Her Fatal Ways IV (1994) [Film Review]

Her Fatal Ways IV; or, A Sequel Too Far

Shih-Nan Cheng is back again in the fourth instalment of “Her Fatal Ways”. Unfortunately this part marks the end of this hilarious comedy series in every possible aspect, including one of quality.

Release Info 

Directed by: Alfred Cheung Starring: Carol Dodo Cheng, Gregory Charles Rivers, Alfred Cheung 

Language: Cantonese Original Title: Biao jie, ni hao ye! 4 zhi qing bu zi jin

Movie Industry: Hong Kong Runtime: 90 min

Plot

It’s been a year after the infamous events of the previous movie. Shih-Nan (Dodo Cheng) and always accompanying her Sheng (Alfred Cheung) were rewarded by the PRC authorities and allowed to settle in Hong Kong for good. Shih-Nan, now not so devoted to the ideology of the communist party, decides to become a real Hongkie and assume the capitalist way of life. However, things get complicated when she befriends a recently acquainted neighbour from upstairs. Soon afterwards, our fearless Inspector has to act again in the name of law enforcement when it turns out that her cousin is kidnapped in HK. Has Shih-Nan finally met the love of her life or is it all some sort of a highly complicated scam?

Not really the definite chapter you expected

Prior to watching Her Fatal Ways IV all of the preceding parts were in one word: hilarious; thus, my personal expectations for this part were, obviously, high. The introductory sequence with Shih-Nan and Sheng trying to make a living for themselves and constantly being on the lookout for a job left me laughing all the way through it; however, as the movie went on, it became weaker and weaker.

First of all. we’ve got Shih-Nan in charge of a security company and having an involuntary romance with a British police officer called John (George Charles Rivers). Shih-Nan doesn’t seem any more to be the same fierce and over-confident police officer we got used to over the span of three films, but rather... a damsel in distress; hell, even her appearance looks more feminine. Because of such a transformation, her character becomes, in fact, devoid of comedic qualities. Such changes could be passable if the movie was made 10 years after the previous part, as a sort of a nostalgic nod to the whole series, but it was made only a year later! What was Alfred Cheung thinking when departing from such a successful model of comedy he himself created!? Apart from that issue, the complicated action made up for this film is a real piece of screenwriting crap:

There is this guy John who subtly hits on Shih-Nan but he doesn’t really love her. He works for his British superiors who have ordered him to seduce Shih-Nan so they could get a piece of information about how much land the Anglo Chinese Liaison Group was going to take from the Hong Kong authorities after the 1997 handover of power, and as a result, the British could make some financial profit out of it. Later they decide to dump the whole action with Shih-Nan and focus on her cousin whose father will be responsible for setting the amount of PRC’s troops stationed in HK (which in some weird, unexplainable way can also influence the stock market). Hence, they bring in another cop to do the honey-trap again. They even stage a kidnapping in order to show how awesome they are in rescuing the official’s daughter, but the scam goes wrong and some real thugs kidnap the girl for ransom. That’s where Shih-Nan and her team (made up of Sheng and fellow security guards) has to step in to save the day.

I literally had to re-watch some scenes a couple of times in order to make sense out of this idiocy. This was supposed to be a comedy not an adaptation of John le Carre! The worst thing is that 70% of the movie is centred on what is described above, so if you don’t pay much attention to the subtitles (and I can bet that this old HK translation is not fully accurate) you may end up not knowing who some of the characters are and what’s their purpose in the story.

What’s more, the ending is not satisfactory either. There is a bombastic climax with a Triad shootout where all the character join forces and rescue the imprisoned cousin, but after that...it’s the end! The daughter comes back to her father, the protagonists mutually hug each other and the end credits scroll up. It’s a shame that in the view of such an elaborate plot the following things weren't even explained: Did John really love Shih-Nan? Did the British succeed in their scam and get away with it? We’ll never know.

Redeeming features

However, in spite of all this absurdity, the movie has in fact some positive aspects, which distract from the prevalence of numerous disadvantages. When there’s humour, it’s funny, but not as hilarious as in Her Fatal Ways I-III. This part is like a light light-comedy with strong romantic undertones and it works on that level of genre. I’ve got to admit that the character of John was well played and there was a strong feeling of chemistry between him and Shih-Nan. Moreover, Shih-Nan has only two fighting scenes in the whole picture, but she totally rocks in both of these. On the whole, the movie is made watchable mostly due to Dodo Cheng’s comedic abilities.

Recommendation

If you want to watch this movie, don’t have any expectations for it. As I already said, it is watchable. It is not a high-standard comedy but also not a tragic flop. It serves as a good follow-up on Inspector Cheng’s story, but this film could have been made a lot better. In spite of the fact that it’s been 20 years since its release, I’m still hopelessly hoping for Her Fatal Ways V: A Good Day to Laugh Hard.

Overall score: 5/10