Desperate to make money, photographer Mickey Dane accepts an assignment with a rich client. But then, something seriously goes wrong, and he finds himself in the middle of a murder plot.

Beginning with a savage murder and gang rape, Body Weapon (1999) seeks to combine psycho-thriller, romantic drama and martial arts action into a provocative 90 minutes. Chiu Man Chuk follows up The Black Sheep Affair (1998) as one of two Hong Kong detectives in love with the same woman, Ling (Angie Cheung). The urgent need to solve the introductory crime is soon forgotten while the romance is settled and Ling marries the lead's best friend. That said friend predictably ends up dead; less obviously the "heroine" deals with being raped by taking some very strange lessons in revenge from an unhinged transvestite. Both the psychology and plot mechanics of what follows are unbelievable at any level, the outrageous finale even translating Ripley's disrobing at the end of Alien in the most misogynistic of situations. The identity and motivation of the chief rapist/killer make no sense in relation to what has gone before and for a Hong Kong crime film there is very little action. The best that can be said is the stars give as good a performance as they can from very poorly conceived and exploitative material. The following year Chiu Man Chuk reunited with director Aman Chang for the action comedy Fist Power which was much better received.

On the DVD: The anamorphically enhanced 1.77:1 image is good, coping with the many night and low-light scenes very well. Disappointingly, the sound is functional two-channel mono for both the Cantonese English subtitled soundtrack and the laughably clumsy English dubbed alternative. The "music promo" is one of Hong Kong Legends' own specially-made trailers, and is accompanied by more trailers for a further seven films. Also included are the original theatrical trailer and a photo gallery. Two minutes of poor-quality video show Chiu Man Chuk demonstrating some wu shu moves, while a four-minute interview conducted at the same time via a translator for French television does little more than reveal the star to be a pleasant chap. The text biographies of the two stars are good, though all the features relating to Chiu Man Chuck are also available on the DVD of the far superior The Black Sheep Affair(1998). --Gary S Dalkin