Future Cops
Director: Wong Jing
Year: 1993
Rating: 5.5
I have had this film sitting around unwatched
as long as Jimmy Hoffa has been buried in Giant Stadium. I had heard enough
about it to keep my distance. Based on video game characters from Street
Fighter 2 which honestly meant nothing to me. Have never played a video game
and am only vaguely familiar with Pong and Super Mario (which makes a brief
appearance in the film). Just the idea of live video game characters gives
me the heebie-jeebies. And on top of that, it is directed by Wong Jing who
suffers from directorial Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Syndrome. Wong is
of the film school that an audience needs something new happening every minute.
Combine Wong and video game and it sounded like Wong Water Torture.
Not that I am a Wong Jing basher, I respect
him for being so resilient and chameleon like. He moves with the trends.
Of course, back in 1993 Hong Kong film was nearly undercover to the outside
world and so liberal borrowing of music and ideas from Western films was
as common as going to a 7-11. So Wong, used these characters without getting
permission from the Japanese creators. Wong had borrowed the characters in
the same year in City Hunter. It seems that SF2 was the most popular video
game in history to that point. And I had never heard of it. Square that I
am.
But I decided to jump in after reading many
favorable reviews. It has a cast of wet dreams. Just amazing. And all available
at the same time. Hong Kong was infamous at the time for actors being so
busy that they would go from one film to another in the same day. But Wong
somehow managed to pull this together. He was a big dick at the time. You
didn't want to get on his bad side. The film is like going back and forth
between sucking a very sour lemon and licking dark chocolate. There are parts
that are good fun and parts that felt like my head was being hammered by
Maxwell Silver.
I would love to know what the budget was
because generally they were a small fraction of films from Hollywood. But
the special effects here are pretty amazing with fabulous wire work and the
super powers of the characters. The film has a lot of that in the beginning
and end of the film with odds and ends throughout, but Wong Jing decided
to make this a comedy and at times it hurts like a pulled tooth. I wonder
how this would have been as a straight action film. Pretty great I think.
Ok, here is a quickish rundown of the film in which I will try and squeeze
in the actors names.
It is 2043 and the world has changed. Everyone
has different powers. Sex has been outlawed because of AIDS. A criminal kingpin
The General (Ken Lo) has been captured and will soon be sentenced by Judge
Yu Ti Hung. A few of the General's men (Ekin Cheng, Billy Chow) decide to
go back in the past to 1993 and brainwash the Judge as a young man. The Future
Cops (Simon Yam, Jacky Cheung, Andy Lau) go back in time to protect the future
Judge. Cool so far. But the Future Cops can't find him and end up living
with Chan Tai Hung (Dicky Cheung) and his mother and sister (Kingdom Yuen
and Chingmy Yau). They want Chan to locate the judge and so protect him from
the school bully (Andy Hui). Meanwhile - now using the actors names - Andy
falls for Chingmy, Jacky falls for Winnie Lau, Dicky for Charlie Yeung and
Kingdom for Richard Ng.
This takes up the entire mid-section of
the film and is like eating glass. More pratfalls than Keaton had in his
entire career. Just one after the other like a machine gun that never runs
out of bullets. A few bits are amusing, but it becomes tedious. Then finally
the villains arrive and it is a special effects wonderland. Chingmy turns
into video character Chun Li and is adorable. Aaron Kwok, Dennis Chan and
Nat Chan show up as well. The choreography comes from the legendary Ching
Siu-tung. It was a film of its time. It is also a film of personal taste.
A lot of people rate it very highly. If I could take out all the Dicky Cheung
parts, it would be so much better for me. All these stars and he gets the
most time. Criminal.
