Robotrix: Media Asia Distribution Rating: USA: Unrated/ Hong Kong: III
What do you get when you cross Robocop, The Terminator, a Cinemax-style softcore flick, and Hong Kong action? Well, you wind up with a film like 1991’s category III cheesefest, Robotrix--yet another prime example of a film so bad that it’s actually good.
In the near future, cyborgs have reached a point where they look and function like real live humans. The key to this quantum leap in robot technology is because humans have discovered that you can transfer the thoughts of a live person to a robot after the human has died (there’s even more wonky science to come…). Villainous Japanese robot maker Ryuichi wants to partner with a Middle Eastern oil sheik to create a ‘robot legion’, and in order to coerce the sheik into working with him, he has the sheik’s son kidnapped. During the kidnapping, police inspector Linda (Chikako Aoyama) is killed—but Dr. Sara (Hui Hsio-dan) and her cyborg assistant Anna (Amy Yip: Erotic Ghost Story) decide to place her thoughts in their own robot—the butt-kicking Eve-27.
From there, it’s Hong Kong’s version of Robocop, only with a lot more sex and nudity. Anna, Sara, and Linda team up with the local police (comprised entirely of horny young guys) and go after Ryuichi (who’s placed his thoughts into his own cyborg creature played by Billy Chow), learn to experience human things like love (and sex), and finally square off with Ryuichi (who’s Hong Kong’s answer to The Terminator) in the final reel.
While reading the above synopsis makes it sound like Robotrix has a real plot, believe me when I tell you that it doesn’t. Yes, there is a vague narrative throughline that gets us from the start to the end, but we take more than a few wild and unrelated detours in the second act of the movie. In this middle segment, we see Linda reuniting with her cop boyfriend (because it provides a great opportunity for Chikako Aoyama to get naked again) and we see Amy Yip tackle the role of undercover prostitute (so she can get naked—well, as naked as Amy Yip gets, which means it’s more tease than anything). We’re also treated to yet another hokey and ludicrous scientific ‘fact’—the notion that the last thing a man sees before he dies is burned into his corneas or something to that effect. Dr. Sara and crew pluck out a dead guy’s eyeballs, plop them into a machine, and lo and behold, there’s a crystal clear color image of the men responsible for his death standing over him.
Yet, while all of this is decidedly hokey, it’s also a great deal of fun. You can’t take this movie seriously, and if you try, then you’re not the kind of person who’s likely to pick up a film called Robotrix to begin with. Robotrix is a film without pretension—it exists solely to provide cheap entertainment by giving men two things they enjoy in movies—violence and nudity. If you’re a guy who likes those things in your films, then this movie is worthy of your consideration.
The performances from two of Hong Kong’s most voluptuous vixens are pretty much on the level you’d expect—meaning both Yip and Chikako Aoyama let their oversized chests carry much of the acting duties…not that that’s a bad thing. Billy Chow goes way over the top as the evil Ryuichi, even cackling madly after committing murder in typical B movie fashion. These aren’t Oscar caliber performances, but like everything else in the film, they’re so cheesy that they’re fun.
Director Jamie Luk does a nice job behind the camera, filming the action scenes in a quick-cut and frenetic style that hides the martial arts shortcomings of the actresses and filming any scene with nudity up close and personal so that the guys in the audience get to see as much skin as possible (again, except for Amy Yip, who manages to keep her hands, a blanket, or her lover’s arm strategically placed at all times). Direction-wise, there’s not much else worth commenting on here—Luk knows this is a cheesy film and just runs with it, making the most of the situation.
Robotrix is a category III film in Hong Kong, which is the strongest rating the island nation has. As mentioned above, the film is filled with numerous softcore scenes where naked Asian women have sexual encounters, but I’d imagine the film earned the III rating primarily for two scenes that nearly become hardcore. Twice in this film Billy Chow’s character rapes a woman—one he kills, the other lives. The rape scenes here are pretty hardcore (although not nearly as hardcore as regular porn) and slightly out of character with the rest of the film’s light and jovial tone. I’m not saying that the scenes in this film are reprehensible, just out of place in a way—they simply stand out as somewhat gratuitous when compared with the rest of the movie. At any rate, it’s something to keep in mind before picking this film up.
In the end, Robotrix is a cool little film that’s greater than the sum of its parts. It’s ultimately Hong Kong’s variation on the Robocop and Terminator films, but like most HK variations, it’s more than just a copy of popular American fare. Jamie Luk puts a decidedly Hong Kong spin on things here, and the film is much better than you’d expect because of it. Adding action and softcore would seem to place this film firmly in the Russ Meyer/Andy Sidaris camp of filmmaking, and I really can’t think of a better way to describe it for American audiences. The presence of Amy Yip (who is essentially one of the queens of Hong Kong’s Category III films) has guaranteed Robotrix a position of honor as one of Hong Kong’s cult classics. If you’re looking for a foreign film that’s light and fun, Robotrix is more than worthy of your consideration.
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