Marked for Murder
Director: Lee Chiu
Year: 1994
Rating: 6.0
One senses that
this mid-level actioner was preparing itself for the Handover that was three
years away. It is your basic cops versus the bad guys with a number of action
scenes - typical - but it portrays the Mainland police as professional while
the Hong Kong cops are close to idiots. There are still photos of the Queen
on the walls of the police station, but they are clearly looking towards
the future. The Mainland Commissioner tells the HK cop, "We will soon be
colleagues". Ugh. I watched this on a battered murky copy from a VHS with
lots of the subtitles disguising themselves in the white background and on
occasion taking a hike altogether. But it isn't exactly a complicated plot.
A few veteran Hong Kong actors mixed with some Mainland ones. Some nitwit
comedy tossed in like an afterthought for some reason. Primarily to make
Hong Kong look silly. 90-minutes almost on the nose.
Kwan Hoi-san looks like he has hit the jackpot
sitting in his office looking at the computer. He has a code on a chain that
will unlock money - lots of it. Ah, the good life. For about a minute. Three
killers come in and shoot him dead. Goodbye Kwan - nice knowing you. They
want that code. Maybe killing him before you got it was a mistake. On the
same office floor employee Saohai (Danny Chow) is attempting to have sex
with a female. Don't get used to her either. She is quickly dispensed with
and Saohai picks up the chain and runs for it. All the way to China. In a
non-related scene, the Chinese cops with help from much of the army are chasing
after some robbers with two hostages. They hide up in a large shed and the
cops say don't shoot because of the hostages - whereupon a few hundred bullets
are fired. The producers must have gotten a good deal on squibs - thousands
are used in the film. Often just for the hell of it. Magically, no one inside
is shot until a few masked cops jump through the window, save the hostages,
kill all the bad guys and remove their masks. All beautiful women.
They are a special force of women headed
by Miss Yang (I can't figure out what her real name is, but she is the star
of the film). She teams up with Hong Kong cop Liang (Lam Wei) to bring
Saohei back to Hong Kong - but about 30 of the bad guys ambush them on the
way. There are a few other solid action pieces before the big one at the
end. The main villain is played by Ben Lam who for reasons was often cast
as a bad guy even though he is quite good looking. Here he plays a Japanese
Yakuza and he is so evil that when his men keep coming back saying they failed
he kills them - one time the guy had to cut off his pinky and then he was
killed. The final fight between Lam and the female cop and Danny Chow is
very good. I wish I knew who she was. Since Lam is Japanese, there are plenty
of ninjas of course. Not exactly bullet-proof though. Leung Ka-yan pops in
a couple times as a dimwitted HK police superintendent. Murky quality did
not help. Directed by Lee Chiu (Kung Fu from Beyond the Grave) and choreographed
by Danny Chow.
