Nu ma fei sha

Angela Mao is the daughter of the owner of an inn where people from all over the country arrive to take part in a horse race that pays very well for the winner. However, the whole "race" thing is soon dropped, as all the characters turn out to have hidden purposes and goals. Those goals involve revenge and robbery, but don't ask me to tell you much more than that. I gave up trying to make sense of the plot after that point; hell, I even gave up trying to tell the characters apart! (their most distinguishing characteristic is that some of them have a mustache, and some do not). But what about Angela herself? She looks BEAUTIFUL as always, but has absolutely NO fight scenes until exactly 1 HOUR into the film, then she briefly dominates one guy and later participates in the climactic free-for-all. The emphasis in the fight scenes is on complex hand striking, blocking and locking techniques, however it's hard for the viewer to care when he or she has no idea who is fighting whom or why. I do think that Angela's character is meant to be a "bad" girl, which was probably rare for her, but not enough to make "Duels In The Desert" worth watching. Oh, and the shamelessly called "Special Edition DVD" from PanMedia is fullscreen, badly dubbed (though Angela's dubber has a sweet voice!) and probably transferred straight from a videocassette - there are even occasional "tracking" lines. (*1/2)