Lip pau hang tung

CHEETAH ON FIRE (1992) is a by-the-numbers thriller about government agents tracking down an errant arms dealer, culminating in a raid on the arms dealer's outpost in the southeast Asian jungle. The action is mostly gunplay but is enlivened by some solid kung fu action performed by hero Donnie Yen and a quartet of memorable villains led by Gordon Liu and including Ken Lo and western martial artists Michael Woods and John Salvitti. The highlight is a fight between Donnie and Gordon (of MASTER KILLER fame and tons of old-school kung fu films), representing two generations of kung fu stars. Also on hand are Carrie Ng and Cheung Man, who are very good at looking pretty, but not so good at fighting. (Carrie's red lipstick lights up the jungle in every scene she's in.) Donnie Yen plays an American, which prompts the others on his team to call him `Foreigner,' one of the few times his actual nationality is acknowledged in a Hong Kong film.