Kick Fighters aka Final
Run
This is yet another Philip Ko low budget action
film that Tai Seng has released in a dubbed version in the states. Like
so many of these type of films most of the limited budget and gunpowder
are saved for the last thirty minutes of the movie. Ko does somehow manage
to put together a fairly decent cast – Yukari Oshima, Simon Yam, Dick Wei
and Francis Ng.
Yukari and Ng are - I think – part of the Thai
drug enforcement agency and they are stationed in the Golden Triangle.
It appears that the Thai government has as small a budget as Ko because
they need to use horses to get around! At any rate their commander announces
that there is a traitor in the group. Well, one look at Ng’s shifty eyes
and the jig is up for the audience, but the agency is not nearly as quick.
Yukari takes a hiatus from the film until nearly the hour mark and I was
sure I had been suckered once again.
The action (or inaction to this point) shifts
to HK where Ng’s partners (Philip Ko being one) are attempting to corrupt
a customs officer. They tell him that 1997 is approaching and everyone
is stealing money so that they can immigrate. When this doesn’t work they
frame him and he is on the run to join his relatives in Thailand. He soon
comes into conflict with Ng’s partners and another of Ng’s drug connections
– Simon Yam.
Soon though the customs officer gains the assistance
of Dick Wei and Oshima and from that point on the film is nearly non-stop
action. I won’t say it was top-notch action, but not at all bad for a low
budget film. Yukari has a number of fights and shows a few unbelievable
flying leg kicks and some terrific acrobatic moves. It’s just a shame that
we had to wait so long for Yukari to join the party.
