Country: Hong Kong
Genre: Action/Martial Arts/Girls With Guns
Director: David Chung
Year: 1986
Rating: 
TRASH CINEMA ESSENTIAL MOVIE
In some ways, Royal Warriors (AKA In The Line Of Duty) is the perfect example of a Hong Kong action movie from the Golden Age (1985-1995).
It starts out with a goofy block party somewhere in Japan. The cheesy score plays over a montage of various musicians and dancers, which Michelle Yeoh is watching and photographing. There’s a Taiko drummer, some teens dressed up in British flags pretending to be punk rockers, a heavy metal band, a martial arts club, some interpretative dance, and so on.
But the action starts soon enough. A couple of Japanese Yakuza chase a kid who wants to quit the gang straight into the celebration, and Michelle Yeoh joins the chase. There’s a wonderful fight between Yeoh and the Yakuza, where she gets to show off her acrobatic moves and unreal flexibility. The fight choreography, by Mang Hoi, is phenomenal.
It turns out that Michelle Yeoh’s character is a Hong Kong policewoman, Michelle Yip, who happens to be on vacation.
On the flight back to Hong Kong, Michelle happens to be on a plane where two policemen are extraditing Tiger (Michael Chan) back to Hong Kong to stand trial for some heinous offense. On the flight, Michelle makes the acquaintance of Michael Wong, a wet behind the ears flight security officer, and Yamamoto (Sanada Hiroyuki). I don’t think I’m giving much away when I tell you that the gangster attempts to escape. There’s a fantastic fight involving knives, kung fu, drink carts, and a grenade.
The fight doesn’t end well for Tiger, and his associates vow revenge on Michelle, Michael, and Yamamoto. That’s pretty much the plot.
Michelle Yeoh is absolutely out of this world in the flick. She’s gorgeous, charming, and her martial arts movements are a thing of beauty. Sanada Hiroyuki is excellent as the Japanese cop who just wants to be left in peace with his wife and infant daughter. Michael Chan shines in what amounts to a cameo. Lam Wai is a delight as Raging Bull, the heavy of the piece. But the big surprise is Michael Wong (who’s playing a character with the same name, not uncommon in HK flicks). He has been responsible for ruining many a movie with his execrable emoting. He’s usually a terrible actor (there’s even a joke about it in the movie). But he’s actually charming here. Michael Wong romances Michelle like a hyperactive puppy dog. He looks so young and innocent, she might as well be his mother.
The character of Michael points out one of the differences between Golden Age of Hong Kong movies and the present crop. In the Golden Age, the lead characters were men. Now, children like Michael are the leads.
Royal Warriors looks great. Thankfully, it was considered a classic from the time of it’s release, so the film stock has been taken good care of. The transfer to DVD is firstrate and the cinematography by Derek Wan and Ma Chun-Wah is crisp and clean. Veteran cinematographer turned director David Chung keeps the pace moving smartly along. There’s hardly a moment to catch your breath, except for the comic interludes of Michael Wong trying to romance Michelle, who isn’t interested. There’s one intense scene in a nightclub in which director Chung generates a great deal of suspense by utilizing clever framing and point of view.
Another thing to appreciate about Royal Warriors is that the writer Tsang Kan-Cheung allows terrible things to happen to his heroes, and he humanizes his villains by giving them admirable qualities, such as loyalty. This serves to add suspense and increase the rooting interest for our heroes.
The only thing that mars Royal Warriors is the absolutely ludicrous military weapon used in the grand finale. It looks and moves like an armored VW Van. Thankfully, there are also martial arts, chainsaws, sledgehammers, and pickaxes involved as well, and the villain bites the big one in suitably extravagant fashion.
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