In the Line of Duty IV
Director: Yuen Wo-ping
Year: 1989
Rating: 8.0
Cynthia Khan again reprises her role as HK policewoman Inspector Yeung as she teams up with Donnie Yen and Michael Wong in a case that initially is to track down some drug dealers in Seattle but widens into a much larger net that implicates the US government in wrong doing. An incriminating negative accidentally falls into the hands of a Chinese immigrant and for the rest of the film both the cops and the bad guys chase after him. After the initial scenes in Seattle, the action shifts to HK. There really isn’t much of a plot – basic bad guys versus the good guys and an innocent man caught in the middle but there is a twist or two along the way.
 

What this film is really about is non-stop action and with Yuen Wo-Ping directing it is very well done. The producers must have imposed a rule – there must be some action at least every five minutes and sometimes there is not even that much of an interval. Both Donnie and Cynthia have some absolutely terrific action scenes that allow them to display their skills and they have some very tough opponents to go up against.

There are so many action scenes here that would be considered good in most films - but are almost mundane in this one. That is because the bar is raised so high by a few truly exceptional ones. The scene with Cynthia fighting on top of, on the side of and nearly beneath the moving ambulance is great stuff as is her fight in the elevator shaft against the gweilo blonde female..


Donnie has a few showcase scenes that display some amazingly quick moves and in an early fight he uses one of his patented moves – in one jump he kicks one guy going up and a second guy while coming down. Then in the finale, while overlooking the old HK airport he has a classic match up against muscle man, Michael Woods, that goes on for quite a while and is quite astonishing in its ferocity.
 

In fact much of the film has a sense of visceral in your face action to it – that leaves even the winners exhausted and badly beaten up. Nothing comes easy in this film. Though opinion seems to be divided upon which is better – In the Line of Duty III or IV – I would have to cast my vote for three. This sequel does have more action – but I think the other had a more interesting story and the wonderfully charismatic brooding presence of Michiko Nishawaki. As good as Donnie is in his action scenes, I found his character insufferably irritating – as it was suppose to be admittedly – and thought the brutal treatment of the witness/suspect to be a bit farfetched. In any circumstances though, this would be considered a classic action and girls with guns film.