Zero Woman: Assassin Lovers (1996)

xWell it happened again. I launch into a tv/film series and in no time at all the experience runs right off the tracks. In this case, the Zero Woman films. "Red Handcuffs" in all probability had the luxury of coming to fruition in a time when producers feared not the sensibilities of their audience, or at least were comforted knowing they weren't being browbeaten to make a movie pleasant for a mass market.

So Zero Woman: Assassin Lovers is actually the fourth of the series (the 2nd and 3rd Zero films in the series, "Final Mission" and "Zero Woman 2", are currently unavailable via Netflix) and was filmed virtually on top of the previous two - twenty-some years beyond their namesake - which leads me to believe they too have only the thinnest of affiliation with the initial release. I'll save everyone the pain of a proper recap/review, only to say that the single redeeming quality of Assassin Lovers is how the distinction between the cold professionalism of Rei (played here by model/actress Kumiko Takeda) and an unqualified rival assassin is portrayed. In addition to all of this, it's hard to believe director Masahide Kuwabara (who went on to second-chair three of the great Shohei Imamura's films: Unagi, Dr. Akagi, and the brilliant Warm Water Under a Red Bridge) is so underwhelming on his own.