Childhood friends Tango One (Ekin Cheng), CS Koo (Jordan Chan) and Szeto Blue (Kelly Chan) are scientists working for the CIA in Chicago on a subliminal research project called MVR Fighters, a virtual reality training program.

CS Koo is about to be married in Miami and the friends travel to be part of the wedding. Unfortunately Alien (Terence Yin) is out to capture research scientists to further a diabolical plan he has to disrupt the economies of all the Asian Nations. Alien disrupts the wedding in order to snatch Blue, who is the leader of the subliminal research team, and in the process kills CS Koo's bride to be (Asuka Higuchi).

Tango goes to CIA Headquarters at Langley to try to find out where Blue is and what the CIA plans to do to to rescue her. Finding that all the information is classified and that the CIA is unconcerned Tango returns dejectedly to Chicago.

Angry and upset at the apparent lack of action on the part of the CIA, Tango and CS set out to track Blue down and rescue her themselves. Persuading Dr Ho to turn them into VR fighters they set out for Hong Kong to find their friend.

With Blue rescued, the friends start to figure out what Alien might be up to, with out much success. Blue realizes that she does indeed love Tango and their relationship intensifies. In the midst of this, they receive a message that there is a problem with the fighter program and they are asked to return to the US for tests. CS Koo however, has the problem and at the airport goes berserk killing Blue as she tries to reassure him. Tango is unable to help and can only watch in horror as the woman he loves is gunned down. CS Koo runs from the airport to disappear into the city.

Back in the United States, Tango is unable to come to terms with the loss of Blue and begs Dr. Ho to help him forget. Tango is assigned to the Erasure team and given a new identity, Paul Wong. The head of the Erasure team realizes that Tango will be the best person to track down the renegade CS Koo.

Catching up with CS at the orphanage where they grew up, Paul Wong sets about trying to eliminate him. CS realizes that his friend no longer has any memories of their past or of Blue. CS Koo realizes that he has lost both of his friends.

Driven by a need for revenge against Alien for the death of his wife to be, Koo evades Tango and puts enough doubts into his mind to elicit his help in destroying Alien.

The ensuing chase moves to Malaysia and Koo finally catches up with Alien at a TV station in Kuala Lumpar. It turns out that Alien is also a superb fighter and Koo is hard put to win the fight, fortunately, at that moment Tango turns up to help. Despite their best efforts Alien escapes and takes to the air in a powered parachute, followed relentlessly by CS Koo.

The final fight takes place on a rooftop and together Tango and Koo despatch Alien, Koo also falls over the edge of the building to be caught by Tango. Koo still sees the doubt in Tango's eyes and tells him that he is too sad to go on now that everyone he loved is gone. Tango lets him fall but is moved to tears as he wonders if Koo had been his friend.

Once in again the United States, Paul Wong remains part of the Erasure Team, however Dr. Ho gives him Blue's things including a tape she made of their time together. Tango begins to realize that there was a life that he had chosen to forget and he wishes sadly that he had saved CS Koo.

Review

Although the plot of this movie is extremely far fetched it does have enough twists and turns to make it interesting. The most difficult part to take is the casting of Kelly Chen as the head of a research establishment. The use of English as the language of choice is unfortunate, the actors obviously had to work extremely hard to deliver these lines with varying rates of success. Jingle Ma's action sequences however are extremely well done and it is clear that he made great demands on his actors.

The grief and loss shown by both Jordan Chan and Ekin Cheng is palpable. Ekin's grief at the loss of Blue is topped only by the scene at the end when Jordan having lost everything begs Tango to let him go. Both actors play their characters admirably. Having worked together so often before enables them to have a rapport that is not easily matched.

Terence Yin works well as the villian of the piece, His bleached hair gives him a European appearance that helps to make him sinister. Unfortunately, the reasons for his villiany are not totally clear. The premise of disrupting a sporting event with rioting subliminals is only marginally believable. One also wonders how he is as trained as the VR fighters of the CIA.

Kelly Chan is the weak link in the movie, she is not believeable as a top scientist, and Vanesa Yeung steals the show for the beauty. Interestingly all the women are despatched during the course of the movie, leaving the men to battle it out in the end.

Ekin had to work hard to deliver the American lines in this movie. The American dialogue coach gives a humorous account of a day in the set.

Helping Tango speak English

copyright © cyklin 2002