Tiger on Beat

The HK action film had by the mid-80's developed a set of characteristics that hardly varied from film to film. Absurd gun fights, swingy arm kung fu fights with lots of people yanked around on wires to simulate powerful kicks, lots of dangerous stunts frequently involving unprotected falls from balconies or second story windows and plots that shouldn't be dwelled on lest the holes be revealed. This is one of those but with some pluses that lift it above the crowd.

Chow Yun Fat plays it light and gives his character an appealing goofiness that carries the entire film. His chemistry with co-star Conan Lee works really well. Anyway the movie deals with drug smugglers and a beautiful mainland Chinese woman whose criminal brother gets her to delivery his stolen illegal drugs. Chow and Lee are cops assigned to the case.

The film is very rough at times. The action scenes are frequently bloody and harsh which is in contrast to the light comedy of Chow's scenes. There's a lot of juvenile humor about breasts and a tough scene where Chow's character smacks around the beautiful woman, tosses her through a glass table and stuffs her mouth full of powder. She, of course, falls in love with him. Director Liang, know for his distinctive kung-fu films earlier in the decade, is absolutely invisible in the film. Aside from the well paced fight scenes, his style is not apparent at all. The whole film is very much in debt to Jacky Chan's earlier police films.

Not bad if you give it a chance and don't expect too much.