Tiger Cage 3

      
Director: Yuen Wo-ping
Year:  1991
Rating: 7.0
I am not sure why I never got around to watching the third in this series since the first two were incredibly good action films - two of the best hard hitting give no quarter films of the 1990s. Still better late then never. But when I saw the credits roll I kind of went oh so this is why I never watched it. The first two have incredibly good casts - in the first they had Donnie Yen, Simon Yam, Leung Kar-yan, Johnny Wang, Michael Woods, Fung Hak-on and others - in the second Donnie really takes over but there is also Cynthia Khan, Robin Shou, Lo Lieh, Michael Woods and John Salvitti. Here as the two main actors there is Michael Wong and Cheung Kwok-leung with the ever so beautiful Sharla Cheung-man and with the bad guys played by Wong Kam-kong and John Cheung. Eh. Wong is by no means an action actor, Cheung-man has been in some good action films but isn't really known for that and I admit to having no idea who Kwok-leung was.






What I had forgotten though was that the director of all three of these films (unconnected except in name) is the legendary Yuen Wo-ping and he could make me look like an action star (with a whole lot of editing and doubling). He is amazing. And it turns out that Kwok-leung is incredibly good in the martial arts department with multiple occasions of double, triple, maybe quadruple leg kicks in the air - why he never made it to the big time is a mystery to me after this (ok not a lot of personality). The action is terrific - some really brutal take-downs, stunts and just plain bashing each other up. All very nicely choreographed. There are a couple really stand-out set pieces - the one between Kwok-leung and John Cheung is long and what modern action films are missing - blood and guts and everything else. There are action sequences throughout from hand to hand to gunfights to harpoons to missile launchers. And Yuen wisely keeps Michael Wong to basic gun and punch stuff. But what surprised me even more was that it had a decent plot with a few twists on the way and a pretty downbeat mood. Bad shit happens to everyone.





James (Kwok-leung) and John (Michael Wong) are inspectors for a government agency investigating financial corruption - in this case the dealings of Mr. Lee (Wong Kam-kong) who is as crooked as the letter Z. James is a straight arrow and has the exquisite Man-Cheung as a girlfriend to prove it while John is a bit shady using stock tips that he hears from the investigation to play the market. Then as they move in to arrest a partner of Lee all hell breaks loose and pretty much remains that way - but it turns almost into an action noir as there are double crosses everywhere and a femme fatale who is more than she appears. Still it is the action that we come for - not some confusing financial con that takes place - and that is delivered on a silver and blood splattered platter.