The golden era of VHS was ideally suited to the Girls with Guns subgenre as video sleeves of attractive women armed to the teeth would invariably be enticing to the target audience. In addition, a large number would mix martial arts with the then current trend for the bullet ballets that was “Heroic Bloodshed”. Female assassins would frequent the plots riffing off “La Femme Nikita” and “The Killer” which leads us to “Dreaming the Reality”, which was recently released as a Blu ray media book in Germany after being absent from home release for some time. Does it escape from the pile of cheap exploitation flicks or return to obscurity? Only one way to find out.
Silver Fox (Moon Lee) and Black Cat (Yukari Oshima) are assassins raised from childhood by Fok (Eddie Ko) alongside adopted brother Scorpion (Cheuk-nin Cho). After a hit results in the death of several school children, Silver Fox begins to doubt her chosen life. After another job goes wrong, she is left with amnesia. She is taken in by Rocky (Ben Lam), a kickboxer, and Si Lan-fa (Sibelle Hu). An unscrupulous promoter causes strive as Rocky is injured, forcing Si Lan-fa to take his place in a bout. An act of revenge causes Silver Fox to regain her memory and attempt to put her past behind her. Tragedy however leads to Silver Fox and Si Lan-fa to confront a common enemy as Fok arrives to finish the task once and for all.
“Dreaming the Reality” is first and foremost a piece put together with commercial interest. The script is very much by numbers. Female leads, check. Disposable male love interest, check. Potentially too many fight scenes, check. Hit woman with a conscience that wants to leave the business, check. Army of henchmen all dressed the same, check. Yet it all comes together to make an enjoyable slice of genre cinema. Lu Chin-ku, whilst not a name director, is certainly capable of positioning the camera, and frames the action well. Martial arts director Fan Chin-hung’s kickboxing duels are scrappy and at times s bit choppily edited but serve their purpose. The final reel is highly entertaining and makes the most of the limited budget to create a suitably explosive climax. The ending may come as a surprise but makes sense from a cultural perspective (being crippled for a villain is a fate worse than death). In addition, the “moral” ending requires the police to turn up once again, right at the conclusion after all the chaos has concluded.
Yukari Oshima, like a number of contemporaries, would find herself with an alternative billing when her films were released in certain markets. Unlike these contemporaries, the re-branding made little apparent sense as would be billed as Cynthia Luster! Now there is a certain logic given Cynthia Rothrock and Cynthia Khan, but the surname indicates a rather different career direction! Still despite this it is still Yukari Oshima. Having made an impact with roles in “Millionaires Express” and “Outlaw Brothers” at the outset of her career, by 1991 had started the downward trend in budget and picture quality that mirrored the girls with guns subgenre. It’s evident watching this feature that she is a cut above the other actresses in terms of martial ability. Stylized in a short hair cut and leathers, she cuts an androgynous figure that would happen fairly frequently in her filmography. She gets little dramatically to do as is essentially the third wheel but the energy does flag in the feature with her departure.
Moon Lee, whom she would almost become synonymous with, had a similar career direction, starting with the classic “Zu Warriors” before dropping down to the b-movies. She gets the classic conflicted contract killer character arc. Her Silver Fox even gets the amnesia trope at one point too. It’s a character developed in broad strokes as opposed to actual depth. It means unfortunately there is then a lack of empathy to her situation as is nothing that has not been seen before. Then again, this is a feature designed for commercial purposes rather than high art so expectations should be kept to a minimum. She acquits herself well in the final reel confrontations amidst the explosions and fights. Whilst never the purest screen fighter, there is an intensity to Moon Lee’s performance which adds to the conflict.
Sibelle Hu is perhaps the one in the trio most defined by the Girls with Guns era due to the sheer quantity of features made in that time. Like Moon Lee, she wasn’t the greatest of screen fighters but is perhaps the best actress of the three. Her Si Lan-fa is a bit of a departure from her usual straightlaced characters. Dressed in a loose t-shirt and baggy trousers with a cigarette permanently drooping from the side of her mouth, it’s a memorable performance. It’s a grouchy, frumpy turn that also has the most humanity. Being concerned for Rocky’s welfare in the Thailand underground fight scene and then becoming an avenger makes her the highlight of the piece.
Ben Lam as Rocky is perfectly fine and would get more interesting roles as his career progressed although would never achieve lead status. Veteran actor Eddie Ko is suitably stern as the limping antagonist Fok. A career in villainy means he needs to do little but turn up which is largely what we does here as pretty much vanishes during the middle section before returning for the final reel. It’s a standard turn but is nicely played. The paternal mentor figure that will happily sacrifice his subordinates is again broadly sketched with little substance. It relies on audiences to join the necessary dots, which, given the target audience, should be straightforward to do. His absence might by down to the limited budget as it was a frequent occurrence to have actors work limited days. It would certainly explain the secondary villains prominence for the middle sections.
“Dreaming the Reality” is no classic but then it shows no pretense to be. It delivers all it sets out to do. Guns, girls, kickboxing and explosions. The script is a magpie narrative, taking a number of plot devices from superior films and throws them into a wok. Fortunately, a talented cast and capable helming allied to decent action results in an enjoyable way to spend 90 minutes.
