DEADLY DREAM WOMAN (1992)

PHENOMENALITY: *uncanny*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *comedy*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *sociological*

I admit that I watched a version of this film broadcast on a cable channel that used to show old HK movies, usually with the very rough English subtitles done for Hong Kong's English-speaking residents. So I could be missing lots of subtleties thanks to a subpar translation.

However, I doubt that this inferior "girls with guns" entry had any hidden virtues. DEADLY DREAM WOMAN looks like a lot of HK comedies, with the story cobbled together from all sorts of disparate elements. And one of the biggest is that main character Nightingale Wong (Sharla Cheung Man) waltzes around in a domino mask and costume for no explicit reason. This attire resulted in a number of online sources calling Nightingale a "superhero," even though there's no evidence that she's anything of the kind.

Nightingale is first seen, along with a similarly garbed partner named "Cuckoo," in a meeting of Triad gang bosses. None of these career criminals seem the least bit curious as to why the two women wear weird costumes, but it's not to protect their identities. By way of introducing Nightingale to the other crooks, the chairman of the group-- whom Nightingale calls her "foster dad"-- tells everyone that Nightingale is the daughter of such-and-such a Triad bigwig. Since Nightingale and Cuckoo are later seen to possess considerable fighting skills, the best conclusion is that they're supposed to be either bodyguards or assassins who just like dressing up like a female version of Batman and Robin.     

A young Triad boss, name of "Jaguar," makes his move to gain dominance, bringing in a gang of assassins to murder the chairman and his allies. Nightingale and Cuckoo fight valiantly but both the chairman and Cuckoo are killed. Nightingale escapes in a boat but hits her head and loses her memory. 

At the same time all this is going on, the film introducers viewers to some rather crooked bar-girls, headed by older female Deannie Yip and the younger Chingmy Yau. They find Nightingale and take her in, at least partly hoping to ransom her when they find out who she is. All the scenes with the bargirls are filled with wacky dialogue that HK audiences may've found hilarious, but said scenes were a complete bore to me. Eventually Nightingale recovers her memory and goes on the warpath to get Jaguar, with some assistance from her new girl-buddies. The various action-scenes are certainly better than any of the comedy, but the former are nothing special. The curiosity value of Triad bosses using costumed bodyguards is the only distinguishing aspect of this derivative production.