Sting Of The Scorpion - Betrayal Takes Two

Mar

7

Sting Of The Scorpion - Betrayal Takes Two

≡ Category: Action, Drama, Hong Kong, Worth A Look |
≅ Written by: Michael Kydonieus

Country: Hong Kong
Genre: Action/ Drama
Director: Lee Kwok-Laap
Year: 1992

Rating:

WORTH A LOOK

Sometimes I get annoyed when people are overly critical of Hong Kong action movies from the Golden Age (1985-1995). They complain that the plots are often unoriginal, made up of spare parts from other movies. That’s true but besides the point. The wonderful thing about Hong Kong films from this period is the boundless energy of the filmmaking, the juicy acting, the spectacular martial arts and fight coordination, even the look of the films themselves.

But in the case of Sting Of The Scorpion, I have to admit that I was underwhelmed.

Chi (Maggie Siu), Chien (Anthony Wong), and Hui (Lester Chan) are a tight threesome, best buddies fresh out of the police academy. But Chi and Hui have an even more intimate history — they grew up in the same orphanage. Chi thinks of Hui like a brother, but Hui’s feelings run deeper. That’s why he’s understandably bitter when a romance blooms between Chi and Chien. In fact, Hui feels betrayed.

The subsequent plot developments would be fairly predictable even if you hadn’t seen dozens of Hong Kong movies from this period. Nothing wrong with that, but you have to include enough twists and reversals to keep things interesting, which isn’t the case here. Another problem is that the filmmaking energy isn’t high enough. The pace of the film slows over the course of the running time, eventually to a crawl.

The martial arts coordination by Chan Fei Lit is fine, but not special, which it would have to be to overcome the mentioned deficiencies. As the heavy, Lester Chan is a bit on the bland side, which wouldn’t have bothered me so much if the other elements had been up to snuff.

The main problem is that the film is so predictable that it leaves you plenty of mental energy to contemplate other things, like the fact that the great Anthony Wong is wasted in the part of Chien. He’s perfectly fine, but Wong excels at depicting characters with idiosyncrasies and rough edges. Let’s face it, Chien is a pretty dull character. For that matter, there’s nothing memorable about any of the lead characters, really. The only characters that registered were Sergeant Lei Shen (Johnny Wang), a rough-hewn cop who is the target of an Internal Affairs investigation, and his girlfriend (Cho Chun), who is memorably sleazy and desperate.

The so-called climax of the film is so devoid of drama that it boggles the imagination. I was thinking, “Is that it?” Let me set the scene for you. The villain is taking part in a major public event, with dozens of police around to provide security. Our hero has escaped incarceration and has chosen this day of all days to get revenge. You would expect it to be a major challenge to bring down the villain, providing an opportunity for the director and martial arts coordinator to strut their best stuff and leave the audience on a high. But no, the hero just plugs the villain, who doesn’t even try to get away.

The only people who should bother with Sting Of The Scorpion are Anthony Wong completists and people who are just nuts over Golden Age of Hong Kong cop flicks.