Rock N’ Roll Cop - Fighting Each Other Instead of The Crooks

Nov

20

Rock N’ Roll Cop - Fighting Each Other Instead of The Crooks

≡ Category: Action, Bullet Ballet, Category III, Drama, Hong Kong, Movie Reviews, Worth A Look |
≅ Written by: Michael Kydonieus

Country: Hong Kong
Genre: Action/ Bullet Ballet / Drama /Category III
Director: Kirk Wong
Year: 1994

Rating:

WORTH A LOOK

Coming from a director as strong as Kirk Wong, and a competent action choreographer like Bruce Law, Rock N’ Roll Cop is a major disappointment.

Rock N’ Roll Cop was the third in Kirk Wong’s true crime series, which started with Jackie Chan’s Crime Story, and continued with Organized Crime & Triad Bureau, both of which are far better flicks.

Rock N’ Roll Cop uses that old standby, the gang of Mainlanders who go to Hong Kong for a heist, and then retreat to China. The Mainlanders are so kill happy, it becomes almost monotonous. If someone deviates from their instructions one iota, they get a bullet behind the ear for their trouble (that’s their signature). These guys are so mean that when they pick up prostitutes, they kill them to avoid having to pay.

In order to capture these bastards, the Hong Kong and Chinese police cooperate, at least in name. In fact, they’re constantly maneuvering behind each other’s backs, which allows the crooks to escape time and time again.

So far, so good. But Rock N’ Roll Cop has major problems. The action scenes are frenetic, but they don’t make a lot of sense, either logically or spatially. There’s lots of bullets flying around, but little impact. To add insult to injury, the one interesting action scene at the very end of the film was apparently butchered by the censors, compromising its integrity.

Another problem: the lack of cooperation between the Hong Kong and Chinese cops isn’t all that interesting, and is confusing besides, in part because of the terrible subtitles. You grow impatient at the stupidity of these cops who are more interested in politics than in catching criminals.

Then there’s the issue of logic. All through the film, there have been armies of cops, armed to teeth, trying to capture four criminals. When the criminals are finally captured, and repatriated to Hong Kong, one policeman escorts them. You think the criminals might have an escape plan? This is just moronic plotting.

Oh, it gets worse. Kirk Wong directs his actors to scream at each other constantly, which is a total drag. Most of the cops are largely interchangeable, a rarity in Hong Kong cinema, which is rich in actors with extraordinarily vivid personalities. Even the crooks don’t register, with the exception of the wonderful Yu Rong-Guang, who plays Shum Chi-Hung.

Whenever Yu Rong-Guang is onscreen, as Shum Chi-Hung, the movie improves. He has tons of charisma, and oozes bravery, loyalty, depravity, and arrogance. Shum Chi-Hung’s a great character. Anthony Wong, as Inspector Hung, is also an asset. This isn’t one of Wong’s wildman characters. Inspector Hung is relatively laid back, has a soft spot for the ladies, and delivers his lines in a laconic way which is very funny. Carrie Ng, who plays Shum Chi-Hung’s girlfriend, Hou-Yee, is also very good. The conflicting loyalties and rage at her situation play effortlessly across her face. Hou-Yee works at a hostess bar, where she is expected to perform loathesome acts for her clients.

In probably the most compelling scene in the movie, she is tormented by a client, forced to hold ice cubes in her mouth. Without warning, the client belts her in the face and laughs. And then it gets worse. Those of you familiar with modern porno know there’s an audience out there that enjoys the humiliation and pain of women. But this was fifteen years ago. Apparently, this sort of thing used to happen in hostess bars in China. Maybe it still does (shudder).

If only the rest of the movie were as compelling.

Kirk Wong sabotages Carrie Ng’s performance by pairing her with the wooden Wu Hsing-Guo and by shortchanging her relationships. As a result, one sequence, which should move the audience to tears, fails utterly.

Rock N’ Roll Cop is a wasted opportunity. It has its moments, but mostly it’s a bunch of energetic and ineffectual flailing. If you’re a huge fan of Anthony Wong, Yu Rong-Guang, Carrie Ng, or Kirk Wong, you may want to check it out, but prepare to be disappointed.

Note: despite some sleaziness throughout and some gore in the third act, Rock N’ Roll Cop does not earn it’s Category III rating. It should have been rated IIb.