It took Quentin Tarantino's seal of approval to make Hong Kong
movies hip to Western audiences, but Tarantino's protection still
can't disguise the many faults in John Woo's Z-grade thriller. The
schlocky, corny script could only have come from an Oriental idea
of an American movie, the music score is atrociously obtrusive
and both Leslie Cheung and Emily Chu overact hideously. But for
all that there's real energy in Woo's handling of the material: he
deftly side-steps the corn element to get the story chugging along
effortlessly, then concentrates on the virtuoso action scenes which
benefit from the tight editing and elaborate production lacking from
the rest of the film. That Woo is a master at filming action was
largely proven in his later Hollywood films, notably "Broken Arrow";
working with only a fraction of the budget, the results are less
impressive but equally arresting. However, you should definitely
avoid the English-dubbed version, which is not only appallingly
dubbed but also cuts five minutes from the Cantonese-spoken
original.
movies hip to Western audiences, but Tarantino's protection still
can't disguise the many faults in John Woo's Z-grade thriller. The
schlocky, corny script could only have come from an Oriental idea
of an American movie, the music score is atrociously obtrusive
and both Leslie Cheung and Emily Chu overact hideously. But for
all that there's real energy in Woo's handling of the material: he
deftly side-steps the corn element to get the story chugging along
effortlessly, then concentrates on the virtuoso action scenes which
benefit from the tight editing and elaborate production lacking from
the rest of the film. That Woo is a master at filming action was
largely proven in his later Hollywood films, notably "Broken Arrow";
working with only a fraction of the budget, the results are less
impressive but equally arresting. However, you should definitely
avoid the English-dubbed version, which is not only appallingly
dubbed but also cuts five minutes from the Cantonese-spoken
original.