up to him both as an equal and (I got the impression) a surrogate daughter.  Likewise, Chitty and Bullet are best friends from way back, and they look out for each other to the extent that Bullet will defy people she probably shouldn’t (and this points to a key aspect of her character, as well).  Their friendship is primarily expressed physically in the fights in which the two girls seem to take great delight (with other people, not one another).  

But for how alike they are in that respect, Bullet and Chitty are different in how they relate to their actual families.  Bullet unrepentantly hates her father and displays her disdain openly (and considering her reason, you can’t really blame her).  Bao tries to reach out to his daughter, but his apparent lack of emotion, his detachment from what family means, and his belief in duty over all, only helps keep the two at odds.  Consequently, Bullet joined a gang in her youth and sought some form of acceptance in that lifestyle (this is never developed outside of a plot point, but it does make a certain sense for Oshima’s character).  Conversely, Chitty’s Uncle Tiger (the late, great Lo Lieh) is a retired gangster, and Chitty does her best to make him believe that she is straitlaced (she changes into demure eyeglasses directly before seeing him).  For how much she rebels, however, Chitty cares a great deal for Uncle Tiger.  She has what Bullet doesn’t have (more precisely, what Bullet rejects) – a family – and so, she is a kind of substitute family for Bullet.  As you may have guessed, these relationships become bonded by blood in a very actual sense, and it is in this way that the film resonates, as the best heroic bloodshed films (and action films in general) do.

These bonds and interrelationships carry over into ideas of individuality and conformity.  Chitty rebels in her friendship with Bullet and their skirmishes together, but she plays the part of a nice young woman for her uncle.  She wants to fit the mold she perceives as the norm, to please others over herself.  Bullet is fiercely independent, though she has to rely on her friends for support.  At one point, she tells Chitty, “If you don’t resist, others will beat you,” and this is the summation of her character from start to finish. This is not necessarily a philosophy she picked up in prison, although it would certainly aid in surviving on the inside.  It’s a wall she has built up over time to protect herself from harm: hurt others before they can hurt you.  By that same token, Bao is the model of conformity (and the film does make a point of emphasizing aspects of the British colonialism extant at the time of its production; so, there’s that).  While Great Aunt does act out in the same sort of way that Bullet does, she is able to be reined in to some extent by Bao and the powers that be.  Ultimately, it’s the two characters between the extremes (Chitty and Great Aunt) who will decide how they choose to live their lives for themselves and benefit from the lessons from both ends of this spectrum.

The fight choreography in Angel Terminators 2 is truly outstanding, and the participants (particularly the three main female characters) are a pure joy to watch (while I suspect there may have been some undercranking used to speed up the fights just a little, and if it wasn’t, color me even more impressed), and they are liberally sprinkled across the runtime.  The filmmakers, in the Hong Kong tradition, use stylistic flourishes to emphasize the kinetic characteristics of their action scenes with Dutch angles, quick tracking shots, slow motion, low angle shots, and wide angle lenses all thrown into the mix rather smoothly.  Also as is the norm in Hong Kong action films, the story brings up plot points that it forgets about and reintroduces them much later on, granting them more emotional weight than they probably should have for their lack of development.  Ergo, its pace moves in fits and starts in spite of the frequency and velocity of its action beats.  Despite its deceptive (some would say “sloppy,” and to be fair, I would probably prefer the term “ambitious”) structure, there is a ton to love about this film, and any fan of action films, foreign and domestic, should give it a whirl.  

MVT:  Yukari Oshima carries a lot of the film’s weight with a constant intensity that impressed me, her magnificent martial arts skills notwithstanding.

Make or Break:  Coming as no surprise to anyone, the Make for me is a scene towards the end involving Bullet, some Molotov cocktails, and a very large knife.  The first shot by itself was enough to engrain it in my head until the day I die.

Score:  7/10