Thunder Cops II
Director: Jeff Lau
Year: 1989
Rating: 7.0
If you came here
for a comedy, turn around and leave. If you came here to be slapped across
the face till you are black and blue this is the right place to be.
This film is a continuous assault against your senses. It is absolutely brutal
and intense from beginning to end. I am in dire need of a Stephen Chow film
after this. Wait a second, this was a Stephen Chow film. How did I manage
to rent three Chow films and none of them were comedies?
Sandra Ng is the main character in this film
and she gives a stunning in your face performance. Chow in a heartfelt dramatic
role is excellent as well. The film begins with Sandra as a traffic
officer who gets involved with a police raid that is being led by her father,
Eddie Ko. She makes a botch of it and causes the death of her father and
the killer gets away. To gain revenge she goes through police training and
turns herself into a tough Dirty Harry type cop. In tracking down the killer
she uses a junkie informant - Ann Bridgewater in a harrowing performance
– to keep tabs of Shing Fui-On who is doing a drug deal with the killer.
Lots of horrible things happen and Ng has
to use Shing Fui-On’s crippled brother, Stephen Chow to get to him. It turns
out that the killer is also now trying to kill Shing Fui-On and is also after
Chow. This film never lets up and is brutal to the end. There are three
action scenes that are absolutely terrific. In the first one – Chow is about
to be killed – and Ng does a Chow Yun Fat to rescue him. The scene is filmed
from Chow’s perspective as if in a dream and it’s an incredible scene. I
think in the end that I appreciated this film - great acting jobs, intriguing
cinematography and good action - but by the end credits you may be reaching
for your prozak medication.
