Phoenix Distribution German DVD Synopsis: After the great success of the super action series Born To Fight now the sixth part. Even more exciting, even more action and crazy stunts with the megastar of the action film Cynthia Khan. Relentlessly and mercilessly, she fights a death-defying battle against the killers who will stop at nothing. Using only her fists as a deadly weapon, she fights for her life and it's only a matter of time before she brings the killers down. (89 Mins)

 

Views: The first 10 minutes of Madam City Hunter consists of 2 energetic action sequences, both of which show lady cop Cynthia Khan infiltrating 2 different (abandoned) mansions to take down 2 different gangs of crooks in an exciting flurry of kicks, gunfire and explosions. During her second bout, Khan meets Anthony Wong – a private detective who goes by the name of Charlie Chan, who has been hired to search for a worried grandmother's teen granddaughter. Tricked into helping Wong in his search, Khan soon finds the young girl hiding out in a drug den with her boyfriend and his gang and, in a bizarre turn of events, is knocked-out and locked in the boot of a vehicle that just happens to be in the room. At the same time, one of the crooks from the second mansion suddenly appears in the den and uses Cynthia's gun to kill everyone there – framing her for their murders. Implemented but supported by her chief, Khan sets out to find answers aided by the lustful private dick who refuses to leave her side. With her job on hold, Cynthia visits her father and similarly aged stepmum who, she believes, is part of a powerful gang and is trying to kill her dad for his wealth. And this is all while trying to dodge Wong's advances, divert many attempts on her life, and find the real killer that framed her!

 

Given the talent involved both in front of and behind the camera, Madam City Hunter should have been a much better film, as well as a bona-fide classic of Cynthia Khan's career. But as with a number of Yuen Woo Ping movies from the mid-90s, it often comes across a little uneven with the fast-paced first 30 minutes playing like a collection of random fight scenes and silly gags – most of which are quite entertaining to watch actually. Although released on DVD in Germany as Born To Fight 6, Madam City Hunter is actually a very hard title to find and perhaps if Yuen Woo Ping had also directed it instead of just producing, the film may have been more widely available given his boost of popularity since his Hollywood projects. Often overlooked by many fans of Hong Kong cinema, it isn't terrible by any means and is really only marred by a slower middle section as well as (for me) a lacklustre score – especially when it comes to the action scenes. While it tends to focus more on the hit-and-miss comedy elements that feature plenty of sex jokes in the second third, we do get treated to one random action scene that is seemingly thrown in between the madness. It also seems that everything that happened in the first half hour of the film is pretty irrelevant, with the storyline on the relationship between Cynthia and her stepmum dominating the final two thirds. Of course, the loose connection is that her stepmum (played by the wonderful Kara Hui) is part of the very same gang that Khan went after in the second mansion at the beginning – but by this stage, you really don't care...

 

While the ever popular Yuen Woo Ping may have produced the film and his equally famous brother handled the action, the main man at the helm was Johnnie Kong Yeuk Sing. Most probably recognised by fans of Hong Kong cinema as Sandy in Stephen Chow Sing Chi's awesome films, A Chinese Odyssey 1 & 2 (of which he would also serve as an executive director), Kong started life in the industry as an actor and assistant director in the mid 80s, honing his skills behind the scenes on classics such as Happy Ghost 3, Haunted Cop Shop 2, As Tears Go By, The Inspector Wears Skirts 2, and more. The 1990s would see him continue as an assistant director to Wong Kar Wai on Days Of Being Wild, Chungking Express, Fallen Angels, and Happy Together, as well as hits like The Top Bet, Fist OF Fury 1991 and its sequel, Doctor Wai & The Scripture With No Words, and Island Of Greed, before going onto Era Of Vampires and Black Mask 2 for Tsui Hark. Back in 1993, Kong also served as an executive director of Yuen Woo Ping's underrated Donnie Yen flick Heroes Among Heroes, which is probably what helped him bag the support for Madam City Hunter which was made the same year. Although he had been involved heavily with a number of fantastic titles for almost a decade at this stage, it looks like Kong still hadn't quite mastered the art of direction with what he offered here. Of course, this could be down to the hurried production in order to cash-in on Jackie Chan and Wong Jing's popular action comedy, City Hunter, which was doing the rounds at the same time. Of course, this film would only be lightly based on the popular manga/anime with Anthony Wong's PI character parodying that of Ryo Saeba – and not Cynthia Khan's as the title would have you think.

 

By the time she had made Madam City Hunter, Cynthia Khan had already starred in almost 30 titles and had wowed audiences with her roles in Tiger Cage 2, Queens High, It's Now Or Never, Super Lady Cop, Zen Of Sword, Blade Of Fury, and In The Line Of Duty 3 – 7 of course, as well as many more. Interestingly enough, 1993 would be one of her busiest ever years starring in no less than 10 productions from 13 Cold Blooded Eagles to The Avenging Quartet. While you would imagine this kind of popularity over the course of a year made her somewhat of a hot-ticket, Cynthia Khan's career started to quickly take a dive and by the turn-of-the-century saw her almost slip into obscurity, only to pop up in cheap Chinese titles here and there - much like that of her past co-stars Moon Lee and Yukari Oshima. Another actor who had had a busy 1993 also was her co-star Anthony Wong, who starred in a crazy 18 titles that very same year including Heroic Trio 1 & 2, The Untold Story, A Moments Of Romance 2, The Mad Monk, Taxi Hunter, and the often forgotten, Murders Made To Order along with Cynthia Khan herself. Of course, before all of that, Wong had made an impression starring in films such as The Big Score, An Eternal Combat, Erotic Ghost Story 2, Hard Boiled, and Full Contact, although he seems to be having a good time here as the perverted PI. It was also good to see him get in on the martial action and deliver some fun moves here-and-there. The crazy Sheila Chan from Prince Of The Sun, All For The Winner, All's Well End's Well 92, and Heroes Among Heroes, plays two roles in Madam City Hunter – though mainly as Blackie, the wild twin sister of Anthony's murdered girlfriend. The great Tommy Wong Kwong Leung gets to step away from his usual gang boss role and stars as Khan's police chief who also has an eye for his lady cop. Having started in the industry with Oh, My Cops! back in the early 80s, Tommy has went on to appear in around 100 movies with many huge titles under his belt from directors like Clifton Ko, Ringo Lam, and John Woo. Popular Hong Kong actor and star of over 380 films, Wu Fung, does a great job as Cynthia's father who gets to roll about a number of times with the incredible Kara Hui Ying Hung – the award winning Shaw Brothers actress. Starting her career in 1977 (which was the year I entered the world) with a role in The Brave Archer, Kara very quickly made a name for herself under the watchful eye of the legendary Lau Kar Leung and, with over 150 titles to her name, is still going strong today as a true queen of Hong Kong cinema. Much like her co-stars, it looks like she's having a blast being silly while dressing up in French maid outfits to tease her older lover, although still gets to kick ass a few times throughout without really taking anything away from Miss Khan. Yau Gin Gwok, who burst onto the screen in the awesome South Shaolin Master, plays the main bad guy of the film and gets to trade kicks with Cynthia, Kara, and Anthony at different times. Although his career only lasted a decade, Yau starred in many great films such as Don't Fool Me with Andy Lau, Once Upon A Time In China, Angel Terminators 2, Fist From Shaolin, South Shaolin Master 2, and once again with Anthony Wong in Kirk Wong's awesome Rock N' Roll Cop which would be his final film.

 

The wonderful and very talented Yuen Cheung Yan handles the fight action in Madam City Hunter, delivering a host of fun and varied martial arts battles over the 90 minute running time. Although his fight choreography has always been a little less refined than that of his brother's, I've always enjoyed what Yuen Cheung Yan brings to the screen. Here, it seems that anything goes, from good old fashioned hand-to-hand combat to some moves that seem more inspired by wire-fu flicks like Iron Monkey and Super Lady Cop for example. Heck, there's even some gun-play thrown in just for fun! It all starts with the aforementioned opening fights in the first 10 minutes of the film, both set in abandoned mansions. This sees Cynthia take down a host of gangsters in scenes that could easily have taken from her In The Line Of Duty series. After a quick battle with a transvestite, she gets to go toe-to-toe with Kara Hui later on, but only for a brief moment. Strangely enough, Kara only gets one more fight scene towards the end when she faces off against the gangster boss, but seems fairly underused in the action department overall. It was fun to see Anthony Wong getting in on the action also, putting his martial skills to use a number of times (although artfully doubled for the more intricate moves). His highlight fight comes at the halfway mark when he sits fishing at the top of a huge reservoir, dressed as a woman, and is suddenly attacked by a lone swordsman. While it's a fun fight, it almost seems out of place in such a modern action-comedy as the choreography has them pulling moves that would be more fitting to a mid-90s wuxia film. A few other fun scuffles are scattered throughout which includes a great chase on bamboo scaffolding, and an action-packed finale where Cynthia and Anthony take on Yau Gin Gwok and his men in an exciting showdown that should please fans.

 

It's worth noting that this German DVD I have, bearing the title of Born To Fight 6, offers two cuts of the film – both of which are in great quality. The lengthier Hong Kong version runs for an extra 4 minutes than the export version, and includes some extra action scenes that differs in ratio and quality, although is still very watchable. I really wanted to love Madam City Hunter, but it just feels a little uneven at times. Cynthia is as great as always (as is everyone else), but there's just something about the film that seems unfulfilling. That said, there are enough great action scenes to enjoy (even if they don't make sense sometimes) and some funny moments, but it certainly isn't Tiger Cage 2 or In The Line Of Duty 3 & 4, and should have been much better to be honest. Regardless, Cynthia Khan fans will get a kick out of it, and it definitely gets more entertaining with every watch!

 

Overall: Uneven in it's execution, Madam City Hunter redeems itself with some great action scenes and a fun cast!

 

DVD Extras: Alternate Version (84 Mins), Trailer