VICTORY

REVIEW:

                     Marginally uplifting story of a womens volleyball team that overcomes the odds thanks to their pluck, determination, and photogenic ability. Derek Yee is the coach, a clumsy science teacher whos conned into coaching when team captain Carman Lee takes a shine to him. For the rest of the team, the filmmakers basically took a whos who of cute HK bit players and threw them onto the squad. The team includes such luminaries as Farini Cheung, Josie Ho, and Annabelle Lau. Hilary Tsui is a standout thanks to her role as the teams Michael Jordan, whose vicious hops make her the secret weapon in the teams final battle.
                    The rival to our team of young cuties are the Devil Women, a rather Amazonian bunch of spikers whose impregnable defense leaves the team with nothing to do but get stuffed every rally. However, Derek Yee develops the Changing Partners stance, which isnt a move for swingers, but an incredibly effective fake-and-slam move thats designed especially to humble the Devil Women. Surprise: it works.
                    The subplots are all by-the numbers: girl fights for acceptance, girl struggles with her boyfriend, girl has crush on coach, sisters squabble instead of cooperate. Everything that happens in this film is hackneyed sports movie drama, and the emotions it conjures are as synthetic as you can get. Still, this is a harmless little movie that should be potentially uplifting to 12 year-old girls. It's made-to-order fluffy fun that could play on an after school special (if Hong Kong actually has such a thing). And the catchy theme song by Linda Wong Hing-Ping is strangely Mortal Kombat-ish. [REVIEWED BY KOZO 1997]