Bao 3 qiao jiao wa

Three Hong Kong babes—gym boss Boo (the lovely Chrissie Chow), homeless cutie Miu (Dada Lo) and Boo's love rival TT (Hidy Yu)—accept an offer of work as bodyguards in Malaysia, but once abroad, they find themselves forced to participate in a brutal underground fighting tournament.

I operate on the basis that almost any film featuring really cute oriental chicks kicking ass has got to be worth a watch, but Kick Ass Girls really puts my theory to the test, the film's distinctly Asian-style humour (ie., facial mugging and silly physical gags that are not at all funny) making the whole affair far more painful than any film featuring three kung fu hotties has the right to be.

The first half of the film, which establishes its trio of attractive but tough female characters, is particularly heavy on the crap comedy and almost saw me throwing in the towel; I stuck it out, however, reasoning that things could only get better. Which they do. Marginally.

Once the action kicks in, matters prove slightly more entertaining. The martial arts scenes, in which the battling babes duke it out with some tough looking female opponents, are reasonably well choreographed and a fun finale sees the sexy girls donning S&M gear to make a bid for freedom.

Once again, cute oriental chicks kicking ass make a movie watchable. But it was a close call.