Enter the Eagles
Director: Corey Yuen
Year: 1998
Rating: 8.0
Shannon Lee’s HK debut is
an action tour de force. The daughter of Bruce Lee explodes on the screen
and it is nearly impossible to take your eyes off of her. Not only is she
incredibly authentic in her action scenes, but she has a presence about her
that makes her interesting even when she is absolutely still. Though this
film directed by Corey Yuen Kwai is totally absurd at times, I think it is
still the best action film to come out of HK in the last couple of years.
Now the script was likely written in a day and the term character development
is a foreign concept in this film, but the action scenes are frantic, kinetic
and exciting. And the film is nearly non-stop action on a big scale.
Michael Wong along with
Shannon and three other gwielos are professional thieves and they strike
a deal with Benny the Jet Urquidez to steal a diamond from a museum in Prague
and sell it to him. Shannon is the enforcer for the group - she does all
the dirty work and does it very well. At the same time, two HK pickpockets
in Prague - Jordan Chan and Anita Yuen - learn of the plan and try to get
in on the deal. When Wong turns them down, they decide to steal it themselves
with bees and honey. Both groups try to steal it at the same time and
everything goes wrong. Urquidez and his gang try to get the diamond by killing
everyone and from that point on the film goes into overdrive.
There is a shootout
in a police station which then goes on to a helicopter ride with a dangling
ladder and then to a shootout through the streets of Prague that is a 30
minute non-stop action blowout. Then there is a poignant pause for a few
minutes and we are on to the next big action set piece that takes place in
a dirigible over the Alps. Benny has a little fight with Shannon along the
way and shows that he hasn’t lost a step or that vicious kick. It was a pleasure
seeing him return to the HK screen as a bad guy again.
Anita Yuen is extremely
charming in this film as the slightly quirky but sweet pickpocket. She gets
involved in the action as well. Most of the film is in English with only
Anita and Jordan speaking Cantonese. Even they speak English for much of
the film and it was a pleasure hearing Anita say in accented English “I am
going to waste your balls”.This was a totally enjoyable ride of a film that
literally doesn’t give you a minute to think about how implausible it all
is. It is kind of really bad guys against lessler bad guys against cute bad
guys.
