This Hong Kong action-supernatural-comedy is pretty obscure for good reason
but within its broken shell are some choice bits. You just have to be patient
and wait it out. I am not saying it is worth it but if you are a Yukari completest
as I am it may be worth your time. It actually has a good beginning and I
thought I might be in for a surprise treat - but instead it devolves into
a boring muddling confusing mess in which nothing much happens for the entire
middle section and then it comes back with a really good action ending. And
it has such a good cast as long as you don't know how long they are in it
for. Cameos by such veterans as Michael Chan, Eddie Ko, Phillip Ko, Johnny
Wang, Peter Chan Lung - and then small parts by James Wong, Elaine Lui and
Shum Wai, who is responsible for this mess as director. But in the main parts
we have Yukari Oshima, Stanley Fung, Mang Hoi and Lui Fong. Ok, Lui Fong wasn't
a film star but the other three are.
A vigilante cop is going around Hong Kong capturing small time criminals
and beating up triad thugs (Ko and Wang). The cops can't figure out who he
is and in truth they like what he is doing. A little tasteless humor of course
thrown in such as when he catches a rapist in a porno theater. The cops arrive
and stop and watch with Inspector Fung (Stanley Fung) telling them they will
get an infection of their eye and then the rapist defending himself by saying
he never would have if he had known how ugly she was. The cops agree. The
vigilante though is not really a cop but a cop wannabe who was rejected for
being too short. This is Lui Fong who is actually in real life a popular singer
more than an actor - and I can see why. He had dated Carol Dodo Cheng for
sixteen years before breaking up and called his time with her like being “in
jail for 16 years". Just a bit of gossip I picked up.
Anyway, he takes on more than he can chew with his next attempt to stop
three transvestites from stealing diamonds and they kill him. Not the end
of the story obviously as his ghost breaks away from the denim clad Claimers
from Hell, Pig Head (Peter Chan Lung) and Horse Head (Ma Yui-saan) and escapes
to revenge himself on what he thinks are the women that killed him. Fung has
to hand over the case to the specialist - Inspector Lin Lin (Yukari) and
this pisses off Lui because he now hates women. The whole middle section is
him trying to get her off the case and Fung on and it is pretty awful and
irritating. At one point he takes control of another policeman and uses him
to insult Lin Lin. That does not go well for him. Only Hai (Mang Hoi) a newly
anointed monk can see him. Ugh - this part just dies a slow death but then.
Yukari tracks the killers down and goes undercover in some deal with them
and a bunch of baddies. One being Elaine Lui. Fung who has a relationship
with Lin Lin (and there is one weird in bed moment going on there) and thinks
she is cheating on him barges in and all hell breaks loose for the next fifteen
minutes and Yukari goes to work. Her duel with Elaine is easily the highlight
of the film - but then there are two stunts at the end that are holy shit
- one just someone jumping out of a high window right before the explosion
but then followed by someone on fire falling from the window, hitting the
ground and while still on fire crawling away. I hope that stunt person on
fire got a bonus.
