Shin Zero Ûman - 0-ka no onna: futatabi...

After a 5-year hiatus, the highly efficient secret agent Rei of the Zero Division is back! Played this time by Maiko Tohno, Rei is on the trail of a terrorist group that has abducted a famous scientist and is trying to perfect a lethal virus, threatening to release it in Tokyo's water supply. Rei's superior teams her up with Sara, a female expert in computers and bio-chemistry, and (of course) they don't get along very well at the start. Oh, and she is also trying to un-block her lost memories.

This is probably the best film in the series so far (only "Assassin Lovers" and "Zero Woman Returns" come close). Maiko Tohno is by far the most physical Rei of all, and unlike her predecessors she does not rely exclusively on her gun to get her job done - she uses kickboxing and other weapons as well (not to mention her Matrix-like anti-gravity jumps!). It's a shame that most of her action scenes are so poorly shot, but what we see is still enough to know that she has some talent, which combined with her looks makes her one of the very best Zero Women so far. The movie does have some pacing problems and logic flaws (when the hideout of the terrorists is discovered, why would they send only these 2 women to get them, with no backup, especially when one of them (Sara) is a computer girl with little if any field experience?), but compared to the dull inactivity of certain previous parts (especially "The Accused" and "Dangerous Game"), this newest version of Zero Woman could be considered action-packed! (online sources indicate than a new chapter, called Zero Woman R, is about to be released on DVD, but it is not listed on IMDb yet) (**1/2)