Long Arm of the Law: Saga
II
Reviewed by YTSL
As its English title proclaims, this gritty offering
from the director-scriptwriter team of Michael Mak and Phillip Chan has links
to an earlier work of theirs which Stefan Hammond and Mike Wilkins described
as a “seminal film [that] foreshadowed the violent realism of later efforts
by Ringo Lam, John Woo, and Kirk Wong” (In ““Sex and Zen” & “A Bullet
in the Head””, 1996:202). Apart from these two productions both focusing
on a group of Mainland Chinese men who had illegally entered Hong Kong and
ended up getting heavily involved in violent criminal activities in the then
British Crown Colony, the 1987 piece also does begin with the repeat screening
of certain key scenes from “Long Arm of the Law I” (that two senior Royal
Hong Kong Police Force officers are seen viewing on a TV). And while
-- rather understandably -- none of that influential preceding effort’s anti-heroes
make appearances in the second entry in the series (that ended up comprising
four movies altogether), one of the 1984 hit crime drama’s principal cast
members does turn up in a lesser as well as different role in this later
Golden Harvest presentation.
Like with other official follow up efforts, LONG ARM OF THE LAW: SAGA II
is less able than its predecessor in the series to feel like a majorly trail-blazing
work. This is not to say that that which also was not as unpredictable
lacks any memorable moments. Indeed, this generally grim feeling movie
does possess a particular graphic (torture) scene that looks to have become
so (in)famous as to rate a mention plus virtual re-staging some eleven years
later in “Young and Dangerous: The Prequel”. However, I couldn’t help
but notice that, as with one of the first “Long Arm of the Law”’s unforgettable
sequences, the scene in question features the use of the presence of rats
as well as humans who could be said to act more like animals than many people
will be hoping that they never ever get reduced to being.
Alternatively, this (re)viewer does feel that the personnel responsible for
LONG ARM OF THE LAW: SAGA II do deserve some praise for looking to have made
a serious attempt to do much more than complacently reprise what had brought
them so much success three years previously. Hence it being so that,
rather than have its protagonists be Mainlanders intent on making illegal
gains across the border, the pretty relentlessly downbeat work’s main Mainland
Chinese characters turn out to be a trio of illegal immigrants who agree
early on in the film to work -- under the supervision of a “Hongkie” veteran
undercover cop (nicknamed “Biggy” and well portrayed by Alex Man) -- as undercover
operatives cum informers for two years in return for being allowed to permanently
settle in the Fragrant Harbor. Similarly, instead of spending some
time on both sides of the much traversed boundary, this post “Anglo-Chinese
Agreement on Hong Kong” movie -- that appears intent on painting a portrait
of its home territory that is much more hellish than paradisiacal -- is set
entirely in the area to the south of that dividing line.
Early on in LONG ARM OF THE LAW: SAGA II, what looks like very detailed background
information about the Mainland Chinese characters played by Elvis Tsui, Ben
Lam and Yuen Yat Chor appears on screen. Unfortunately, on account
of it being in the form of Chinese script that does not get translated into
English, many of us will not be party to it; with the result being that at
least one of the movie’s main trio -- i.e., the short individual named Hok
Kwan (and essayed by Yuen Yat Chor) who I, probably not coincidentally, consider
to be the least sympathetic of that troika -- largely remains a cipher outside
of what can be gleaned from observing him going about his high risk assigned
activities plus by way of his interactions with a club hostess he falls for
(portrayed by the versatile Pauline Wong).
Nonetheless, it is true enough that these three individuals do manage to
come across as having very distinct personalities from one another (as well
as the man who was assigned to be the 13 year police veteran assigned to
be their supervisor but ended up being closer to a good friend than the sort
of callous superior who promised to be the death of all of them). To
some extent, this is due to some interesting plus salient biographical details
getting revealed over the course of LONG ARM OF THE LAW: SAGA II regarding
Elvis Tsui’s Li Ho Tung character (e.g., this authoritative figure having
been a police officer back on the other side of the border, and his having
been taught -- by the father he loves dearly -- to be a good maker of a certain
kind of dumpling that’s native to his province) and Ben Lam’s King San character
(including the former soldier cum radio operator’s getting reacquainted with
a Vietnam campaign comrade in Hong Kong who he ends up getting charged to
betray). Another positive contributing factor probably also is that,
like David Lam Wai had done in the first LAOTL effort, Messrs. Tsui and Lam
turned in sterling performances that made the parts they played feel much
more fleshed out and affecting than they might have been if they had been
essayed by less capable actors.
My rating for this film: 7.5