In the Line of Duty 5 - Middle
Man
Director: Cha Chuen-yee
Year: 1990
Rating: 7.0
If this fifth film
in the series had a tag line, it should have been “Madame Yeung is back and
this time it’s personal!” Instead of being the “Middle Man” though, this
film is more like the forgotten man. It doesn’t have nearly the reputation
of the previous films in the series (to some degree this is warranted) –
and it has always been difficult to find out very much about it. In fact,
in the Stanford Database it is mis-identified as In the Line of Duty 2 produced
in 1987.
The first four films in the series are all bona fide “Girls with Guns” classics.
Michelle Yeoh starred in the first two and then Cynthia Khan (her name being
derived from Cynthia Rothrock and the then Michelle Khan) starred in the
following two. I always get the impression though that D&B – the producers
– never really had the confidence in Cynthia that they did with Michelle
and so introduce many other characters and other action stars (Donnie Yen,
Michiko Nishiwaki) to often shift the focus away from her. This trend goes
even further in this film and too much of the running time is taken with
characters other than Inspector Yang. In this instance though the other
actors/characters don’t match up in skills or charisma to those in the earlier
films. There is also a lower budget feel to this film and less intensity
than in the previous ones – but even taking that into account this film still
manages to be quite entertaining and have more action than a Sunday full
of NFL football. Some of it is well done, some of it is fairly banal – but
this film has about as close to non-stop action as a film can have.
From the opening scene when Cynthia delivers an awesome kick to the windshield
of a moving car and then hangs on to a moving truck, this film is on the
go. It revolves around a mysterious group – headed by the General – that
is stealing secrets from the USA. The CIA is after them (lots of fighting
Gweilos in this film) and accuses Cynthia’s cousin – David Ng – of being
involved. He is soon on the run with various bad guys, the cops and the CIA
after him. He turns to Cynthia for help. She is not very pleased with everyone
messing around with her relative and is forced to go outside the police force
to help him track down the real perpetrators – all the way to Korea.
The film has a few highlights among all the action – the opening scene, Cynthia
matching up against Billy Chow a couple of times and the final brutal head
through glass/sword fight with a blonde female (who I don’t know).
Though from time to time it is apparent that Cynthia is using a stunt person
– it is also clear that she is doing much of this on her own and she looks
very good doing it.
Here as best I know it are the In the Line of
Duty films: There is always a bit of confusion about which films belong in
this series. The fact that Yes Madam and Royal Warriors are not in order of
chronology is due to the fact that the In the Line of Duty title was given
to them after the fact - at the time of In the Line of Duty III. Queens High
has also often been included in the series, but this was just a marketing
ploy and the film has nothing to do with the others besides starring Cynthia
Khan.
Yes Madam - 1985 - Michelle Yeoh (In the
Line of Duty II)
Royal Warriors - 1986 - Michelle Yeoh (In the Line of Duty I)
In the Line of Duty III - Force of the Dragon - 1988 - Cynthia Khan
In the Line of Duty IV - Witness - 1989 - Cynthia Khan
In the Line of Duty V - Middle Man - 1990 - Cynthia Khan
In the Line of Duty VI - Forbidden Arsenal - 1991 - Cynthia Khan
In the Line of Duty VII - Sea Wolves - 1991 - Cynthia Khan