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MoveeTime Review / rewrite February 19, 2007: This is my review of the Hong Kong thriller, Chek law dak gung, also known in the USA as Naked Weapon. About time, huh? :o) The movie cast includes Maggie Q, Daniel Wu, Jewel Lee, Anya, Hoi Lin, Almen Wong, and Marit Thoresen, You can find other details of this movie at IMDb LOCATED HERE

Not suitable for children: Violence, brief nudity, sexual content

Now to the movie:

The opening scene takes place somewhere in Rome. We see two CIA undercover agents in a car watching a hotel. Enter Fiona Birch played by leggy Marit Thoresen as she arrives in her Porsche GT3. Now, this lady in my opinion, is one sexy woman. Not only does she have that walk of a runway supermodel, she has the body of one as well. But with all of that aside, I believe she could be a movie action hero in her own right someday. Ms. Thoresen did not get much credit in this movie, but still I believe she did an excellent job.

We also meet for the first time, Jack Chen played by Daniel Wu. He is a sort of CIA cub agent. A little bit naīve, but with a big heart. So now the action begins. The CIA agents are watching on a closed-circuit spy TV in their car of what is going on inside the hotel. Jack returns to the car with coffee, and the other two Anglo agents harrass him a bit as they would the "new guy" in any job. They watch Fiona Birch as she makes her seduction moves on her victim, in the end of course she kills him, and the gun play starts. During this set also we get another glimpse at Madam M played by Almen Wong Pui-Ha when Jack is sent back for food. Now this lady too is a foxy one, and portrays a no nonsense business woman with a heart of stone. Although I did detect she had a soft side a few times during this film :o) Fiona fights her way out of the hotel only to have her car hit by a rocket launcher. One of the CIA guys pulls Fiona from the fiery wreckage, but as Madam M's limo passes by, Madam M finishes her off with a bullet.

Now all is said and done for the opening sequence, and the opening title screen begins. Here we see a young version of the character Katherine (Katt) in a shoddy style fighting arena. She is a tough little girl and defeats all opposing her. After her fight she is approached by Madam M who gives her a pitch about going someplace to become one of the best fighters.

Unfortunately, she does not mention that little Katt will be on an island with other kidnapped little girls from all over the world, and once there she will be held as a prisoner for many years to come. The place she goes is a sort of gorilla war training camp designed to train the girls from a very young age to become assassins. The drill instructor is played by Augustin Aguerreberry, and he is ruthless in his training methods. Little Charlene played by Renee Nichole Rommeswinkel, and little Katt played by Kai Yan Kwok meet here and become best friends. Little Jing is played by Mo Ka Lai, who I don't recall seeing in the USA version, but perhaps she was in the China release. All of the little ladies in this movie deserve applause however for their excellent performances. Time passes and the girls grow up to be played by their adult characters. Charlene is now played by Maggie Q, Katt is now played by Anya, and evil Jing is now played by Jewel Lee. The final test for the girls is that they must fight each other to the death in a cage, and the winner takes all. Well in the end Madam M decides to keep the 3 girls i/e Charlene, Katt, and Jing. I won't cover the graduation ceremony as it has the graphic scene in it, so we move beyond that point.

Of course they are assigned to kill, and are told after 5 years service they will be done with their contracts to Madam M. The first mission for Charlene is to kill a crime boss played by Mark Aldred. After seducing him she prepares to kill him in the special way as did Fiona Birch in the opening sequence. However the crime boss suspects her, and begins to question her intent. So now it goes wrong, and Charlene finds herself in a bad situation. She fights her way out of the room, but is trapped by many more guards coming from all directions at her. Suddenly Katt appears and pulls her to safety, and they both end up inside a room that appears to have no escape. They finally figure a way out, and Katt tells Charlene to go. Reluctantly Charlene does so, and is caught outside by yet another guard. With a gun to her head she thinks it is all over, but once again Katt to the rescue.

Meanwhile, Jack who has now become obsessed with the case, and researches the backgrounds of the girls. He discovers the name of Charlene's Mother and goes to see her. The Mother, Faye Ching is played by lovely Pei-Pei Cheng. Of course she does not want to hear from Jack her own daughter is an assassin, and becomes angry to him. Later at a celebration Charlene has her next assignment to kill a politician. Unfortunately her Mother is also in the crowd and see's Charlene's foiled attempt. Elsewhere in the crowd however is Jing, and she finishes off the guy with a poison dart from a blow gun. Charlene see's her Mother as well and runs from the scene. Jack chases her and they both end up together in the back of a refrigerated truck. They exchange words and point guns at each other, but in the end the cold truck wins out and they both end up virtually unconciouss. However Charlene makes an escape before Jack notices, and gets away from him. The problem is now also, Jack is falling in love with Charlene.

In the final chapter both Charlene and Katt are assigned to kill another guy, but are tricked by a guy named Ryuichi, played by Hoi "Andrew" Lin. Now this guy I feel was very convincing in his villain role, and was quite hateable :o) Not only does he kill poor Katt in a hideous, ruthless way, he also taunts Charlene into an almost frenzy. Finally after she has had enough she faces him down in a final duel. For the most part the battle was pretty convincing, and Charlene got in quite a few moves on Ryuichi. Eventually Ryuichi beats her up pretty bad, and I quote as he says "You're all beat up now, You can't even see anymore" Well was he ever wrong. Charlene draws new strength from deep inside, and achieves her victory.

The closing part of the movie shows Jack greeting Charlene's Mother one last time. She is at a bhuddist temple of sorts, and he asks her if it really works. She tells him there is no harm in him trying as well. So he does so, and has the fortune sticks read by Mr Chan inside played by Dennis Chan. Mr Chan tells him that just before he got there, a woman had the very same fortune, and mentioned something about a refrigerated truck. Jack knows it had to be Charlene and runs to find her, but he never does. I am wondering if there may someday be a sequel to this, because I hope Jing Wong won't keep us all hanging this way :o)

Original music by: Ken and Kwong Wing Chan. Cinematography by: Sung Fai Choi. Visual effects by: Ringo Lee and crew. Directed by: Siu-Tung Ching. Written and Produced by: Jing Wong. Also some brief appearences by Monica Lo

I decided to go back and give this movie 5 stars because the one disturbing incident in the film could not outweigh the overall good of this movie. If you can get past some of the graphical subjects in this film, you will see a superbly talented cast, excellent cinematics (my favorite scene is a closeup of Katt (Anya) in the rain after she kills some "little" dude), and a well written story about the type of heartfelt, undying friendship most people never achieve. This in by far one of my all time favorites from Asia, and I suggest you buying and adding it to your own library. I am sure you will want to see it more than once.

Running Time: 90 minutes, Rated R //

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