In the Line of Duty - Sea Wolves

 
Director: Cheng Siu-keung
Year: 1991
Rating: 6.5
Once again Cynthia Khan returns as Inspector Yeung for another outing in the Line of Duty series. After the fourth in the series, the quality began to slip a bit, but this one (the seventh) still has a fare amount of firepower left. It has an interesting plot that isn't predictable, a large number of characters and of course the requisite amount of action. I enjoyed this installment much more than I was expecting and got caught up in the story.  It is somewhat of an ensemble piece with Cynthia getting only equal time to a few other actors.
 

The Sea Wolves are a group of criminal sailors who prey on Vietnamese boat people. Among them are Simon Yam and Norman Chu (Wing Chun). They stop a boat filled with refugees and invite them on board. Once on board the horiffic slaughter commences, but Simon (who had escaped from Vietnam years earlier) spots his oldest friend (Gary Chow) among them and rescues him - but has no time to stop the up-close bullet in the gut of the friend's sister. Simon has to hide him from the other crew members - but then finds out that a blow on the head has caused Chow to lose his memory.
 

To keep him in hiding, he tells Chow that the cops are looking for him for a murder he committed. When they dock in HK, Chow escapes and soon has the cops (Cynthia) and the crew chasing after him. It becomes a taut little story of revenge and mixed loyalties. There are numerous action sequences - done well for the most part - and some unexpected brutal deaths.
 

Cynthia looks very good in her action scenes - in particular in the last one where she does some acrobatic moves. It is also always fun watching Simon Yam try and do his best in hand to hand action. He is not particularly
authentic when he does kung-fu, but he gives it everything he has. One actor that I was impressed with was Gary Chow who I have seen in nothing else. He has an amazing physique and has very fast moves. I wonder why he never made it?

Anyway, this was a good fun action film - a couple notches below the ITLOD 1-4 films - but still an enjoyable watch.