Freedom Run Q
Freedom Run Q
1992
Director: Allan Fung
Rating: 5.5
Viewed on Mainland DVD
Freedom Run Q stars two of Hong Kong’s
dweebiest male actors – Alfred Cheung and Lawrence Cheng – in a rather bland
buddy cop comedy that comes to life only when Yvonne Yung Hung pops in to
show her winning smile or during the very solid action scenes. The action
choreography comes from Dion Lam who was also involved in the action work
in some terrific films – Shanghai Shanghai, The Stone Age Warriors,
The East is Red, Black Mask, Storm Riders and Red
Cliff – the action here is basic but quite enjoyable. As to Yvonne, this
was before she jumped bosom first into Cat. III films and she is remarkably
cute and graceful, showing her dance training to good effect in her martial
arts moves. If she had perhaps been mentored in the same way as Chingmy Yau
by Wong Jing, she looks like she may have done well in many of those silly
romantic or kung fu comedies that he produced – but the bright lights of
Cat. III beckoned.
I have always found the films of Alfred Cheung and Lawrence Cheng a bit of
a chore to sit through – often playing bespectacled yuppie nerds - and having
the two of them together feels like a joke in itself – especially as tough
(though not particularly competent) cops chasing after drug dealers. They
meet cute as both go undercover and try to sting one another in a drug deal
– Alfred in cringe worthy melting black face. After this they team up to
find the source of Angel Dust that is coming into Hong Kong. They and their
female supervisor (Elizabeth Lee) suspect a Mainland martial arts troupe
from Yunan may be smuggling the drugs in. The Master of the troupe is played
by the great veteran Lam Kau and one of his disciples is Yvonne, who is an
expert in throwing knives and other sundry martial arts skills.
She is planning to defect and meet up with her brother but she attempts to
do so right in the middle of a drug deal that becomes a drug bust when Alfred
and Lawrence charge in. She unknowingly ends up with the bag of drugs and
both the cops and the bad guys are after her – all leading to a few well
played out action scenes and some cute chop stick battles between her and
her kung fu brother. This was fairly average stuff back then and didn’t exactly
bring in hordes of ticket buyers. It is helped a bit by the presence of some
other veteran actors – Bill Tung as Lawrence’s wealthy father and the wonderful
Jeanette Lin Tsui as Alfred’s mother who just wants her boy to become a doctor.
There are also some pointed critical references to the impending Handover
and I believe Alfred Cheung, who co-wrote the script, has been a staunch
advocate of political freedom in Hong Kong.
