Chi se da feng bao

Andrew Kam, who helmed the superb (and more well known) THE BIG HEAT in 1988, also helmed this equally nasty exercise in cinematic nihilism the same year.

It does not have the high production values of HEAT, but it has stunts that some viewers may argue go too far.

The stand-out is a sequence in which Moon Lee's daughter is kidnapped by bad guys. They grab her by the hair and hold her aloft above the road as they flee. To make matters more difficult, the feisty Lee tries smashing her way through the front window of the vehicle at the same time.

This sequence is simply jaw-dropping. I've seen virtually every Hong Kong action film made between the late 70's and early 90's, so I'm not exaggerating when I say that you have never seen anything like this stunt (with a small child) before. The trauma on the child actor's face during this sequence is palpable.

The film also boasts a back-breaking fall from a shipping container to the ground, a handsomely staged ticking bomb sequence in which our hero's husband is blown to pieces and various shoot-outs with family-sized squibs.

The plot is pretty nonsensical and Simon Yam makes little impression, but do seek this out for its mind-blowing stunt scenes.

There is a cavalier disrespect for human life in this little-seen actioner and a mean-spirited tone to wash it down with.

Phillip Ko makes an ugly, nasty villain who is not adverse to shooting a child dead and the terrific Moon Lee gives her 100% best as usual.

A pre Mortal Kombat Robin Shou appears in this as a particularly slimy swine who is abusing his position as a customs official to help smuggle a consignment of guns.

The plot becomes far more complex when the police become suspicious thus prompting Shou's character to put one of his employees in the frame. Matters take a further turn for the worse when the said employee is subsequently murdered and his brother and sister in law become unwittingly embroiled in the sinister affair.

A number of excellent action set pieces (mostly towards the end of the film), some edge of your seat suspense, some awesome martial arts action (from the always superb Moon Lee), great performances all around and even a shocking scene in which a character that would never, ever be sacrificed in a Western film is brutally murdered all make this absolutely electrifying stuff!

Fellow fans of IFD output will instantly delight to behold regular bad guys Philip Ko and Cornish born actor Mike Abbott in this to. The former playing the particularly nasty lead bad guy whilst the latter plays a complete psychopath who holds a sadistic predilection for holding little girls out of car windows whilst the car is being driven at break neck speeds!

This is simply riveting stuff and the sort of film Hollywood wouldn't and indeed, couldn't make in a million years!

Given my love of the Hong Kong cinema, then of course I needed no persuasion to sit down and watch the 1990 action thriller "Chi Se Da Feng Bao" here in 2025, as I had the opportunity to do so. Sure, I had never heard about the movie, but that didn't really matter.

The storyline in the movie was alright, it was pretty straightforward but had its entertaining moments. Writer Chi-Ming Pang put together an enjoyable enough script for an action thriller. However, the movie does lack from a pacing issue, as there are long periods of time in the movie that just feels like it is filler.

There are some familiar faces on the cast list, especially if you've watched Hong Kong movies from the 1980s and 1990s, with the likes of Simon Yam, Moon Lee, Robin Shou and Michael Kiu Wai Miu. Needless to say that the acting performances were good.

There is a fair amount of action sequences throughout the course of the movie, and they were nicely choreographed and executed, which added to the overall enjoyment of the movie for sure.

My rating of director Yeung-Wah Kam's 1990 action thriller "Chi Se Da Feng Bao" lands on a five out of ten stars.