Final Run aka Kick Fighters
Director: Phillip Ko
Year: 1989
Rating: 6.0
This is yet another
Philip Ko low budget action film that Tai Seng has released in a dubbed version
in the states. Like so many of these type of films most of the limited budget
and gunpowder are saved for the last thirty minutes of the movie. Ko does
somehow manage to put together a fairly decent cast – Yukari Oshima, Simon
Yam, Dick Wei and Francis Ng.
Yukari and Ng are - I think – part of the
Thai drug enforcement agency and they are stationed in the Golden Triangle.
It appears that the Thai government has as small a budget as Ko because they
need to use horses to get around! At any rate their commander announces that
there is a traitor in the group. Well, one look at Ng’s shifty eyes and the
jig is up for the audience, but the agency is not nearly as quick. Yukari
takes a hiatus from the film until nearly the hour mark and I was sure I
had been suckered once again.
The action (or inaction to this point) shifts to HK where Ng’s partners (Philip
Ko being one) are attempting to corrupt a customs officer. They tell him
that 1997 is approaching and everyone is stealing money so that they can
immigrate. When this doesn’t work they frame him and he is on the run to
join his relatives in Thailand. He soon comes into conflict with Ng’s partners
and another of Ng’s drug connections – Simon Yam.
Soon though the customs officer gains the assistance of Dick Wei and Oshima
and from that point on the film is nearly non-stop action. I won’t say it
was top-notch action, but not at all bad for a low budget film. Yukari has
a number of fights and shows a few unbelievable flying leg kicks and some
terrific acrobatic moves. It’s just a shame that we had to wait so long for
Yukari to join the party.
