Graduation came early when Cynthia Rothrock decided to further her career in the States and Michelle Khan/Yeoh prematurely put acting on hold after marrying producer Dickson Poon (not an alias). It was now time for the next generation to step up to the plate. A young dancer by the name of Yang Li-tsing was given the stage name “Cynthia Khan” (an amalgamation of Cynthia Rothrock & Michelle Khan). Khan was introduced to audiences as the next best thing in the third installment of the In the Line of Duty series, in which Yes Madam and Royal Warriors (starring Michelle Khan & Henry Sanada) had already proven to be moneymakers. While both In the Line of Duty 3 and especially 4 are genuinely worth your time, you can tell budgets were gradually getting slashed. Ultimately, Cynthia Khan wasn’t able to pull in the same numbers as her predecessors, a fact made evident by her being paired up with Donnie Yen in the fourth film. The series would continue for a while still, but none of them would ever be more than a speck in the history of Hong Kong action cinema.

While there was still an audience for these types of movies, its market would gradually shift to low-budget straight-to-VCD trash. And if you know me, I’m saying that in the most loving way possible. I imagine audiences at the time went through a similar experience of steadily making your way through the classics, realizing you’re still hungry for more, and then slightly adjusting your scope in order to find a goldmine of forgotten, bargain basement potboilers. One of the shiniest nuggets I’ve come across in doing so is 1987’s Iron Angels (aka Fighting Madam aka Fighting Angels aka Midnight Angels aka plain old Angel), directed by Teresa Woo-san, one of the only female action directors active in Hong Kong at the time.

Iron Angels pits a trio of Charlie’s Angels-esque crime-fighters against a drug-smuggling ring, lead by the wonderful Yukari Oshima. What makes Iron Angels stand out so much is that it is unabashedly a Friday night, synth-drenched, no holds barred DTV action extravaganza in the most gratuitous way. Not a scene goes by where there isn’t either a life-threatening conflict, or an all-out brawl between people trained by martial artists or just those martial artists themselves. This trailer I've embedded is a bit spoilery, so maybe don't watch it to the end, but it is a perfect encapsulation of why this movie is so awesome.