cinema history class: lady terminator

Session: Babes with Bodies that Kill, Week 4
Movie: Lady Terminator (1989)
Directed by Jalil Jackson

As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL

Plot:
An American anthropologist, possessed by the spirit of the South Sea Queen, is rampaging through Jakarta* to exact the Queen's revenge for an ancient insult.  Hilarity ensues.

Reaction:

Here's an example where some understanding of context matters. A central plot point at the beginning of the movie involves a snake that lives in the South Sea Queen's vagina. Later, it is living in the American anthropologist's vagina, and its entrance (through the cloth of bikini bottom, which is -- frankly -- a detail that I just can't understand) is what signals the possession. But while that is important as set up, it quickly fades to background. The rest of the movies is essentially a story of a rampaging invulnerable woman shooting things up while the heroes try to stop her. After watching it, I was wondering why they threw in the vaginasnake angle, since they surely could have come up with an alternate origin story to explain the rampaging woman. Keith's explanation that that's part of the local mythology helped me to understand what otherwise seemed like an unnecessarily prurient aspect of the film.

With that out of the way, this is kind of an obvious (though somewhat convoluted) movie. If you like car chases (and car explosions), gunfights, and some humorous drunken stupidity, then this could be the movie for you. You have to check your brain at the door, but if you're willing to overlook some issues of logic and some head-scratching WTF moments, it can be enjoyable.

But, as much as this movie is a silly and trashy good time, when it comes down to it it's just another snake-in-the-vagina movie.

Ratings:

Me: 7
Dave: 9
Ethan: 6
Joe: 9.5
Sean: 4 out of 4

*Truthfully, I don't know if it was Jakarta. But it was a large city, and the movie is Indonesian, so I'm assuming Jakarta.