Red Wolf
Director: Yuen Wo-ping
Year: 1995
Rating: 7.0
I am of the Old
School way of thinking. There can never be too many Die Hard clones out
there if done with a modicum of skill. One man taking out a group of rotten
vicious terrorists always appeals to me. The more taken out the better.
Give Hong Kong some credit - they waited seven years after Die Hard before
they made their own version. High Risk with Jet Li which also has much in
common with Die Hard also came out this same year. In this one they add a
few things - some that work well and a couple that don't. But this being
a Hong Kong version you can count on a couple things - there will be a lot
more action, a lot more martial arts, a lot more killing and yup, a lot more
silly comedy. This shows little mercy to anyone. It is brutal and hard-hitting
and a lot of people meet up with a bullet in the head. What this also has
going for it that puts it ahead of many other clones is that it is directed
and choreographed by Yuen Wo-ping. The Master.
They take it out of an office building
and place it on a luxury cruise. For some bizarre reason they are transporting
uranium and the terrorists have infiltrated all levels of the crew and those
that they haven't are soon feeding the fish. Heading the group is Ngai Sing
or to use his American name Collin Chou. Ngai Sing is one of the more underrated
martial artists of his period - probably because he generally plays the villain
- he faced off against Jet Li in a few films to create some great fights.
The number of his minions on board would take an abacus to count - even
the ship female singer is one of his. She is a total psychopath who would
kill someone for a wrong look. She is played with malicious glee by Elaine
Liu. Elaine only appeared is a dozen films but you won't forget her in the
Girls with Guns ones - Angel 1 and 2 and Stone Age Warriors. This was to
be her last film which is a shame. Great martial arts and sexy as well.
Hell, she had been a Miss Hong Kong. She showed up later in two episodes
of Martial Law with Sammo.
On the other side of the equation is Kenny
Ho. Kenny Ho. That is about it. He does take on an ally of sorts but whether
she helps or hurts is up for debate. But she sure is a doll. We are first
introduced to her rear end as the camera lingers on it before moving up.
The almond-eyed gooey brown eyes of Christy Chung who swept Hong Kong for
a while even though she spoke no Chinese. Born in Montreal she won a beauty
contest and was a big deal for the rest of the decade. It is easy to see
why here as her comedic skills are adorable but whether her character is
a fit for this film is questionable. Every time she sees a dead body or
blood she lets out a scream which brings the bad guys running. But every
film needs a little sex appeal and she provides it with left overs along
with Elaine. Her appearance in a Thai film, Jan Dara, stirred up a lot of
controversy for her sexual performance.
The bad guys kill the Captain and anyone
who annoys or bores them. Kenny is a security guard and when he keeps seeing
dead bodies he realizes that something is going on. So does Christy who
is on board as a waitress but spends most of her time pickpocketing customers.
It is a constant series of gun battles or martial arts bang ups. Throw in
a bunch of great stunts of people falling some distance. Ouch is all that
came to mind. As soon as Kenny kills one, another few show up. Even the musical
band of gwielos backing Elaine are part of the gang and pull out machine
guns from their instrument cases. A few real wam-bam one one one fights along
the way. Even one between Christy and Elaine that has Christy bouncing against
the walls repeatedly. It has a sweet end. The final fight between Kenny and
Ngai as Kenny's little niece hangs from a rope strapped with dynamite is
a doozy.
I know next to nothing about Kenny - mainly
he has done TV and is also a singer - now a businessman. I think he was
doubled a lot because of how it is shot and edited but he still does much
of it. This is another film that I revisited some 25 years later and enjoyed
it more the second time around. With the way Hong Kong films are now,
these older films just look better and better. Sure, it may be as dumb as
horseshoes but do I look like I care? It is a lot of fun.
