Sea Wolves
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.
