Written by: Michael Den Boer on August 3rd, 2009

Theatrical Release Date: Hong Kong, 1991
Director: Jamie Luk
Writers: Jamie Luk, Siu Man Sing
Cast: Amy Yip, Chikako Aoyama, David Wu, Billy Chow, Siu-dan Hui
DVD released: July 13th, 2006
Approximate running time: 93 minutes
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen
Rating: III (Hong Kong)
Sound: Dolby Digital Stereo Cantonese
Subtitles: English, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese
DVD Release: Joy Sales
Region Coding: Region 0 NTSC (Hong Kong)
Retail Price: $9.99
Synopsis: A female police officer who was shot in the line of duty is given a second chance to caught the mastermind who kidnapped the man she was assigned to protect.
While on the surface Robotrix may appear to a Robocop clone it is so much more. The only real connection is that in both films feature a police officer who is wounded severely and they are left in a comatose state. Here is where any similarities end. In Robotrix the part of Linda the female officer who body is useless after being shot. So her mind, the only part of her fully operational is transported into a robots body that is also given her exact features. In order to track down the evil scientist named Ryuichi Sakamoto who has also transferred his mind into a robot’s body. This is why it was decided by the police that their best chance of catching him is to do the same thing; this is why Linda’s mind is chosen for the task. Finding is not going to be an easy task and the police are given their first big lead when a prostitute’s corpse that was thrown out of window after marathon sex session is linked to Ryuichi Sakamoto. Dr. Sara the scientist who transferred Linda’s brain into a robot’s body is assisted by Anna another robot she created.
To say that many things in this plot are far-fetched would be a dramatic understatement. To this films credit it never tries to take itself seriously and everything in the film is most definitely done in a tongue and cheek manner. It is clear very early on that this film has only two goals to keep things simple and arouse the viewer. All three of the films leading Ladies Chikako Aoyama (The Rape-Man of Edo), Amy Yip (Erotic Ghost Story, Sex and Zen) and Siu-dan Hui are each given a rousing sex scene. For a film that is heavy on the T&A, the action sequences are surprisingly good. Ultimately Robotrix is a delirious and sleazy category III film that never strays too far away from its three biggest assets Amy Yip, Chikao Aoyama and Siu-dan Hui.
The DVD:
Robotrix is presented in an anamorphic widescreen that retains the film’s original aspect ratio. This transfer has not been flagged for progressive playback. The image generally looks clean and colors and flesh tones also fare well. The image does suffer from some softness and there is so mild ghosting / blurring.
This release comes with one audio option a Dolby Digital stereo mix in Cantonese. The soundtrack sounds muffled and lacks depth of range. There are also some instances of noticeable background noise. This release comes with three subtitle options English, Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese. The English subtitles are easy to read and follow.
Extras for this release are limited to a theatrical trailer for the film (3 minutes 54 seconds – in Cantonese with no English subtitles) and a photo gallery with twenty one images. The DVD comes in a card board slip case that houses the DVD keep case and the cardboard slip cover frames the image on the case in a window box at its center. Also if you flip the DVD keep case around the flip side has another (more salacious) image that also fits into the cardboard slip covers window box opening. Overall Robotrix gets a flawed, yet watchable DVD release from Joy Sales.

