High Risk (1995) [Film Review]

High Risk; or, Die Hard, Jackie!
     A man should rely on himself.
I think I should acknowledge this right off the bat. I would not have penned this review had it not been for a great video essay by Accented Cinema called Someone Made a Movie to Diss Jackie Chan. Evidently, the subject of the analysis is Wong Jing’s 1995 action flick High Risk with none other than Jet Li in the leading role. I remember seeing this film like 8-9 years ago, not thinking much about it then, but in view of the YouTube video, I decided to rewatch it and provide my thoughts on it.

Release Info

Directed by: Wong Jing Starring: Jet Li, Jacky Cheung, Chingmy Yau, Valerie Chow

Language: Cantonese Original Title: 鼠膽龍威 Runtime: 100 min

Synopsis
Kit Li (Jet Li) was a cop working for the Hong Kong bomb squad a couple of years ago. While trying to prevent a terrorist attack, he lost his wife and a child in a school bus explosion. Nowadays, Kit works as a bodyguard for a famous movie star, Frankie Lone (Jacky Cheung). When Frankie attends a jewellery exhibition, Kit discovers that a man at a party, calling himself the Doctor (Kelvin Wong), is the same guy behind the school bus incident. Kit rushes to action to stop the bad guys.

Stunt Meltdown
I really do not want to repeat the main points of the Accented Cinema video, so I simply encourage you to watch it. Let me just say that, in my opinion, Wong Jing wanted to make High Risk not just to diss Jackie, but out of the general bitterness over working on City Hunter (1993). The director really wanted to make a faithful anime adaptation, but production problems forced him to change the script on a daily basis. What is more, Jackie’s unfavourable comments about the project and about Wong Jing himself certainly did not alleviate the situation.

Consequently, Wong Jing was determined to make a proper action flick from start to finish, but without Jackie as the main lead. That’s why we get High Risk. It is a very entertaining movie indeed, especially in view of the fact that the plot was heavily inspired by the classic Die Hard (1988) film with Bruce Willis.

Die Hard influences are indeed visible in many sequences and exposition scenes (for instance, helicopter crash or bad guy using high-tech to get the booty), but Wong Jing manages to put his personal spin on the entire thing by throwing a whole array of toilet jokes (which do take place in toilets) and, of course, the aforementioned parody of Jackie Chan played by Jacky Cheung.

In his video, Accented Cinema states the following: “First, how do we know he's supposed to be Jackie Chan? The film seems to have trouble deciding if he's Jackie Chan or Bruce Lee. So it makes fun of both” (source). I beg to disagree on this matter. I believe Wong Jing knew perfectly what he was doing from the start. He wanted to parody Jackie, but a) the director wanted to avoid probable lawsuit for spreading bad PR about the actor, and b) Bruce Lee reference is in itself an additional diss on Jackie! One has to remember that at the very beginning of his career, Jackie used to work as a stuntman on the set of Bruce Lee movies (for instance, please refer to this short clip). Interestingly, after the untimely passing of Bruce, Jackie himself jumped on the Bruceploitation bandwagon by starring in New Fists of Fury (1976) directed by Lo Wei.

All in all, I think it is quite funny actually that Wong Jing decided to throw shade at Jackie Chan and gently highlight the fact that even such an action legend resorts to using stunt doubles. Jacky Cheung pulls off this comedic role really well, and I can’t help but express my words of appreciation for the final fight between him and Billy Chow.

Obviously, we cannot forget about the leading man, Jet Li himself. It is always so good to see this man in action, especially when the film blends kung fu showdowns with bullet ballet spectacle. His commanding presence is enough to make even a weak motion picture watchable. As of today, Jet Li is not battling onscreen baddies but health issues. I wish him all the best and I hope he is feeling better.

Last but not least, I have to compliment Wong Jing for one more thing. He may have done many schlock productions, but he always had an eye for casting beauties. In High Risk, we get to see the director’s regular- the always-great Chingmy Yau (this time playing a pesky TV reporter), the wonderful Valerie Chow as the hot-headed villainess, and Charlie Yeung as a damsel in distress. What is more, I have to give a big shout out to supporting actors: Wu Ma as the witty dad of Jacky Cheung and the late Kelvin Wong as the suave bad guy.

Recommendations
If you want to see a remix of Die Hard and have a few laughs, then I recommend High Risk. The movie is available on Amazon, Vudu, and Tubi. I hope that in the future either Eureka! or 88 Films will give this movie a proper Blu-Ray release.Overall score: 7/10

«Enjoyed this post? Never miss out on future posts by following us»

City Hunter (1993) [Film Review]

City Hunter; or, Jackie Chan in Live-Action Manga Adaptation

This week’s review will be about another classic motion picture from Jackie Chan’s repertoire, in which he took on the character of adventurous private detective, Ryo Saeba.

Release Info

Directed by: Wong Jing Starring: Jackie Chan, Joey Wong, Kumiko Goto, Richard Norton, Chingmy Yau

Language: Cantonese Original Title: Sing si lip yan Movie Industry: Hong Kong Runtime: 100 min

Plot

Ryo (Jackie Chan) gets an assignment from a prominent Japanese CEO to track down and retrieve his daughter Shizuko (Kumiko Goto). After failing to do so, his assistant Kaori (Joey Wong) takes a leave of absence and boards a cruise liner called Fuji Maru. Ryo goes after her and while travelling as a stowaway, the detective discovers that Shizuko is accidentally on board as well. Apart from the trio, there also happen to be terrorists led by Colonel MacDonald (Richard Norton) who take control of the ship and take all the multimillionaires hostage. Now, only Ryo Saeba with the help of his sidekicks and undercover police officer Saeko Nogami (Chingmy Yau) can save the passengers.

City Hunter not in the city

After seeing the trailer and reading some info about City Hunter manga (I have never read or seen anything from that franchise), I had high hopes for an excellent 100 minutes of ass kicking done by Jackie. Well, my expectations were only partially satisfied.

The major issue of this film is that it is very inconsistent in style. I know that it’s supposed to be an action comedy flick, and whereas the action is delivered flawlessly, the comedy fails miserably. That is the case mostly due to a huge amount of slapstick humour that is thrown at the viewers every two minutes. Slapstick in general is okay, especially when done by Jackie, but in this movie it is stretched to the limits of anime. Like, as if the movie tried to copy anime style, which totally doesn’t work. Whilst, I like watching Jackie struggling at his fights with the baddies, it is quite tiring seeing him constantly grinning and making stupid faces like a handicapped mime. Yet, this is not the problem only with his characters, but with all the characters in the film. In addition, the situation is not improved when the action sequences are accompanied by sound effects straight from Scooby Doo!

 

Perhaps the primary fault of all this is that the dialogue was allegedly written on the set by the director, because the film actually never had an actual screenplay aside from a brief story outline. Also, the music score is literally ear piercing and totally disrupts the film. On the one hand, the theme song is quite catchy but incidental music strikingly resembles circus tunes, making the action look not as epic as it actually is.

Aside from these issues, I really liked the rest of the film. Jackie did an awesome job with all the stunts and fights, especially the final showdown with the terrorist leader. The supporting cast does an okay job, apart from all the grinning. However, Chingmy Yau deserves an honourable mention, because she engages into some combat, which is a rare thing to see in her films.

From the particular things I truly enjoyed were definitely Jackie’s fight scene at the movie theatre while Game of Death was being shown on the screen, the Street Fighter arcade parody, which is definitely the icing on the cake, and a stunt with exploding corridor (bombastic stuff!).

Recommendations

Safely recommended to Jackie Chan fans, though I’m not so sure about City Hunter fans. Nevertheless, if excessive slapstick does not bother you, go ahead and check it out; but, if it does, I suggest watching the film with the volume set low. One way or another, you should enjoy at least the action aspect of the film.

Overall score: 6/10 (Would have been 8 if the movie had been more serious.)