Tiger Cage 2: or, Midnight Run Do you even know where is the Caribbean Sea? Director Yuen Woo-ping continues his series of dynamic thrillers about police officers with Tiger Cage 2, the movie that has absolutely nothing in common with the original Tiger Cage apart from the title and a couple of returning actors. This “sequel in name only” is considered by many fans of Hong Kong cinema as the cult classic due to relentlessly electrifying action set pieces and the presence of Doonie Yen as the male lead.
Release Info
Directed by: Yuen Woo-pingStarring: Donnie Yen, Rosamund Kwan, David Wu
Language: CantoneseOriginal Title: 洗黑錢 Runtime: 102 min
Synopsis Mandy (Rosamund Kwan) is a lawyer at a prestigious company; however, she witnesses a brutal murder in the parking lot in the course of which a suitcase filled with money laundered by mobsters goes missing. The mobsters presume that Mandy may be in the possession of the money, so they go after her. Due to unexpected circumstances, the lawyer bumps into a hot-headed cop called Dragon (Donnie Yen). The two are framed for killing Mandy’s friend, Petty (Carol Dodo Cheng). As a result, Mandy and Dragon are on the run from the gangsters and the police. With the help of a fellow worker from the company, David (David Wu), the trio decides to find the money and clear their names.
Yes, Madam Goes Places Tiger Cage 2 is a film produced by the famous D&B company and basically made by the same team of filmmakers who cooked up In the Line of Duty 4 (1989). Donnie Yen finally takes over the wheel as a leading man in this film and we see him battle such popular “bad guys” as Michael Woods and John Salvitti. Even Cynthia Khan herself makes a small appearance as Inspector Yeung. Apart from one nice chase scene, she does not have much to do in this film, but one has to appreciate her wardrobe (this casual white outfit is so slick!)
Yet, Cynthia Khan is not the only cutie who appears in Tiger Cage 2. Carol Cheng makes a surprise appearance as the love interest of the main villain, but she only has two scenes to play in. The real heroine of this picture is the beautiful Rosamund Kwan who portrays a standard damsel in distress with a baggage of foreseeable clichés. Nevertheless, it is a joy to see Donnie save her skin time and time again.
With regard to action, Yuen Woo-ping really tried to push the envelope with this project. In comparison with the original film, the fights are much bolder and bigger in scope. The sequences that stood out the most for me was the double-decker bus chase, Cynthia Khan vs. Leung Lam-Ling confrontation, and the epic sword fight between Donnie and John Salvitti. All of that coupled with synthwave-like music score by Richard Yuen amounts to a great viewing experience.
The only disadvantage of Tiger Cage 2 I can think of is a mediocre villain. Robin Shou is a very good actor but he is no match for the charismatic Simon Yam who dominated the first movie. I think someone like Andy Lau or Tony Leyng Ka-fai would have been a better choice.
Recommendations If you like straightforward beat-em-ups, then I recommend Tiger Cage 2. In the Line of Duty 4 is a better cop film in my opinion, but this also a fine endeavour from director Yuen Woo-ping. Now, I’m off to check out Tiger Cage 3.
Overall score: 8/10
«Enjoyed this post? Never miss out on future posts by following us»
Tiger Cage; or, Between a Rock and a Hard Place We bachelors really envy your true feelings. You're lucky, you're quitting tomorrow. Tiger Cage is a trilogy of films made by Yuen Woo-ping between 1988 and 1991 which focus on the hard life of Hong Kong cops who solve criminal cases. The first movie in the series is a hard-edged thriller with an excellent cast and explosive action.
Release Info
Directed by: Yuen Woo-pingStarring: Jacky Cheung, Simon Yam, Donnie Yen, Carol Cheng
Language: CantoneseOriginal Title: 特警屠龍 Runtime: 92 min
Synopsis Officer Hsiu (Leung Kar-Yan) together with his anti-narcotics team raid the smuggling den. The policeman is chasing a bad guy (Johnny Wang) during the raid. The mobster is presumably shot dead, but he actually survives and takes his revenge on Hsiu by killing him. Shirley (Carol Dodo Cheng) who was about to marry Hsiu finds it hard to get over the loss of her fiancé. She is consoled by Inspector Wong (Simon Yam). In the meantime, two officers, Fan Chun-yau (Jacky Cheung) and Terry (Donnie Yen) discover that their partner, Uncle Tat (Ng Man-Tat) actually cooperates with drug dealers. When they present the evidence to Inspector Wong, they unknowingly put themselves in danger…
Upholding the Law Tiger Cage seems like a prelude to Yuen Woo-ping's other classic action film In the Line of Duty IV (1989). Indeed, action set pieces are exhilarating and Donnie Yen appears as the righteous cop. (Un)surprisingly his character is killed off early on in the picture, mostly due to the fact that Donnie was not then as popular as Jacky Cheung who is the real leading man.
Great cast and excellent fight sequences are indeed the main advantages of Tiger Cage. It is a pleasure to see Donnie Yen facing off against Michael Woods and Jacky Cheung battling the intimidating Simon Yam. Interestingly, Carol Cheng (during pre-Her Fatal Ways days) shines in the film, in spite of having small screen time. Also, Ng Man-Tat has a lot of stuff to do in the movie, contrary to being just a comic relief as in his many other roles from the 1990s.
The only disadvantage of Tiger Cage, I would say, is the film’s tendency to crank up that aspect of uncomfortability to the max in certain scenes. For instance, the death scene of the character played by the graceful Irene Wan is too harrowing and too out of the blue. In contrast, Uncle Tat is the story’s main punching bag, but he survives every ordeal.
A word of caution: if you expect to see traditional sequels, it is best to say out-front that Tiger Cage 2 and Tiger Cage 3 are completely unrelated to the original film, even though some of the cast members (Donnie Yen and Carol Cheng) return in new roles. The follow-ups present completely independent storylines.
Recommendations That being said, I admit that Tiger Cage is a pleasant viewing. If you like the cops vs. bandits spectacles , then I recommend the film. In addition, the 1980s vibes and suave Simon Yam as well as Jacky Cheung on the edge are awesome bonuses. Gotta love classic Hong Kong productions.
Overall score: 8/10
«Enjoyed this post? Never miss out on future posts by following us»
Armour of
God 2: Operation Condor; or, Jackie Chan and the Raiders of the Lost Nazi Gold
Jackie returns once again as a fearless treasure hunter Asian
Hawk in this great, action-packed sequel so as to beat up a bunch of baddies in
the Sahara Desert.
Release Info
Directed by: Jackie ChanStarring: Jackie Chan, Eva Cobo de Garcia,Carol Dodo Cheng, Shoko Ikeda
Language: CantoneseOriginal Title: Fei ying gai wakMovie Industry:Hong KongRuntime: 106 min
Plot
After another unsuccessful expedition, much in Indiana Jones
style, Jackie is sent on his next mission again by the employer from the first
movie, eccentric Count Bannon (Bozidar Smiljanic). Namely, the hunter is to
find 240 tons of gold hidden in the Sahara by the Nazi regiment at the end of World War
II. During his journey to Africa, Jackie is accompanied by Elsa (Eva Cobo de
Garcia), granddaughter of the regiment’s leader; Ada (Carol Dodo Cheng), an
expert in African geography; and Momoko (Shoko Ikeda), Japanese travelling
girl. Needless to say, the group faces lots of dangers from the side of Arabs, African locals, and ruthless mercenaries
who are after the gold too. Will Jackie find the hidden the base in the middle
of the desert and retrieve the gold before anyone else does?
Operation Condor > Armour of God
That’s basically it what can be said about this movie
compared to its 1986 predecessor. Everything that didn’t work in the original
was thwarted of fixed here, whereas the things which worked flawlessly were
made bigger and better. First of all, the story is more engaging in comparison
to the highly ambiguous artefact and over-the-top villains from the first part, because
here we get tangible stuff in form of gold and a bunch of mercenaries chasing
after it. Secondly, unlike horrible May (Lola Forner), Eva Cobo de Garcia is
okay as European damsel in distress and Carol Cheng only improves the picture
in the supporting role (providing in one of the scenes a full display of her
natural resources). Hell, even the baddies do great job and at times are
genuinely hilarious. On top of that, action sequences are simply amazing,
starting from Jackie’s fight bombastic fight with the Arabs and finishing on
the epic showdown with the mercenaries at the Nazi base.
Thankfully, this particular movie is more accessible in its
original, uncut Cantonese version so I didn’t have to put up with crappy English
dub, which always takes away (in my opinion) half of the enjoyment from
watching a film. Why the dubs are being made anyway? Is it so hard to read the
subtitles? Anyway, Operation Condor does not have that problem. What we get is
Jackie Chan at his best.
Recommendations
I safely recommend this film to anyone who liked the first
part as well as those who like Jackie Chan flicks but would like to see some of
his old stuff. This is definitely a must-see classic and generally a great
addition to the adventuregenre.
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 CheungStarring: Carol Dodo Cheng, Gregory Charles Rivers, Alfred Cheung
Language: CantoneseOriginal Title: Biao jie, ni hao ye! 4 zhi qing bu zi jin
Movie Industry:Hong KongRuntime: 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.
Her Fatal Ways 3- A Follow-up with(out) a vengeance
Inspector Shih-Nan is sent on a mission to Hong Kong once more.
Can we expect also this time another string of over-the-top situations that
will make us laugh so hard till our bellies get swollen? The answer to this
question is, obviously, yes!
Release Info
Directed by: Alfred CheungStarring: Carol Dodo Cheng, Anthony Wong, Alfred Cheung Language: CantoneseOriginal Title: Biao jie, ni hao ye! III zhi da ren jia dao
Movie Industry:Hong KongRuntime: 92 min
Plot
In this instalment, our female version of Inspector Closeau is
ordered to protect a high-rank chairman from the PRC called Chien during his
stay in Hong Kong. At first, the task doesn’t seem so challenging; yet, Shih-Nan (Carol Cheng)
along with her nephew Sheng (Alfred Cheung) end up arriving in Taiwan instead of Hong Kong just
at the beginning of their journey! But to make matters worse, bad luck for our
heroes doesn’t end when they finally get to HK, because the news come about a
possible assassin on the loose who is planning to kill the visiting politician.
The team, with the aid of a cheerful but extremely emotional Taiwanese police
officer called Chiang (Chan Chung-Yung) and a strongly overconfident HK Inspector Lu (Anthony Wong) prepares for
the visit. Will Shih-Nan be able to stop the potential threat just in time, or
will things get fouled up as usual?
A Blaze of Glory
I’ve got to admit that before watching this entry of “Her
Fatal Ways” series I was in a lot of doubt. All in all, the level of humour has
to decline somewhere in a string of comedy movies (like in case of Police
Academy, for instance), but thankfully this sequel lives up to the standards
set by the two previous parts and the makers did not run out of ideas.
Her Fatal Ways III is wild entertainment from the beginning
to the end. Shih-Nan is as crazy as ever, still trying to prove that she knows
better than others (as in her attempts of “blending in” on the locations
secured for the visit or getting involved in an argument with kung-fu stuntmen
on a movie set). In addition, still being a faithful follower of Mao Tse-Tung
and the principles of communism leads to disastrous consequences when she has
to face the Taiwanese officials. Nephew Sheng still struggles to master his ESP
abilities, which again triggers off some hilarious action (like hypnotising the
wrong people). Also, other characters like Chiang and Lu are downright funny
and, on the whole, all of the protagonists constitute an explosive mix.
Drawbacks
Some may probably be put off by the noticeable reinvention
of some of the old jokes from the last two films (Shih-Nan’s overlong speeches,
Sheng’s dumbness, and sometimes confusing action) but these are still fun to
watch and are, in a way, trademarks of the series; especially, karaoke singing,
which in this part is without a question the best one in the whole series.
The only major disappointment I had was a rushed ending. It
has to be mentioned that there was a better build up to the plot’s finale than
in part 2, but the resolution of the climax failed miserably. Not only we were
given an extremely quick and slightly unimpressive fight sequence with Shih-Nan,
but also the moment when the grandmother of “the assassin” rushed to save the
man she hated the most in her life (chairman Chien) made no sense whatsoever.
Are we to think that she loved him? A pretty stupid explanation since she devoted
herself to train her overweight, handicapped grandson to kill the guy. (Pardon
the spoiler but the middle of the movie outwardly presents these characters as
the baddies, so there’s no mystery to it at the end).
Recommendations
I recommend this movie both to the people who watched the
other two parts and ones new to the series (or even new to HK movies!). The
movie does not fail to entertain and I’m sure that even dead-serious viewers
will be at least chuckling. All in all, this is a good comedy and a well-made
sequel.
