I'm a bit fan of H.K. flicks so i was glad to finally catch this one...
This action film starts off both cheesy and British...two bad guys pass a photo to each other of a girl comically not knowing who she is, nice well shot scenery of Hong Kong and London. and a main star who doesn't talk much in fact he doesn't speak English. lots of scenes that don't make any sense- a guy raping a girl then smelling his fingers after-wards as if he just wiped his hand on his bum.
Finally Richard Ng as the bad guy...he did a decent job.
It's great cheesy entertainment from start to finish and has a chef that sounds like Johnny Vegas... The dialog has no subtext - witness two hoodlums asking Johnny the chef: 'I need to know where this girl is' ...then beating him up before hes even had the chance to answer...so far so cheese..a girl who finds out the bodyguard speaks English several scenes into the movie..Karl Ng and Kari Tanagowa are in a scene wearing the same clothes drinking wine....then much later...appear with the same clothes again- drinking the same glass of wine....
Lots of British martial arts war-cry and wisps of trouser-legs flying martial arts as too many blokes in suits standing around doing the cool gangster pose look. It's bizarre. Almost like lots of set-pieces stuck together in no particular order.
A bit like this review. Comical use of jump cuts - bodyguard sitting on edge of bed asking what girl wants, hes here to protect her, girl kisses him from the left, suddenly cut to bodyguard under sheets in bed on the left, girl on top - jarring and funny.Then immediately after-wards, after sleeping with her tells her 'it was a mistake..' h'm...
It improves a little when Kari's men are assassinated,and has some kind of godfather vibe to it with the gangs getting revenge on each other... then there's a bit where the British northern accents shine through as a northern hit-man who looks like Will Ferrell gets strangled by Kari where his daughter is killed which was quite dramatic and well done.
Until we get to the scene where Richard Ng admits the girl he kidnapped was his fault. brilliantly cheesy..mind you the scenes are quite well put together and i have to say i wasn't bored throughout it, as it flows quite nicely after the 70minute mark, and actually i have to say quite gripping towards the end.
Y'know what - it's pretty decent and some nice shots. On the whole, the action is a bit artificially shot, but the director has some promise, with nicely edits shots of people fighting amidst soft emotional scenes of an old man passing away...but less cheese please next time. Good effort though. 6/10 .
