Synopsis: A gorgeous lethal killer, brainwashed by the villain, makes a startling discovery on a mission to eliminate a person with connections to her past.

​

Views: The final part of Wong Jing's 'Naked trilogy' opens in 1980, where big-time Interpol agent Lung Chi Keung (Sammo Hung) has just led the biggest drugs bust of his time. The seller, Brother Power (Anthony Wong) hires Madame Rose (Ellen Chan) to eliminate Lung and his family while they celebrate Christmas dinner at their Florida home. Left for dead, Lung watches as his youngest daughter is kidnapped by Madame Rose, where she will be brought up to become a deadly assassin for the lady killer. 15 years later, Lung is brought in by request to help Officer Wong (Andy On) and his partner Siu Pei (Timmy Hung), on the assassinations of some high-profile drug lords. Lung agrees to help, providing Wong reopens the case of his missing daughter - who has now grown up to be one of Madame Roses's top killers, Phoenix. After showing some compassion towards a target on a mission, Phoenix is soon given a new job – to assassinate Lung, her father – which soon brings back old memories that put them both in a very dangerous position!

​

I like Naked Soldier. While it may be the weakest of the three films, it definitely has enough going for it to make for an entertaining time. Editor-turned-director Marco Mak has always been a bit of a mixed bag for me when in charge of a project, although (admittedly) has provided us with some half decent titles including Cop On A Mission, Colour Of The Truth, Wo Hu, Tracing Shadow, and a few others, but I wouldn't say he's a director I'd get excited over. As it turns out, Naked Soldier would be his last project as a director (at the time of writing) and even his work as an editor has seemingly slowed down somewhat, since – but I couldn't say for sure if it was all down to the poor reviews of this project. The film benefits from a pretty decent cast and some great action scenes, but any hints of sex or sleaze that made the original Naked Killer such a success is long gone, stripping back any elements that puts Naked Soldier into Cat. 3 territory. Cast-wise, the biggest surprise for me was seeing the beautiful Ellen Chan as Madame Rose. I used to have such a crush on her as a teen when I first bought Top Squad (aka The Inspector Wears Skirts) on VHS in the mid-90s, and I have to admit, I was pretty impressed with how amazing she still looks here. The equally stunning Jennifer Tse, sister to the wonderful Nicholas Tse, has many similarities to that of Maggie Q and her character in the brilliant Naked Weapon. After her début in 2010's Bruce Lee, My Brother, Tse holds her own in her first major action role, and while she was never going to win any awards for her performance, it's clear to see that Jennifer works with what she has – a basic and 90s inspired script from Wong Jing.

 

Thankfully though, it's not all left on her shoulders and the legendary Sammo Hung is around enough to bring plenty of star-power and fisticuffs to the show – and looks great doing it. The great Andy On and Philip Ng star on opposite sides of the law, with On playing a cop that aids Sammo in the search for his daughter and Ng playing another assassin that takes a fancy to her. While both get to enjoy the action, it's mainly Ng that gets to let loose with his moves a number of times throughout. Of course, the pair would go on to share the screen with the great Sammo Hung in the awesome and much more enjoyable, Once Upon A Time In Shanghai, just a couple of years later. Sammo's son, Timmy, appears as Andy On's right-hand man but is reduced to more comic relief than anything, and the great Anthony Wong shows up towards the end as Brother Power, the drug lord with a vengeance who gets to go toe-to-toe with Hung. Ankie Beilke, who appeared in movies like Connected, Confession Of Pain, and Perfect Wedding, stars as Celina, Tse's nemesis who has never quite taken to her from their early days under Madame Roses reign. And UK martial artist Ian Powers stars alongside the great Jiang Lu Xia as a couple of queer fighters who get to bust some great moves against al the heroes in question. I love seeing Jiang in action, and it was nice to see her go on to join Sammo the following year in the wonderfully fun Princess And The Seven Kung Fu Masters as well as the aforementioned, Once Upon A Time In Shanghai in 2014...

​

Sammo's old school brother and legend in his own right, Corey Yuen Kwai, handles the film's fight choreography and action – delivering plenty of exciting moves and moments that (surprisingly) stay grounded for the most part. While there are a few noticeably wire-enhanced moves sprinkled throughout, Yuen Kwai puts his real action stars to good use – such as Sammo Hung, Philip Ng, Andy On, Jiang Lu Xia, Ian Powers, and even Anthony Wong – while making the likes of Jennifer Tse, Ankie Beilke, and others, look good under his direction. Even though it has been a good twenty years since the original, and ten since Naked Weapon, it's interesting seeing the style of action that has developed and changed over the course of the three movies. Personally, I'd love to have seen Yuen Kwai take this as an opportunity to take things back to the original style of action and bring back those glory days we all love and miss. Alas, it was not meant to be, but Naked Soldier does contain a solid helping of strong martial arts action that should please the most hardened fan of Hong Kong cinema.

​

Overall: Flawed and lazily written, for the most part, Naked Soldier offers plenty of great martial arts action to keep fans excited and still makes for a fun watch!