Honour, revenge – and all that lies between in a pool of blood – forms the basis for the Japanese thriller STEEL ANGIE.

The title character is Angelica, an attractive brunette female Russian agent who at the outset of the film carries out a top-secret Government mission in a Japanese forest which seems to form part of a conflict between the Russian Mafia and the Yakuza, who have a passing interest in a new performance-enhancing drug called RC which improves the physical attributes of all who take it, but has a vicious side effect of turning the recipients into monsters.

Angelica is one of them and she returns to catch up with her Master of swordplay, having become the only Russian woman to have fulfilled the criteria of being a master of the discipline, but inevitably her destiny and her skills are about to be tested as she attempts to confront her honour and respect whilst having to face up to all who are around her….

Pretty impressive effort considering the limited budget category that it falls into. Given its’ limited resources, it has got much to offer fans of the likes of LUCY, HAYWIRE, KILL BILL and THE RAID, who will lap it up. Admittedly, given its’ limitations, it does have a tendency to cut corners on occasion, but the action scenes are well staged and there are some neat visual effects additions that would certainly do producers and film-makers proud of work that is about fifty-plus times the price of what is achieved here, something that John Carpenter achieved with considerable dividends in his 1976 action classic original ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 with his limitations, executed with maximum effect.

The climax of the film is a well-staged mix of gun and sword with all the key themes of the films mentioned above and you sense that this could well be either a showcase for a much-bigger version a la DESPERADO via EL MARIACHI for example, or the first of a series of films featuring the lead protagonist.

Either way, it is well worth a look if you get a chance.

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Film and TV Journalist Follow: @Higgins99John Follow: @filmandtvnow