A Punch to Revenge
Director: Lee Chiu
Year: 1989
Rating: 6.0
It takes a while before this
film revs up its engines, first setting all the pieces in place. Tsang (Eddie
Ko) is threatening his wife with a cleaver because she has entered the business
of prostitution - calling herself the Shanghai Lady. Allowing customers into
their crummy apartment for a quickie on the used sheets for HKD 200 (about
$15). She does it because her husband is broke and they have a physically
incapacitated child. Work from home. Yukari (Miss Fan) is a social worker
and she shows up to quiet things down. At the same time four "tourists" from
the Mainland have shown up for a 7-day guided tour. They stay at the Nathan
Hotel - my hotel when I visit Hong Kong - recommended - moderately priced,
right on Nathan Road near the subway with decent sized rooms. Tell them Brian sent you and you will be charged
full price plus tax.
They are old friends
of Tsang and they are here for business. The crooked kind. A quick score.
Yukari goes to bail out Tsang and has an altercation with Peter, a cop played
by Ben Lam. Tsang introduces his friends to Hung (Chan Ging) who is an ex-cop
and rotten to the core. He has a big job for them. Peter has been after him
for years but now Peter is after Yukari - not for a crime - for romance! Yukari
is kind of cool towards him till he breaks up a street fight and blows up
a car with a single shot. Cars in Hong Kong tend to blow up easily I have
noticed. Her eyes light up. My kind of man. They go to dinner together and
Hung happens to be there and Peter gives him a good kick. To get back at him,
Hung sends four goons to mess with Yukari. So that is the set-up.
We are at the thirty
minute mark and Yukari has yet to unleash one of her roundhouse kicks or punches
to the face. That is about to change. This social worker isn't one to mess
with. Later after taking care of those thugs, she decides to pay Hung an
office visit. Now who is going to pay for the broken TV, smashed glass,
smashed heads and broken desks? Not Yukari on a social workers salary.
The film turns into a nice multi-legged crime flick - the two gangs have a
falling out after the Mainland gang steals some jewelry and then Hung tries
to swindle them - the cops are after the Mainlanders and Hung. Yukari gets
a home visit this time. If you have watched enough of these low-budget crime
thrillers, you know that Mainland gangs are not to be messed with. These
guys are as tough as jagged glass and won’t be screwed with. There is one
great scene in which one of them is escaping from the cops and runs across
the top of about ten buses conveniently parked head to head on the street.
There really isn't that much action other than Yukari's three excellent scenes
- till the end - and then in a remarkably brutal few minutes all hell breaks
loose with a table saw and shots to the head. Solid film. Yukari disappears
for chunks of it unfortunately but then she is only a social worker.
