So allow me to vent a little about an issue I have with some of these Mill Creek box sets that I own. I hate the way they throw anything in there just to try and fill the quantity of movies they need. Take this movie for instance. This movie, Breakout From Oppression, is found in the Martial Arts box set. However, there was no martial arts to be seen in this movie. Nada. Zip. Zero. I mean, it’s like they just decided to take some Asian movie that had been dubbed in the 70’s and throw it in here because, “Hey, it’s Asian so it will fit.” Well my mood is already not happy because of that but let’s at least see if it the movie is somewhat entertaining.
The plot: Fonda Chiu has just been released from prison after serving 8 years of a 12 year sentence. Having received a letter offering her a job from Mr. Wang, the president of a newspaper, Fonda arrives at the paper only to find that he is on a business trip. The assistant editor takes Fonda to see Simon Chang, the Editor, and when she tells him Mr. Wang was hiring her as an assistant editor, the assistant editor gets upset at the thought that Fonda is taking her job but Simon calms her down, then tells Fonda to come back after she gets settled in and they will figure out the job situation. Fonda goes to an apartment that had been recommended to her and after speaking with the landlord, she accepts the deal. As Fonda goes to take a shower, someone sneaks into her apartment and substitutes her bar of soap with a different one, one with a slit in the middle. The soap causes Fonda to flash back to her time in prison, where one of the prisoners was constantly bullying her, and when she finishes her shower and looks around, she notices the sliding door is open and quickly closes it. The next day at work, the Editor praises the story she wrote and decides to put her on assignment, then asks if she had found a place to live. When she tells him she had a place on the coast, he tells her that’s too far and suggest she move into the reporter dorms but she tells him she likes the solitude at her place. Later, Fonda is shopping for some clothes but the shop keeper is rude and says she can’t try on any clothes. When Fonda goes to leave, the shop keeper demands that she pay for the earrings she had tried on and Fonda discovers that she has misplaced her wallet and the store owner goes to take Fonda to the police but Sheena, Mr. Wang’s secretary, vouches for her and leads Fonda away. Later, Sheena and Fonda are talking and discussing the people in the area when Simon joins them. Sheena excuses herself and Fonda and Simon talk for a while. Later, Fonda is attempting to do some cleaning when she falls off the ladder she is using, spilling the bucket of water on the floor. As she is cleaning it up, Simon shows up and offers to take her fishing and the two start to bond. The next day, Simon and Fonda are talking for a bit but Sheena and the assistant editor both aren’t happy about it and when Simon asks Sheena for the President’s itinerary, ‘Sheena tells him that she wants to go home and leaves. Later, Fonda stops by Sheena’s house to drop off the medicine for Sheena’s grandmother but Sheena yells at her for coming over, then rushes over to take her grandmother, who is in a wheelchair, back in the house. Inside, Sheena chastises her grandmother for going outside and making a mess, then asks if she recognizes Sheena, indicating that Sheena knows her past. Someone can be heard moaning to let them go but Sheena yells at them to be quiet. Fonda goes to see Simon, explaining what happened at Sheena’s place and tells Simon that she believes Sheena is in love with him and that he should stay away from her(Fonda) but Simon tells Fonda that he loves her. Simon kisses Fonda and although she is reluctant at first, she returns the kiss but when she starts having flashbacks to her past, she quickly breaks away and heads back home. The next day, Sheena brings some snacks for Fonda as a peace offering but before Fonda can have any, Simon tells her to accompany him on a story and after they leave, the assistant editor tells Sheena that Fonda is going to end up with Simon. Simon and Fonda head to the scene of a murder, causing Fonda to flashback to the murder she was accused of. When they head inside, they are attacked by the killer, a woman with a knife, but Simon is able to fend her off long enough for the police to show up and chase her away. Meanwhile, Sheena is feeding her captive in her basement but when he refuses, she tells him he can starve and Sheena heads upstairs, telling her grandmother she has something to do that her mother would be proud of. Later, someone cuts the brakes on Fonda’s bike and as she goes to ride to work, a kid on a bike keeps doing stunts in front of her and trying to hit her, forcing her to end up riding down a hill and crashing when the bike hits some rocks by the cliffs. A bruised Fonda starts walking when Simon pulls up and offers her a ride, concerned when he sees the state she is in. When they arrive at the office, Fonda wants to go in separately but Simon tells her not to worry about what the others might think. Inside, the assistant editor constantly harps on Fonda in an attempt to get her to quit, while Sheena offers to help Fonda when she is looking through the archives. As they are working, Sheena asks if Fonda is going to the garden party and Fonda says no but Sheena says that she should go and offers to make Fonda a dish to bring. Some time later, Fonda and Simon are walking along the beach and talking about their relationship and Fonda tells him that she has been to jail but Simon tells her he doesn’t care about that and that they should look towards the future. At the garden party, Simon stops by the tent that Fonda and Sheena are at and wants one of the spring rolls that they made but Fonda slaps his hand and tells him to wait, as she offers one to the assistant editor and her children. After the oldest son grabs one, Fonda goes to offer one to Simon but the assistant editor suddenly screams out as her son starts bleeding from the mouth. When she goes to check on him, she finds a piece of glass in his mouth and attacks Fonda, accusing her of trying to kill her son. Simon goes to pull the assistant editor off of her and as he tries to calm her down, Fonda grabs Sheena and tries to get her to admit that she had cooked the spring rolls but Sheena yells out that Fonda was trying to blame her for her crime. Sheena ends up being injured as they struggle and Simon helps her to the nearby ambulance while the assistant editor’s husband grabs their son and and takes him to it as well. At the hospital, the assistant editor is still blaming Fonda and tells Simon that she wants him to get rid of her but Simon says that this has to be an accident but the assistant editor refuses to consider it. Simon then takes Sheena home and carries him to her room, where she tries to get him to stay with her but when he refuses, she tells him that he still loves Fonda and yells at him to leave. Simon goes to see Fonda, who tells Simon that she loves him and doesn’t want him to leave her but she feels like someone is trying to ruin her life like it was before and worries that he will get hurt in the process. That night, Fonda dreams about her past, and the married man that she was having an affair with. Fonda wanted him to divorce his wife but he tells her that his wife had taken pills last time he was out late and worries what she might do this time. When the man leaves, his wife stabs him and runs off, leaving Fonda there to find the body and take the blame for his death. Meanwhile, Sheena is thinking of Simon and she hears her mother’s voice in her head, telling her that Fonda was the one to kill Sheena’s father and that her mother had gone insane as a result. Sheena’s grandmother snaps her out of her trance and she goes to start dinner, then heads down to check on the director only to find him dead. As she goes for a closer look, the director lunges at her to try and escape but Sheena proceeds to beat him with the flashlight that she was carrying. The next day, Simon has his photographer, Joe Chan, pick up Fonda and work with her today, as an attempt to keep the peace at the office. As he sits down to watch some TV, he hears a knock on the door but when he goes to check, nobody is there. When he heads back inside, he finds Sheena there, who tells him that she had come in the back door, and Sheena asks for a wrench, telling him that she has a busted pipe. Simon offers to fix it for her and heads back to her house with her. When they get there, Simon greets Sheena’s grandmother while Sheena ushers him into the basement. Simon comments on the smell and says that a rat must have died and he asks Sheena where the light switch is. She tells him on the wall but as he heads for it, Sheena attacks him and ends up knocking him out. Later that night, Joe brings Fonda home and offers to come up, as Simon had told him not to leave her alone, but Fonda tells him she will be fine and he drives off. As Fonda enters her house, she finds the lights are all off and she grabs a light and starts calling out for Jo-Jo, the monkey she has started raising, but she finds a blood trail and sees the monkey has been killed. Fonda tries calling Simon for help but gets no answer so she rushes out into the night only to find it raining and she reluctantly heads back inside. The next day, the police are questioning people in the newspaper about Simon’s disappearance and the assistant editor tells him that she should be questioning Fonda, who had shown up to say goodbye to Simon and leave the newspaper but the police officer asks her to accompany him to Simon’s house and Joe goes with them, as he is Fonda’s alibi for yesterday. When they get to Simon’s house, Joe says that Simon couldn’t have gone far as he left his TV on and the clock was running so the officer asks Fonda to come down to the station for some more questioning. Meanwhile, Simon regains consciousness and as he tries to free himself, he discovers the body of Mr. Wang. Sheena shows up and he asks why she killed Mr. Wang and she tells him it was an accident but he wouldn’t go along with her plan to kill Fonda, telling Simon her reasons why. Later, Fonda is sitting on the rocks by the beach when Joe approaches her and she tells him that she can’t leave due to Simon being missing and the police saying she is the #1 suspect. Joe tells her that they found Simon’s car by the beach and Fonda rushes off to see if there is any news on Simon. At the crash site, the assistant editor is saying that this is all Fonda’s fault and when Fonda hears this, she starts walking into the ocean, wanting to kill herself, but Joe stops her. Fonda is taken to the local hospital, where she is sedated but makes Joe promise to take her out of there tomorrow before she passes out. Meanwhile, Sheena tells Simon about the police finding her car and believing him dead and Simon asks her what she is planning on doing next and tries to reason with her but Sheena doesn’t listen and proceeds to gag him, then drags Mr. Wang’s body upstairs. Sheena then takes Mr. Wang’s body and drags it out to the ocean, throwing it in the water, then makes her way to the hospital and sneaks into Fonda’s room. Sheena moves her hands towards Fonda’s face and decides to try and smother her but Fonda thrashes out and kicks her away. Fonda asks what Sheena is doing and Sheena tells her that she had kicked her blanket off and she was replacing it, then tells Fonda she will pick her up for Simon’s funeral in the morning but as her eyes water up, she tells Sheena to take her back to the hospital. Meanwhile, Joe had been falsely told to go to the head office and as he is leaving, he comments about Fonda’s bad luck and the president says that he recognizes the name and, after speaking, Joe heads to the archives and learns about Fonda and her imprisonment. Joe heads back to Fonda’s place and finds no sign of her but as he looks for her, Sheena attacks and kills him, while Fonda awakens shortly afterwards, unaware of what happened. Meanwhile, Simon manages to make it out of the basement and as he crawls across the floor, he is confronted by Sheena’s grandmother, who heads towards a shelf and knocks over a glass container of water. Back at Fonda’s house, Fonda hears something and goes outside to investigate only to find Joe’s body hanging from a rafter in the barn. She runs out of the building and finds Sheena approaching her and Fonda tells her about Joe’s body but Sheena says she must be seeing things. Sheena leads Fonda back inside and as she sees Joe’s body, Sheena tells Fonda it is a shame that he had to die, and that Simon has to die, but it is all her fault. When Fonda asks her why, Sheena explains that she is the daughter of the man Fonda was having the affair with and she says that Fonda killed her father. Fonda tries to get away but Sheena catches up to her and leads her towards a noose she had prepared, saying that it will look like Fonda killed Joe and then herself. Fonda gets away fro Sheena, though Sheena stabs her in the shoulder, and Sheena chases after Fonda, attempting to shoot her with a gun. Fonda makes her way into a building and when Sheena catches up to her, Fonda struggles with her and eventually pushes her out the window onto the concrete below. Fonda heads out to the beach, where she sits down on a boat and as she looks out at the sea, Sheena tries to attack her again. Fonda struggles with Sheena some more and after knocking the cleaver from her hand, Fonda grabs it and uses it to chop off Sheena’s head. In shock with what she has done, Fonda grabs the boat and starts dragging it out to the sea before collapsing from exhaustion. The next morning, Simon, who had freed himself with a piece of broken glass, arrives at the dock with the police and he sees Fonda on the boat and calls out to her. Some time later, Fonda and Simon are talking and Simon tells her that he will get her the best lawyer and wait for her, no matter what, as Fonda gets into the police boat and is taken away.
Putting my disappointment of the lack of martial arts aside, this is a decent little horror/drama. The acting was ok, with Fonda Lynn (Fonda) doing a good job in her role, while Alan Tam (Simon) and Lona Chang (Sheena) doing equally good jobs as well. The story was good, but to be completely honest here, it didn’t seem all that original. I mean, the whole aspect of Fonda being falsely imprisoned and the daughter of the man she supposedly killed seeking revenge on her by driving her insane first honestly sounds like something out of a Hitchcock movie. That being said, the director did a good job and while you pretty much knew who the killer was early on, there were enough drama and suspense in seeing what Sheena was going to do next to keep you watching. It definitely didn’t belong in this box set but it is a decent movie if you are looking to kill 90 minutes.
Rating: 2 1/2 out of 5
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