Drugs Fighters
Director: Yiu Tin-hung
Year: 1995
Rating: 6.0
This 1995 low budget action packed film was ahead
of its time. In the sense that all of it takes place in China where all the
cops are from the Mainland and the crooks are from Hong Kong of course. How
many Hong Kong films ever took place in Hangzhou I wonder. The cops are all
brave and honorable and those Hong Kongers are rotten and corrupt. Nevertheless,
leaving all that aside this film is full of martial arts talent. Leading
off with Yukari Oshima, Ngai Sing, Yuen Wah, Chui Chung-San (also choreographs)
and Ken Lo. Unfortunately or perhaps fortunately depending on your point
of view, most of this talent is wasted for reasons unknown. This film belongs
to Yukari. And in my book that is a good thing. The rest get a fight or two
in but she is in the middle of all the action and there is a lot of that.
There are a bunch of dead spots in which they seem to think any of us care
about the plot - the blind mother - oh please - the wife who wants her cop
husband to quit - but there have to be about eight separate action
scenes. They are not fabulous or something you have never seen, but they
are all competent and even if there are only a few minutes of Yuen Wah and
Ken Lo and Ngai Sing - they are a good few minutes. The final fight between
Yuen Wah and Yukari is sweet. Two great ones going at one another. But ya,
Yukari steals the show with some fine acrobatics, pounding and getting pounded
and being knocked on top of a burning car, not once but twice. She is also
adorable in this one.
Drugs are being smuggled into Hangzhou with plans to then ship them on to
Hong Kong. Running the gang is Yuen Wah with Ken Lo and Chui Chung-San as
his able assistants. There is also an evil female but that role went to a
non-action actress which is a shame - where was Elain Lui when you needed
her (appearing in The Red Wolf with Ngai Sing as the two villains I guess).
The cops are Yukari, Sing and Lam Wai. These cops are not the smartest ones
around - at one point the baddies kidnap a woman and tell Yukari and Lam
Wai where to go - an obvious trap - but do they call for back-up or does
Yukari take a gun or does she change her bright red see from a mile away
track suit? Of course not. Yukari is often gunless - all the more reason
for some excellent moves to avoid getting shot - one time shimmying down
a rope headfirst and then twist around and land with her legs around the
gun of the man below her. Kind of nifty. And I never found out if they cured
the mother or what happened to the kidnapped woman. I need closure.
