Coolie Killer
Director: Terry Tong Gei-ming
Year: 1982
Rating: 7.0
Paced like a rabid
humming bird, this 1982 low budget gritty action film has received a growing
reputation over the years. From the opening scene in which two people are
coldly assassinated by a shot to the head, this consistently entertaining
film rarely pauses for a breather. When you think about it later, you realize
that some of the plot elements (and one killing in particular) aren't really
very logical, but you are moving too quickly from one action scene to the
other to notice or care.
The action scenes are plentiful, violent and inventive (if silly at times),
but they fall very short of the slick gunplay of a John Woo film - and are
almost charmingly clunky at times. Part of the reason for this has to lie
with the main character played by Charlie Chin. Chin was a top leading man
in Taiwan during the 1970's - but generally cast in melodramas and comedies.
Action does not seem to be his forte. He looks to be much too awkward and
slow to be believable as a top professional killer. He looks so bad during
the hand to hand fighting scenes that I think my grandmother could take him.
This definitely weakens the impact of the action scenes, but Chin’s stern
demeanor and steely jaw line give the dramatic aspects of the film a good
boost.
Chin is the head of a group of five professional killers - all former coolies
- who accept contracts from a secretive middlewoman and then efficiently
carry them out. Chin receives an offer to take out two of the leading heads
of a crime family, but he turns it down because the targets are located in
HK and his rule is to do hits only outside of the colony. Later that night
a veritable army of killers attacks all five of them individually in interesting
if outlandish ways.
Charlie is attacked in his apartment by a group of roller skating assassins
(why assassins would handicap themselves by wearing roller skates is left
unknown!), another is skewered by a confluence of motorcyclists on the open
road, the third has his throat cut by a naked sex kitten in a hot tub, another
is ambushed in a parking garage and the final killer is chased until he crashes
his car and it explodes. Only a badly wounded Charlie escapes and he hides
up with an old acquaintance and his daughter, Cecilia Yip (looking very young
and beautiful in this very early film of hers) and sets about trying to track
down the killers to exact his pound of flesh for his dead friends. A cop
(Yueh Hua) is trying to chase down Charlie, but eventually allows Chin’s
hunt to play out. This leads to various well staged shoot outs and a fair
amount of blood letting.
The film has a basic almost primitive feel to it that becomes quite gripping
as the film goes on. One never really understands Chin’s character or to
particularly sympathize with him – yet it’s hard not to get involved with
his relentless search for the killers of his friends.