A lavish birthday party is being held for Annie Liu (Siu Huen), the daughter of powerful businessman King Lon (Ku Feng). Amidst the celebrations, King Lon nips out to a nearby lumber yard to complete a drug transaction and is subsequently double-crossed and killed by his associate Fe-hu (Shih Chung-Tien) and his cohorts. The crooks then proceed to crash the party and massacre guests at random but Annie and her boyfriend, Wen Hsiung (Lee Chih-Chi) both manage to escape unharmed.
Annie presses her uncle to disclose details of her father's double life but chooses not to inform the police for fear of damaging her family's reputation and name. Recalling the time her father told her, if she was ever in deep trouble, to look up her Uncle Wu (Wu Ma) in the United States, Annie goes abroad and trains to become an assassin. She returns to Taiwan 2 years later. Wen Hsiung is now a cop and the family business, despite her requests to go straight, still isn't legitimate. Enraged, Annie sets out to get her revenge on those who murdered her father and ruined the family business.
Firstly, Devil Gambler is NOT a gambling film. In fact there's only one fairly random poker scene in the second half of the film which was clearly shoe-horned in to capitalise on the gambling film craze at the time. The laserdisc artwork, with an emphasis on playing cards and dice, is also misleading, as this is essentially a low budget Triad action / revenge film which could arguably sit comfortably within the 'Girls With Guns' sub-genre as well.
Siu Huen and Lee Chih-Chi are unfortunately not the most charismatic of leads (they also appear together in Firefox's Killer from 1990) but they are ably supported by genre favourites Ku Feng and Wu Ma in brief but important roles, as well as two arse-kicking females who team up with Annie to help hunt down her father's killers. The action isn't outstanding (there's a piss poor - but mercifully short - car chase towards the end) but it's solid enough to entertain, especially the finale and the scenes involving the three women. In addition, we get a castration with a straight razor, bazookas being whipped out during drug deals gone bad and Tsai Hung rockin' the mic at a karaoke club, what's not to like!?
2.5 out of 5
Review source: Pan-Asia Video , VHS (USA) (Cantonese language with English subtitles) (Title on sleeve: Gambler's War)
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