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.