Girls with guns

Girls with guns is a sub-genre of films and animation, especially Hong Kong action films and anime, with a female protagonist in a strong lead role, set in a modern context. The genre involves gun-play, stunts and martial arts action. Some of the best known female fighters to Western audiences are Angela Mao Ying, Cheng Pei-pei, Moon Lee, Maggie Q, Michelle Yeoh, Zhang Ziyi and Cynthia Rothrock.

History
The genre started in the 1960s when then-unknown Cheng Pei-pei starred in the 1966 Shaw Brothers Studio film Come Drink with Me, the first film to combine Hong Kong action cinema with a female as the lead. Cheng followed up her success in this film with Golden Swallow in 1968. Golden Harvest Studios had their own female fighter, Angela Mao Ying, best known to western audiences for playing the ill-fated sister of Bruce Lee's character in Enter the Dragon. She starred in such films as Hapkido, When Taekwondo Strikes and Lady Whirlwind.

In the early 1980s, there was a change in the Hong Kong film industry: movies had bigger budgets, new stars, and new stories. Two new faces appeared around this time: Michelle Yeoh and martial artist Cynthia Rothrock. They starred in the Corey Yuen directed film Yes Madam, AKA In the Line of Duty 2. The movie was a box office hit making Yeoh and Rothrock stars and reviving the "girls with guns" genre. In the mid 1980s many martial arts movies featured a female either as the lead or as the co-star in action.

Actresses Jade Leung, Yukari Oshima, Cynthia Khan and Joyce Godenzi would rise to prominence in similar roles.

American popular culture became fixated by girls with guns in the nineties and they were seen in many media. The genre continued in the 2000s, with movies such as Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, So Close, Naked Weapon, Aeon Flux, and UltraViolet.

Anime and manga
The term "girls-with-guns" is also used in reference to anime series such as Bubblegum Crisis,   Gall Force, Dirty Pair,   Gunsmith Cats, Angel Heart, and Gunslinger Girl, as well as Kōichi Mashimo's trilogy of Noir, Madlax, and El Cazador, and works inspired or influenced by it. Yasuomi Umetsu's works such as  Kite, Mezzo Forte , Mezzo DSA , and Kite: Liberator have all been cited as being within the "girls with guns" subgenre. Rei Hiroe's Black Lagoon tends to supplement the "girl with guns" motif with other anime inspired motifs such as "maids with guns" and "nuns with guns" (the latter being a major theme in anime and manga such as Chrono Crusade and Trinity Blood).

Films

 * Come Drink with Me (1966)
 * Hapkido aka He qi dao (1972)
 * Ms. 45 (1981)
 * Yes Madam aka Huang gu shi jie (1985)
 * Righting Wrongs aka Zhi fa xian feng (1986)
 * Magnificent Warriors aka Zhong hua zhan shi (1987)
 * Angel aka Tian shi xing dong (1987)
 * In the Line of Duty 4: Witness aka Huang jia shi jie zhi IV: Zhi ji zheng ren (1989)
 * Angel Enforcers (1989)
 * Nikita (1990)
 * She Shoots Straight aka Huang jia nu jiang (1990)
 * Naked Killer (1992)
 * Fit to Kill (1993)
 * XX: Beautiful Hunter (1994)
 * Ghost in the Shell (1995)
 * Tank Girl (1995)
 * Fudoh: The New Generation (1996)
 * Mary's Game aka マリ-の獲物 (1996)
 * Barb Wire (1996)
 * Killing Time (1998)
 * Judas Kiss (1998)
 * Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001)
 * Full Disclosure (2001)


 * Farewell, My Love (2001)
 * Pistol Opera (2001)
 * Swindle (2002)
 * So Close (2002)
 * Naked Weapon (2002)
 * Resident Evil (2002)
 * Gun Crazy: A Woman from Nowhere (2002)
 * Gun Crazy 2: Beyond the Law (2002)
 * Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever (2002)
 * Underworld (2003)
 * Gun Crazy 3: The Big Gundown (2003)
 * Kill Bill (2003/2004)
 * Aeon Flux (2005)
 * UltraViolet (2006)
 * Underworld: Evolution (2006)
 * Yo-Yo Girl Cop (2006)
 * Planet Terror (2007)
 * Tokyo Gore Police (2008)
 * Wanted (2008)
 * The Machine Girl (2008)
 * ''The Gene Generation (2008)
 * Stiletto (2009)
 * Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (2009)
 * Sucker Punch (2011)

Television

 * Playgirl (ja:プレイガール (ドラマ)) (Late 1960s action/drama featuring many women with guns)
 * The Avengers
 * Super sentai (1970s-1980s action/drama)
 * Alias
 * Angel of Death (web series)