First Shot
Director: David Lam
Year: 1993
Rating: 6.0
From the 1950s
into the 1970s Hong Kong developed a well-earned reputation for being one
of the more corrupt cities in the world. Not just the triads but throughout
the entire government including the police force and the British within the
bureaucracy. They all collaborated with the triads and took their share of
“tip money” that everyone had to pay over to either the triads or anyone
in government to get anything done. Any cop or witness who went against the
police were threatened or killed. It became so endemic in society that eventually
the populace had enough and began protesting and bringing pressure on the
government to clean things up. In 1974 the British Governor at the time Sir
Murray MacLehose established the Independent Commission Against Corruption
aka ICAC to root out corruption in the government, in particular in the police
force. Over the next few years many cops were weeded out of the force and
a British policeman (Peter Godber) was extradited from England and convicted
and sentenced to jail. By the 1980s the police force was considered one of
the cleanest in the world. Of course, opinion of the Hong Kong police force
is once again tarnished – not by corruption but by becoming a tool of the
Mainland.
On top of this true story, the filmmakers
overlay a version of The Untouchables with a few modifications that as far
as I can tell has no basis in the truth. But if anything they should have
stuck to the Untouchables more closely than they did. Wherever they verge
from that and add Hong Kong characteristics to it, the film loses any sense
of seriousness. It is rough and brutal but scenes like when they go into
a gay bar looking for a witness and have to act “gay” is near insulting.
They come on to Muscles (Frankie Chan) to get information and then deter
all the come-ons from others in the bar by saying they have hemorrhoids or
AIDS. Yikes. Another time the main character who is a cop has to see a psychiatrist
before being allowed to go back on duty after being shot. She then attacks
his manhood and his likability with his supervisor in the room. There are
a number of silly scenes like this which is a shame because the central plot
is pretty solid if at times quite unbelievable. I mean it is The Untouchables!
Ti Lung plays one of the few honest cops
in Hong Kong who refuses “tip money”. He leads a raid on some drug dealers
and catches them. Till one of his own men shoots him in the back. This is
Simon Yam who had orders to do so. When Ti Lung gets out of the hospital
he is offered a job by an attorney for the government – to form a group and
go after the dirty cops and the main triad villain played by Waise Lee with
cruel relish and a knife up his sleeve for quick executions. The lawyer is
Maggie Cheung but it turns into a rather dull role where she keeps trying
to rein in Ti Lung and his men. She is really wasted. Ti Lung only initially
has two men that he recruits right out of the police academy. Andy Hui who
is a dead shot and Lau Sek-ming who is a Bruce Lee fanatic (at the beginning
of the film to set the time period the news announces Lee’s death). Later
Simon ridden with guilt joins them. But they can’t get anywhere with the
police force and Waise and his hitman (the always welcome Bobby Yip) against
them. But they keep banging their heads against the wall. Some good brutal
action scenes (choreographed by Yuen Tak and Tony Leung Siu-hung) but the
film never really picks up steam. It feels like it should have been more
compelling but the only character fleshed out with much personality is Waise
and it is all bad, A weak script and an inability to keep it focused does
this film in to some degree. It is directed by David Lam who has over the
past few years directed a bunch of those action Storm films - Z, S, L, O
and G. None of which I have seen actually.
