Close Escape
For most of its 90-minute running time, this low
budget action film is fairly standard good guy/bad guy stuff, but then
in it’s last 20-minutes it does get somewhat suspenseful and has a terrific
final fight. The film also has a solid cast of Max Mok, Aaron Kwok (in
his first role according to the HK Database), Dick Wei and Yukari Oshima
(billed here as Yukari Tsumura).
Max Mok’s brother is a cop in cahoots with Dick
Wei to steal some diamonds, but after the theft the brother is betrayed
by Wei but not before he hides the diamonds. Mok (who is a medical student
with a pretty good punch) teams up with his brother’s partner – Aaron Kwok
– to track Wei down.
Instead though Wei is able to frame Mok for
murder and Mok is on the run and he soon bumps into a demure young female
that he takes hostage – Yukari Oshima. At first I was worried that this
was a Yukari impersonator as she nearly faints at the sight of blood and
screams when she sees a cockroach! Don’t worry – Yukari is actually a killer
hired by Wei to find the diamonds.
Though Yukari doesn’t show up until the 40 minute
mark – she has some good screen time and one short but impressive flurry
of kicks – and then the final brutal fight in which she shows a few amazing
moves – with a combination of over the head kicks and somersaults. No doubt
though a lot more of Yukari would have improved this film. Wei as usual
plays the bad guy with a wonderful cool sleekness that always leaves me
wanting to see more of him.
My rating for this film: 6.5