Triple Whammy

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Lynn (Shu Qi) rests her head against the high back of her porcelain bathtub and reminisces about her happy days of youth—before she became a cold-blooded killer. Her sister Sue (Zhao Wei), clad in terry cloth hot pants and a skimpy tank top, comes in to ask for career advice. She isn't satisfied being the computer genius of the criminal duo, and wants to do some killing too. Lynn scoffingly kicks her with a long, soapy leg, setting off a wet kung fu fight that is saved from going soft-porn only by judicious editing and a large white towel.

Corey Yuen's new movie So Close is corny, silly and a trifle predictable, but if you like gals doing remarkable kung fu, it's got three of them. Shu Qi and Zhao play sisters whose murder-ed father invented a system that can tap into every single camera on earth. As hired assassins, the sisters use this nifty gadget to help them track their unsuspecting victims. Karen Mok is a Hong Kong detective trying to stop them while simultaneously fighting the overpowering male chauvinism of the police force. (That the Hong Kong police force might be full of sexists is perhaps the most believable part of the whole film.) Kung fu flick aficionados will recognize Mok's character from roles played by Michelle Yeoh in the early 80s and 90s. Mok even does a backflip through glass as Yeoh did in 1985's Super Cop.

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Yuen directed such classic martial arts films as Fong Sai Yuk and Hong Xiguan zhi Shaolin Wu Zu (released this year on DVD in the U.S. as Legend of the Red Dragon). He also choreographed Jet Li in seven action films. The director's flair for building memorable kung fu moments has put him in high demand in the U.S., where he has been asked by several studios to reshoot some of his earlier works in English. Sitting in a hotel suite overlooking the Hong Kong skyline, the jovial director insists his movies are not only about violent engagements. "For me," he says, "the drama takes precedence over the action." His favorite scene from So Close, one in which Shu Qi and Zhao quarrel, doesn't contain a single kick or punch: "On screen, you may not see a lot going on but there was a lot of emotion on the set." What he is happiest about, adds Yuen, is that the script made the three women "quite distinct" from one another. Mok is the earnest one, Zhao acts playful, while Shu Qi is the diabolical knockout, high kicking in her 10-cm stiletto heels. "It's a difficult thing to do, write about three women and the kind of relationship they have."

Working with three female leads was an emotional experience on and off camera. "It was a little troublesome," Yuen admits. The three were competitive but lax about training. "So I played a little trick on them. I filmed a Shu Qi scene and then edited it, put in music and enhanced the action so it looked really, really good. I didn't show it to her though: I showed it to the other girls. They took a look at the video and said 'Oh my gosh she's doing so well! Can we match that?' After that, everyone started training a lot harder."

Columbia Pictures intends to dub So Close into English for its Stateside release later this year. And the studio has already asked Yuen to shoot a sequel. The director is still not sure whether to do it: "I want to see what the reaction is to my little babies first—and see whether I'd like to make another movie with three women again." But he's tempted enough to be mapping out some tentative plans. For a start, Yuen says he would want to film at least some of the sequel outside Hong Kong and might use English as the main language. Aspiring Jet Lis should start practicing their killer kicks.