Once a Cop, La Vengadora

Although not as good as the first, this film still contains plenty of action. The action is more shooting/explosions than martial arts though. About a bunch of terrorists and good guys kicking the crap out of them. Rated R: for Violence.

‘Supercop 2', the sequel to ‘Police Story 3: Supercop' from the same director Stanley Tong, is more than just a sequel. To me, it seems slightly superior to the (still of course very entertaining!) first movie. It has a different approach altogether, because the first movie was basically about full speed action and amazing stunts like we are used from Jackie Chan's movies. Michelle Khan in her role as a police officer from China helped him along. In some ways, it was a `buddy movie' with one buddy being an extremely tough girl! In the second movie, Michelle Khan is the star. Jackie only has a small guest appearance in a silly and unnecessary scene. ‘Supercop 2' gets a lot more serious than its predecessor. The tragedy motif: Michelle realizes her ex-boyfriend has become a criminal and now works for a gang of high-tech bank robbers. The characterization is surprisingly detailed, down to small things like choosing a wrong present for someone you love but not completely understand, and the ending (Will she shoot him? Or will she let him escape?) had me sit on the edge of my seat... My favourite scene is Michelle's fight against one of the mercenaries: a 7 feet giant trying to hit a 5 feet girl, and you bet he's getting his butt kicked really hard – I've never seen something like this before. Hah, take this, Rambo! Probably this movie was an important step for Michelle Khan (a.k.a. Yeoh) on her way to the Bond movie `Tomorrow Never Dies'. Very recommendable, unless you only watch movies for being a Jackie Chan completist, and don't care about any other qualities in a movie, like a few other reviewers here seem to do, I'm afraid.

This film is being billed in the USA as a Jackie Chan flick. Don't buy into the hype - Jackie has a short (2 minutes approx.) cameo in a scene that makes little sense and is hardly tied in to the rest of the film. His presence in drag is unexplained, and worse still his voice has been dubbed by somebody who apparently spent two hours at the dentist's before filming, and was still under the effects of the anaesthetic - or at least it seems that way.

The rest of the film is passable - some good shots of Hong Kong and Guangzhou, but some glaring plot holes as well. Nothing to write home about, but a fairly good performance from Michelle Yeoh at least brings this up to a 5 out of 10 effort.

This spin-off of "Supercop" is one of my favorite Hong Kong action movies. "Once a Cop" ("Chao ji ji hua") kicks off with a rousing high-energy title sequence and never lets up. The story is meatier than most action yarns: a Chinese policewoman (Michelle Yeoh) tracks a gang of bank robbers to Hong Kong, unaware that their ringleader is her fiancé, an ex-cop (Yu Rong-Guang). This intriguing set-up searches the emotions of the main character as it explores the cultural clash between get-rich-quick Hong Kong and the duty-bound mainland. There's also a sympathetic subplot about a Hong Kong cop who's attracted to Yeoh but feels intimidated by both her and her fiancé. The action sequences are all superbly executed, credibly grounding their martial arts in the actors' own athletic abilities (rather than falling back on wires and special effects). And Yeoh's graceful gymnastic prowess has never been used to better advantage.

Unfortunately, not everything about "Once a Cop" clicks. The relationship between Yeoh and Yu isn't developed as deeply as it could be (though it's still more interesting than most action-movie romances), and it ultimately doesn't make the most of the premise's irony. Jackie Chan's cameo (reprising his "Supercop" role) is awkward and not well integrated into the story. And Alain Guernier as the central villain gives the worst impersonation of an Englishman I've ever seen (even if John Malkovich's Dr. Jekyll in "Mary Reilly" comes pretty darn close). But pound per pound - and punch per punch - "Once a Cop" is as thrilling and exciting as any reality-based martial-arts movie to come out of the Crown Colony. Anyone wowed by Michelle Yeoh's work in "Tomorrow Never Dies" should definitely check out this

As a crime wave sweeps Hong Kong, the police call on Jessica Yang, a rising Inspector, to help stop a notorious gang of thieves. I hurried to finish...

A sequence of 7 films, but this one in particular received so many titles with different numbers that it confused me, that when I marathoned them I forgot about this one, a forgettable, boring film, despite the wonderful Michelle Yeoh. Although Jackie Chan only has a cameo, some DVD covers featured Chan prominently, misleading the audience, briefly reprising his role as Inspector Chan... Few funny scenes (none), many fights (of course), I hurried to finish...