I won’t lie to you, the only reason why I decided to check out Naked Weapon, a sexy Hong-Kong action movie is its title. It’s very similar to Naked Killer, as both movies have the same writer and producer Wong Jing. What can you expect for this one though, is a lot of sexy girls wearing grey underwear, training, and then killing their unsuspecting victims. I know that this sounds like a porno movie plot but I assure you that this is not that type of a movie. It’s more commercial and it actually features some semblance of a plot. It’s rudimentary but it will do just fine.
The concept of using beautiful girls as killers or spies is nothing new. The first movie about the most famous one, Mata Hari was released in 1931. And we have to remember that Kim Jong-un’s exiled half-brother Kim Jong-nam was killed back in 2017 by two unsuspecting but very attractive girls. So, yes, the sexy female killers are real! The whole story about this assassination is stranger than fiction and I do recommend you look into it.
Naked Weapon takes that concept and builds around it a late eighties, early nineties erotic thriller with a lot of action. We will get a exactly one pair of boobs during the opening scene, a couple of seductive dances and provocative outfits but nothing more than that. Because of this, the levels of sleaziness are quite low making feel more mainstream. There are some exceptions but more about that later.
And I have to admit that I had doubts about recommending this movie. However, I think it features several elements that make it an intriguing watch. First of all, you have the basic dumb action movie with a sexy girls’ angle. Secondly, this is a sexist exploitation movie, like so many ones that came from Hong Kong. It reminded me of women in prison movies (WIP) like The Big Bird Cage. Also, it’s part of an onslaught of generic action movies made during a financial crisis in Hong Kong. They were basically trying to churn out as many of these movies as they could so they could keep the companies going.
Finally, there are a couple of unforgivable scenes that feel like you should call the cops on these guys. They were right on the line if not crossing it with those first training camp scenes. Especially given the whole sexually-charged atmosphere of the movie and that opening scene. A scene that’s undoubtedly the best one in the entire movie. So, you can look at this movie from many different angles. Including the one where some things just don’t make sense.
For example, bad guys use a bazooka to blow up a car and after this huge explosion, that completely destroys the car, the driver emerges still alive. Only to be shot by different bad guys but still. And we haven’t even talked about the fights. So, yes, on top of everything we already talked about, we have martial arts. I mean, of course, these deadly assassins know kung-fu because how else we would get scenes of them fighting. Most of them didn’t have any martial arts training before filming this movie.
This adds another layer to an already cheesy and cliched movie. A definition of a guilty pleasure. Especially for us who grew up on all those atrociously bad eighties movies. Naked Weapon stars young Maggie Q in one of her early roles. You could see right away that she’s going to do great things in the future. The rest of the cast was alright, let by charismatic Daniel Wu. By the way, the two of them were dating during the production.
Director: Siu-Tung Ching
Writer: Jing Wong
Cast: Anya, Maggie Q, Daniel Wu, Almen Pui-Ha Wong, Andrew Lin, Chun Lai, Dennis Chan
Fun Facts: Producer Jing Wong wanted Maggie Q to star in this movie but she really didn’t like the script. So, he went directly to her production house and made them make her an offer she refused again. After several rewrites she finally agrees to do the movie but without any martial arts training.
IMDb Link: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0341495/
