So Close [DVD] [2004]

I admire woman who can hold there own and this film says it all. While watching this I couldn't help but to think of Charlies Angels plus the opening scene with Lynn easily marks out the style of this film. "So Close" revolves around a computer program that can hack all the security cameras on earth. Developed by their dad, the program was inherited by Shu Qi and Vicky Zhao after his death, and rather than sell it and make lots of money, they use it to become career assassins - follow your dreams! But after years of busting caps, Shu Qi has become a hurting-on-the-inside kind of lady. Her passion for being a super cool hit woman has cooled and she's starting to feel sorry for the thousands of people she took away. Unable to bring herself to do more than kneecap the legions of goons she used to blithely blow away, she's started to think about getting out of the game, finding a guy, and settling down. Little sis, Vicky Zhao, on the other hand, wants to be like big sis and open many cans of whup a** on veritable armies of henchmen. Karen Mok, a cop who has run into the glass ceiling so hard she's got a concussion, unwinds from all the razzing she gets from her sexist colleagues by pursuing Vicky and Shu Qi and maybe, just maybe, falling for Vicky in the process. Cop/criminal romances are, historically, really bad ideas but it works really well here.

Flying bullets, spinning sidekicks, supercomputer balderdash, car chases, and shattering sheets of glass tumble off the screen like an all-you-can-eat action feast and it takes a fight with Japanese screen legend Yasuaki Kurata to bring this whole buffet to a close. Corey Yuen deploys the pop ballad "Close To You" all over the soundtrack and here's a chance for a whole new generation to get it stuck in their heads, associating it with images of Shu Qi dealing out death from nickel-plated 9mm's.

"So Close" is a movie that manages the neat trick of being simultaneously super-silly and super-cool. With Corey Yuen bringing years of being Jet Li's action director to the table; and Vicky Zhao, Karen Mok and Shu Qi bringing perfect hair, perfect clothes, and perfect roundhouse kicks, it's like a fashion shoot that cant be beat.

The action in this film is outstanding, and the actresses play their parts very well (partly because they're cute women beating the living daylights out of everyone else). The only criticism is that the story tends to wander a bit in the middle, but the ending more than makes up for that. Well worth buying.

This is a very stylish film directed by Corey Yuen, who was also responsible for the excellent martial arts movie 'DOA'.

The action scenes in this movie are equally precisely choreographed and full of fantastic twists and turns. It has a plot of sorts - but that's really there to help string the unbelievable action sequences together.

The three leading women are amongst the most interesting actresses in China at the moment. Karen Mok is part-Eurasian, appears to be a bit of a genius who speaks five languages and majored in Italian literature, and has also starred in many Hollywood movies. Zhao Wei is the bad girl of Chinese cinema, having once modelled in a Japanese war flag. She's also a well-known singer and sometimes goes under the name of Vicky Zhao. On top of all that, she is also a soap star in her native land. Shu Qi is the gorgeous babe who appeared in 'Transporter' with Jason Statham but is still searching a little for that great super-hit of a movie.

Definitely worth a night's entertainment.