Robotrix (1991)

Have you ever wished that a bunch of Category 3 Hong Kong maniacs would make their own Terminator mixed with RoboCop movie and fill it with gore, sleaze and utter craziness? Good news! That movie is Robotrix!

Under the name Chien-Ming Lu, this film’s director Jamie Luk appeared in Lady ExterminatorCrippled Avengers and many more films. This is the first movie of his I’ve seen but definitely not the last as it’s packed with sheer maniacal ridiculousness.

Cast member Vincent Lyn told Richard Myers — in the book Great Martial Arts Movies: From Bruce Lee to Jackie Chan — and More — “Now that was one wild shoot. The cast and crew were all over the place and you were lucky to find out what you were doing before the cameras rolled. I spent more time laughing on the set than anything else.”

This is the kind of movie that features full-frontal male and female nudity, as well as numerous murder scenes with beheadings and a wire work martial arts battle between cyborgs.

Oh man, so what is it about anyways?

A mad scientist named Ryuichi Sakamoto (Chung Lin transfers his mind into a robot (former WKA champion Billy Chow, who did not show his dong in Fist of Legend), which frees him to do pretty much everything he’s always wanted to, like kidnapping an Arabic businessman and killing his bodyguard, Selena Lin (Chikako Aoyama).

A non-mad scientist named Dr. Sara (Hui Hsiao-dan) transfers Selena’s mind from her dead body into a cyborg named Eve-27. She rejoins the police force, bringing along the doctor’s robotic assistant Ann (Amy Yip). They’re soon on the trail of Sakamoto, who is leaving behind dead prostitutes pretty much everywhere he goes.

Sadly, I was hoping that Amy Yip and Chikako Aoyama would end up punishing the villain for the way he has treated women the entire movie, but nope. The Shiek ends up taking care of him. Other than that, this movie is filled with a disregard for human life — a scene where the evil cyborg repeatedly runs over the chubby comedic relief and then the cops shoot him hundreds of times before he laughs and runs over their friend’s dead body is my favorite part — and the cinematic equivalent of eating ten bags of Takis. Or Fritos. Or Doritos. You know what I’m saying!

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.