Disc 1. In the Line of Duty 1
: Royal Warriors (1986) Direction: David Chung
In the fun intro of the film Michelle Yeoh can be seen
as Hong Kong cop Michelle "Big Sis" Yip and where she,
on a holiday in Tokyo, Japan has to beat up some yakuza gangsters in
a park when out for some sightseeing.
On the plane home she expects an uneventful and quiet flight, but NO
.... She's seated next to Michael Wong, a plane
security officer and there are two policemen who's about to escort the
Hong Kong criminal Tiger out of Japan.
Also, there's the Japanese ex-cop Yamamoto who's on his way to Hong
Kong to bring his wife and kid back to Japan.
Suddenly an armed gangster, Crazy Chicken, shoots the two cops and frees
Tiger and when they hijack the plane
there's time for Michelle, Yamamoto and Wong to do something about it.
What follows is an amazing action sequence
with a take on the old Gert Froebe incident in the 1964 "Goldfinger".
Great Fun.
Above: Reversible sleeve
The Heroic Trio kill the gangsters/terrorists and on
return to Hong Kong they are met as Heroes and "Big Sis" Michelle
is the
pride of the Hong Kong Police. But, there are two criminals and killers
that are hell bent on avenging the death of their 2 crime
buddies, Tiger and Crazy Chicken. Yamamoto (Hiroyuki Sanada) is married
to Yukiko (Reiko Niwa) and they've a little kid and
the first avenger, criminal no.3 - Mad Dog kills both Yamamoto's wife
and kid in a car bomb explosion. Yamamoto goes loose
cannon vigilante to kill Mad Dog, and Mad Dog is about to kill also
Michelle and Michael. What follows is a gruesome night
club shootout massacre, a car chase through Hong Kong and the bad news
is that there's also an avenger No. 4 waiting.
There's an end fight in a Quarry with i.a. a chainsaw
fight between Michelle and No. 4, and the place looks like the one used
in some other trash Hong Kong movies (I Love Maria and Robotrix perhaps)
but the guys doing the audio commentary doesn't
mention it. Anyway, the film is one of the finest HK action films from
the Golden Era.
Above: The old Hong Kong Universe early 2000's DVD edition
letterbox ratio 5.1 cantonese dub with english subtitles
The Mystery of the Coffin: At first when Michael Wong
is buried the name plate on the coffin says "Micheal" but
at
the end of the film in Michelle's flashback the name plate has changed
to "Michael". The commentators doesn't mention
this either. Before the end fight in the quarry, Michelle Yip visits
something called "Yip Laboratories" to get an armored
car, and i wonder if her relatives owns the firm ?
The Mystery of which films should be included in the series, and in
which order ? Essays could probably be written about
this and it's a mess. There are parallell series and a whole bunch of
other In the Line of Duty films to confuse.
But regarding this 4 films box collection, for some reason Royal Warriors
made in 1986 are called In the Line of Duty 1
when Yes, Madam! made in 1985 are called In the Line of Duty 2 ?
The film is presented in 1.85:1 widescreen and with
Cantonese audio mono Theatrical mix or Alternate mix, or English
classic mono dub, or New English dub 5.1, and with English subtitles
(chosen from remote and not from Meny).
Region A release. Extras:
An audio commentary by Frank Djeng, Missing Airplane inserts, Cantonese
and English
trailer and an english credits sequence
