Maybe there was a genuine reason to, at least for Western eyes, hide the fact that behind the title Raid On Royal Casino Marine was the third installment of The Inspector Wears Skirts-series. If so, no blame on my behalf as even for a genuinely half-assed "series", this entry woefully disappoints. Wellson Chin reveals his lack of intention and distinction, choosing only to enhance the film via a slightly different structure with at least a minimal plot this time around. He also chooses to rely on Amy Yip's breasts as the subject of 30 jokes (especially in scenes with Billy Lau), poor movie and pop culture references, body odor gags...all meaning that the film feels and is way too long. The minor saving grace of the first two was the Jackie Chan stunt team. In Raid On Royal Casino Marine, little work is done by action director Ka Lee and when it's briefly flashed, it's nowhere near a saving grace. We're only relieved to see kicks and punches as it's a getaway from the grating comedy.

It's easy to single the little there is to root for in Chin's frame though, mostly having to do with Sibelle Hu as the gun-toting, martial arts housewife of Stanley Fung's character and a scenario at the end is surprisingly dark for this shoddily made hamburger of a product. Also starring Sandra Ng, Kara Hui, Shing Fui-On, Michael Chow and Woo Fung.

KENNETH'S REVIEW: Wandering endlessly between pure incoherence and a tragedy rife with dramatic possibilities, Lau Kwok-Hung sets up the murder mystery of a, low and behold, killer who strikes during rainy nights. A womanizing male victim, the women around him, a defiant seemingly free-sprit called Lessie with an abnormal streak, there's fragments given structurally but when director Lau doesn't get viewer-investment in that, Raining Night's Killer becomes a plane that crashes. Style is amusingly aggressive, be it in the choice of music, angles and editing and when the truth is revealed at the end, Lau's intentions somehow manages to grow and you realize this is a template someone needs to try again. This one became pure crud however.

God knows this pessimistic drama has opportunities and confidence but it's also largely wasted dedication thanks to director Lee Wing-Cheung's (The Cheeky Chap) muddled direction. Kudos goes to Rape And Die for going against audience expectations by not focusing primarily on the duffle bag mix up at the beginning of the film but dark literally becomes the verdict of the storytelling as there's no way to make out any distinction, character- or storywise. It becomes clearer by the half way point that we're dealing with ill-fated characters unwillingly mixed up with the baddest of the bad but even this consciously downbeat filmmaking resonates very little. Director Lee speaks of a cycle by the time he reaches the end but symbolic gestures such as this rings more true of pretentiousness instead. Ray Lui and in one of his most evil roles, Ng Man-Tat among others appear.

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In an odd move, producer Wong Jing waited 4 years before continuing the series that first surfaced during the heyday of Cat III filmmaking. By now, the original director Andrew Lau had moved on to not so much better, but other things and Wong Jing protégé, and not acclaimed director whatsoever, Aman Cheung was brought in to helm this sequel in name only.

If there's a throughline between the two films, it is that the bad guy at least now knows that it'd be best to use a condom but other than that "clever" touch, Wong Jing and crew go a standard exploitation route. Overly stylized to the point of silliness, director Cheung (a former cinematographer himself) does provide a fair amount of unsettling atmosphere, even when working with the lower Cat IIb rating. Anything noteworthy of his work stops right there but from this Cat III fans point of view, and bearing in mind that movies like this isn't a huge strain on ones economy, there's enough here to merit an unashamed viewing. Four words: Athena Chu, girlscout uniform...

In a way, Cheung's subplot, outside of the exploits of evil dentist, rapist, serial killer and uniform fan Phillip (Joe Ma Tak-Chung - Triumph In The Skies), about ex-con Bulky Kong (Francis Ng) attempting to woo Athena Chu's character feels like another movie. In fact, as a romantic comedy, it's almost semi-decent thanks to Ng's comic chops. Obviously, coming from Wong Jing, we find juvenile and macabre humour but placing the Francis amidst all this generates more laughs than most Wong Jing productions are able to muster. Chung Chun and Ha Ping co-stars.

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Alex Fong's plays Chief Executive to be whose stressful life generates very vivid sexual illusions that in turn leads to a rape charge that may wipe out any chance of a political career. However, he is deadsure he hasn't committed such an act and while the entire investigation doesn't go in his favour, he's given leeway to investigate if someone has orchestrated a scheme to bring him down. Or is he a true beast?

Around this time, producer Wong Jing had apparently conjured up the idea of bringing quote unquote class into exploitation. A strange and questionable decision based on the kind of movies this venture affected; A Chinese Torture Chamber Story 2 and this, the 3rd installment in the Raped By An Angel-series.

Aman Cheung directs once again, bringing in much silly style over substance in what really is a pedestrian erotic thriller. Expectedly, nothing stands out as original, but Cheung admittedly involves the viewer during the middle section as Alex Fong's character tries to make sense of his situation. It also helps that Fong does just a slight bit more than just phoning in his performance (which I wouldn't blame him for in this case), displaying that trademark quiet dignity that he excels at exuding. As the twists and turns are revealed, this Raped By An Angel becomes incredibly silly just because there's no reason to jerk us around for 90 minutes in preparation for THAT ending. For a while though...bearable.

The package looks fairly slick and with the Cat IIb rating, much of your usual wanted (or unwanted) elements are kept subdued. Yet, and I'm going to hell for this for sure, the majority of my viewing self wanted a III, not a IIb. Simon Lui (the sole comic relief in this film but Simon brings an, at times, entertaining nerdy presence), Angie Cheung and Pinky Cheung co-stars.

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Wong Jing takes over directing reigns for this 4th installment and makes it a semi-sequel to part 2 with Athena Chu reprising her role. Directing style between Wong and Aman Cheung (who helmed 2 and 3) is strikingly similar and this means that Raped By An Angel 4: The Rapist's Union is very much exploitation business as usual, albeit within the Cat IIb rating (the out of print dvd is incorrect stating the film received a Cat III).

So, what does business as usual mean then? Over the top stylization by someone who has no clue about stylization, largely unfunny humour by someone who clearly thinks this is comedic gold and last but not least, this is a cheap, thrashy exploitation package. The latter point does mean that Wong Jing is pressing some of the right buttons for the crowd that Raped By An Angel 4 is meant for. There are some harrowing moments of gore and rape, courtesy of the union at hand. Also, Ben Ng gives a fairly menacing performance, opting to stay fairly calm as opposed to his beast in Red To Kill. Anthony Wong also has an amusing cameo as the Hannibal Lecter of rapists! The rest merely appear, including a useless character and lame comedic relief in the form of Nick Cheung.

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So, let's wrap this one now shall we? The last installment of the Raped By An Angel-series for some reason didn't include Wong Jing, a very welcome decision. Lee Siu-Kei instead produced and Billy Tang (who had directed Chinese Midnight Express which Lee co-wrote and co-starred in) was brought in. Tang had proven to be the most talented out of all directors that came out during the Cat III craze and was certainly no stranger to this type of story either (see Red To Kill). The series hadn't gone the Cat III route since the original though, having tried to bring in a bit of class into efforts like the 3rd one (Sexual Fantasy Of The Chief Executive). Well...people like Wong Jing shouldn't dabble with class, that's for damn sure.

The content doesn't fully suggest it but Raped By An Angel 5: The Final Judgement is actually a sequel to the second installment (The Uniform Fan) as was the fourth movie in the way it brought back characters from that film. The Chinese title for The Final Judgement sports a 2 in it and the translation back into English would be something akin to Uniform Fan 2: Underground Court. Whatever...

It has to be said though that Billy Tang, as usual employing the talents of cinematographer Tony Miu, gives us the slickest looking movie out of the series. Miu's attractive frame clearly has some care put into it and furthermore, Tang, working with a IIb rating here, manages to create genuine unsettling moments as we go along (in particular during the flashbacks). Despite a cast of beautiful ladies (Gigi Lai & Pinky Cheung among others), none has any charisma to stand out and any potentially, thoughtful dramatics die a painful death. Which is a shame because there are some well-honed instincts here but Tang probably won't graduate from the b-movie ever. Cat III had its day, Tang utilized his time and now even the Raped By An Angel series is over. Oh well, no one involved can claim they made classics but there you go, now I've given my perspective on it...for better or worse.

I say over but strangely enough, yet another Raped By An Angel 5 turned up on dvd in 2003, starring Teresa Mak (Street Of Fury).

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As per usual when it came to Category III exploitation from this part of the 90s, The Rapist took its premise straight from the headlines of reality (Portrait Of A Serial Rapist covered the same story and also featured Chan Kwok-Bong and Farini Cheung). Director Cha Chuen Yee (Once Upon A Time In Triad Society 1 & 2) provides atmosphere that relies highly on immersing gritty style and pushes all the buttons the ratings allow to greatly upset. It definitively services the crowd but even that crowd knows when to feel disgusted while more than gladly being ones that takes on this less than life affirming experience. Cha's greatest asset to this production is a good ability to crank up the tension during the police hunt for the Tuen Mun rapist of the piece (played by Lee Kar-Sing) and thankfully, the cop unit is of the less goofy kind. Other sub plots including the a lame romance register as filler only and while chilling in its own right, the psychological aspect behind the rapist is the age old stuff that Dr. Lamb and the likes already handled.