The Golden Nightmare (1999)

To make his family name great again, young Shoichi (played by Mr Pope from GOD.com) is seeking buried treasure in the Philippines - during WWII his father (then a senior Japanese military officer) had ordered a Chinese chain gang to bury gold and antiques there. At the time, two prisoners escaped, made a map of the area, tore it in two, and cut for it. Shoichi knows this and sets out to the Philippines first, and China second, to get this map in its entirety. The Chinese map portion is in the hands of the grandfather(?) of tough young military chief Wang Chin (Annie Wu). When Shoichi crosses this girl (silly him; he bashed up her grandpa), she's onto his trail all the way back to the Philippines to reclaim those hidden Chinese national treasures.

In the Philippines jungle, a chase for the legendary treasure ensues. Wang and her team of mainland-Chinese kung-fu-kicking antiquities experts and local cops now has a map, gained indirectly from a double-crosser, and is getting warm on the trail. But Shoichi's tailing them to grab the treasure. And a gang of Hong Kong goons is sneakily out to grab it from Shoichi. Certainly not as nightmarish as the title suggests... but not too exciting either. Annie Wu's obviously miscast as a mainland official, but is great once she dons her fatigues and gets into the forest for plenty of pulping action. The rest of the cast is adequate for this type of actioner, dubiously highlighted by a guy with a deadly toothpick.

Credits:

Starring Annie Wu and others