aka In the Line of Duty, aka Police Assassins

• Directed by David Chung
• Written by Sammy Tsang
• Starring
  • “Michelle Khan” (Michelle Yeoh)
  • Michael Wong
  • Hiroyuki Sanada

Hong Kong sometimes astounds me. It’s one itty-bitty city (in the grand scheme of things), yet it’s managed to find a cinematic product to call its own, one for which it’s recognized worldwide. If a video store is going to have any section devoted to a single country’s output, you can bet it’s Hong Kong.

So here’s what we’ve got: Michelle Yeoh (here credited as Michelle Khan) is a Hong Kong police officer, coming back from a vacation in Japan (where she had, in her spare time and to open the movie, beat up a couple of Yakuza toughs). On the plane is a Chinese criminal being extradited to HK. Unfortunately, he has an accomplice on the plane who frees him (having somehow gotten guns and a grenade on the plane — isn’t there tightened security when you’re transporting a criminal?); Michelle, along with a grandstanding young skycop (think of an Asian Keanu Reeves) and a morose former Japanese cop, take out the bad guys with high-kicking splendor.

They return to HK as heroes, only to have the other members of the bad guys’ tight-knit military unit come after them for revenge. (Who gets it first? Well, we meet the Japanese cop’s wife and child, in scenes so bittersweet and poignant, and so filled with talk of how he quit his job so that they could begin a new life together… you just know they’re not gonna be around long.)

The good:

- Beautiful Michelle Yeoh/Khan/whatever she calls herself this week. This was filmed in the mid-80s, remember; she had a much rounder face at the time, with a shorter haircut that accentuated it, and dressed in period-appropriate soft fabrics and pastel shades; all of this softness plays great counterpoint to the skill and finesse with which she kicks, blocks, punches, leaps, etc., with the best of them.

- Hey, it’s not an original plot, but it keeps things going, giving us no big slow spots between explosive fight scenes.

- Good choreography, especially in scenes combining martial arts and firearms. Consider this a transitional film, from “traditional” HK cinema to the work of John Woo.

- The first scene, in Tokyo, with Michelle taking pictures of bands in a park (I like it especially because, hey, I’ve been in that park on a Sunday!).

The bad:

- I’ve yet to see a dubbed movie in which the translated dialog doesn’t sound just a little ridiculous. This was no exception.

- For the last ten minutes, it becomes a Bond film. Michelle, who has just been very publicly put on leave and who then resigned from the police force, still has the mysterious pull to get ahold of a prototype assault vehicle? And it’s a prototype that needs a lot of work — unless they intended it to burst into flames like a tinderbox in the presence of an incendiary, and then to blow up like your highschool boiler.

- The soundtrack. Like most HK movies of the period, we’re treated to alternating ultra-poignant themes and mediocre eighties-style synth instrumentals. No treat here.

All in all, though, a highly entertaining bit of action cinema. Next time one of your friends wants to get some big-headline action flick created on this side of the Pacific…

Some Notable Totables:

• body count: 24
• breasts: 0
• explosions: 28
• dream sequences: 0
• ominous thunderstorms: 0
• busted fishtanks: 2
• actors who’ve appeared on Star Trek: 0