D.O.A.

I have never understood why video game adaption D.O.A. by Corey Yuen (Fong Sai Yuk, Transporter) is generally rated "middling" because I think it is fantastic.

The movie is based on a video game of duels between sexy girls, and the movie indeed highlights a team of attractive leading ladies. But despite all the T&A in this film it is a martial arts movie first, girl-power movie second, and exploitation movie third at most.

The action is fast and furious, with rarely more than two minutes between action scenes and a very high fight time ratio. Everything is bright and crunchy and smooth, the editing is completely coherent, he makes everyone look powerful, moves and even edits have big sound effects, stunts and doubling are top-notch, the colorful sets disintegrate in flurries of combat, time is manipulated to accent the impacts. Corey Yuen liberally lifts choreography from his own extensive catalog and others', the result is like watching a collage of the best setpieces from the last 2 decades of HK cinema - but with bikinis and gratuitous upskirts in the midst of the graceful movements.

Corey Yuen's mid-budget flick far exceeds expectations and succeeds at everything it attempts, realizing its full potential as shiny action-packed entertainment.

So please, put aside your pretense of class, and enjoy this guilty pleasure for what it is - it has a lot to offer.