Royal Warriors

Fine follow up to Yes Madam. Not nearly as witty, but heavier on action (most of the scenes are very exciting with extremely tough baddies).

The last baddy is particularly good, with a silly mocking smile and grin. I loved the scene where he shoots the TV set.

The plot is by turns clever and cliched, and the "music" makes the whole thing feel much more cheesy than it otherwise would. Really, in some of these 80's Hong Kong films the DVD's should have an option of removable soundtracks. Alot of the films such as this would come across much stronger now without a synthesizer in the background banging away. Of course this would remove the campy bad guy forte chord which I know many viewers are endeared to.

Those who enjoy hard-edged action over wit might even prefer this to Yes Madam as the best of Michelle Yeoh's early action films.

'Royal Warriors (1986)' is absolutely wild. This exhilarating action movie pushes through high-octane set-piece after high-octane set-piece, rarely letting its foot of the gas as it presents a compelling mix of old-school Hong Kong Kung Fu and exquisitely eighties action excess. It's the kind of movie in which everyone wears either 'The Terminator (1984)'-esque leather, Vietnam-era combat gear or bold business blazers three sizes too big for them. It's filled to the brim with death-defying stunts, metal-crunching car chases, squib-triggering shootouts, bone-crunching brawls and dizzying amounts of collateral damage. It's incredibly exciting. Rather unusually for a film of its kind, it only features four baddies. There are no giant fights between our heroes and hoards of faceless goons, just personal battles between people seeking revenge in a nearly endless loop that threatens to make good on the promise that an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. It's actually a sequel to 'Yes, Madam! (1985)', and it's superior to that picture because it keeps its focus firmly on Michelle Yeoh and her co-stars, Hiroyuki Sanada and Michael Wong (playing someone called Michael Wong, for some reason), rather than cutting away to secondary characters who mostly engage in screwball comedy. It's a pretty dark and occasionally downright vicious picture, even if it does have moments of levity in the from of Wong's attempts to start a relationship with Yeoh. It's rather tragic overall and isn't afraid to show civilians getting caught in the crossfire that occurs as a result of the villains' vendetta against the heroes (a sequence set in a gloriously neon-soaked nightclub is particularly callous in its chaos). Thanks to its mixture of different types of set-piece, strong central performances (Yeoh is a total star) and consistently well-choreographed action, the well-paced piece remains really entertaining from its first frame to its last. It's one of the more sheerly thrilling examples of its genre, and it's genuinely great. Of course, it has some of the same flaws as many of its counterparts, but they're all fairly minor and aren't really worth mentioning. It's not perfect, but - for what it is - it's fantastic.

Hong Kong detective Michelle Yeoh, Japanese Interpol agent Hiroyuki Sanada, and security guard Michael Wong are on a flight when gang members try to hijack it to free a prisoner. They beat the hijackers through a combination of kung fu and sticking the last gangster's head though a window he has broken open. They are hailed as heroes, and think they can go on with their lives. What they don't know is that one of the men they killed was one of a foursome who have pledged their lives to each other. As a result, there are several attempts to kill them, with many collateral deaths, leading to a final confrontation with an insane Ying Bai.

Although Miss Yeoh is top-billed, it's much more the three of them, and they are sketches. The point of the movie is in the bloody fight scenes, lovingly shot with very strong color components. The movie revels in its physicality, and Miss Yeoh looks great running. It's a well made movie for what it is, a programmer meant to cash in on a suddenly popular female lead, but everyone does their jobs very well indeed.

Michelle Yeoh, legend. What a great showcase for her athleticism and fluidity, which just jumps off the screen. At 24 and in her second major role, she cemented herself in the Hong Kong action films of the 80's and 90's with this performance. There are so great scenes here - fighting on the street, in an airplane, during a car chase, in a crane, in a nightclub, with an armored vehicle, and against a chainsaw. Several times it looks like the actors are in real danger of being hurt, and adding to the feeling of being on the edge is the script not being afraid of killing off innocent bystander characters, young and old. It also gives us a nice little backstory for the four villains, though on the other hand it also gives us the annoyingly repetitive romantic overtures of Michael Wong's character to Yeoh's, which was the weakest part of the film. If you think you know where that may end up, however, you might be mistaken. Aside from that, there is a lot of cheese here which may bother you, including some sappy family interaction from a Japanese colleague (Hiroyuki Sanada), the synth soundtrack, and the bad guy's cliché evil laugh, but they just added to the camp appeal for me. I loved its bits of real darkness and how it was Yeoh's character doing the rescuing at the end. A lot of fun, so much so that I rounded up my review score a bit.

This is some of Michelle Yeoh's best work, alongside Magnificent Warriors and Yes Madam (A.K.A. In The Line of Duty or Police Assassins). This movie has a mix of drama, hard-hitting action, and comedy (little less on comedy though).

In my opinion, this movie could've done without Michael Wong. He tries to create a lovable character but he just seemed to get in the way of the movie. Well, I guess the movie needed some comedy. I appreciate the casting of Henry Sanada (Hiroyuki Sanada) in the film. After Ninja in the Dragon's Den, I was hoping he would continue to pursue action flicks. His martial arts skills always seems to impress me. His character in the film is portrayed as cool and slick, but if provoked, can be aggressive. Michelle Yeoh's character is very dedicated to her work as a police officer. She will enforce the law by any means.

The action in this film was very excellent and brutal. The club scene was the best. I'm pretty sure the actors and actresses had to use some ointment to take care of the bruises after some of the scenes. Groundwork dominated this film. I really didn't notice wirework.

Overall, this a great film. The replay value is very high. Besides the action, drama and a little comedy gave the film a good mix. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!

Final Judgement: ****/****