Naked Killer

Toronto International Film Festival Program Book
1994

Naked Killer
Clarence Fok
Hong Kong, 1993
100 minutes Colour/35mm
Production Company: Wong Jing’s Workshop Limited
Producer: Wong Jing
Screenplay: Wong Jing
Cinematography: Yim Wai Lun
Art Director: Fong Ying
Principal Cast: Yam Tat Wah, Chingmy Yau, Ng Kar-lai, Yiu Wai

It’s Thelma And Louise taken to its logical extreme. A Hong Kong gang of brutal female professional killers slay and mutilate their victims in savage fashion. One of the officers involved in the case is Tannan, a policeman suffering from a handgun phobia after the accidental shooting death of his own brother. He meets Kitty, a sexy rebel, who helps him rediscover his dormant “manhood.” But Kitty meets with a family disaster of her own, which results in her shooting her mother’s lover to death. Cornered by the lover’s gang, she is saved by the mysterious, glamorous Vicky and drawn into a deadly new world. Internecine gang war, an enigmatic (wo)manhunt and the inevitable showdown roll out in breakneck fashion. Meanwhile, immense handguns keep popping out of those Chanel dresses.

There’s obviously lots going on in Naked Killer, a film which, on the surface, seems similar to other Hong Kong “woman avenger” films like The Heroic Trio and The Executioners. But here, the women are not burdened by the moral chains of those star-studded films. Without children, loving husbands or a political cause, the full nihilism of their project comes through and the film takes on a more edgy sense of cool. Clarence Fok’s direction is dead on, as he keeps his very dark subject matter bouncing along with slapstick humour and over-the-top melodrama. This is just a terrifically entertaining and intriguing example of what the Hong Kong commercial cinema can deliver.
—Noah Cowan