Disc 4. In the Line of
Duty 4: Yes, Madam! (Royal Big Sister IV: Eyewitness,
1989)
Direction: Yuen Woo Ping
A great entry to the series and with almost constant
action all through, shoot-outs and martial arts
fighting. A young Donnie Yen shows his stuff and impresses and Cynthia
Khan have had time to
train and better her moves and skills even more. Many think this film
is the best in the series.
Cynthia Khan plays Hong Kong cop Yeung Lai-Ching (again ... also in
In the Line of Duty 3) on a
mission to Seattle US trailing a drug gang, and Donnie Yen plays the
Seattle cop ... Donnie Yen
(maybe this has something to do with which dub you watch, i always use
the cantonese audio and
maybe in the english audio dub the actors names doesn't have the same
names as their real ones ?).
Please note: This film supposedly takes place
in Seattle, USA and the cops wears US uniforms and
they have put US flags everywhere in the film. BUT, the film was shot
in Vancouver, Canada and
not in Seattle. You even see Canadian flags at the harbour, canadian
signs, buildings and the foggy
draped mountains surrounding Vancouver. Yes, there couldn't be any mistake
about this and the
only Seattle pics we see would be some seconds of probably stock footage
in the intro (of the tower).
So, the film takes place in Vancouver for the first part (then in HK)
and it's strange that the audio
commentary doesn't mention this, and Michael Wong maybe whispers that
fact (and he acted in the
film ...) but Frank Djeng doesn't budge and insists that the American
action takes place in Seattle, USA.
Above: Reversible sleeve
Innocent but illegal harbour worker Luk Wan-Ting (Yat
Chor Yuen) accidently gets hold of a film roll
with information about corrupt CIA agents involved with drug smuggling.
The Vancouver cops .... OK,
Seattle cops xxx and Donnie also, just like Cynthia's Lai-Ching, monitors
the movements of the
chinese smugglers. Somehow young hothead and violence proned cop Donnie
suspects poor Luk
Wan-Ting and arrests him and beats him up on an almost torture level.
Poor Luk is chased by both the police and the drug gangsters and Luk
flees to Hong Kong by boat
whereby the action moves to another location, to Hong Kong.
Luk is still chased by the drugsters who wants the film
roll and to kill Luk as he witnessed the boss
bad guy killing a cop in Vanco ... eeh, Seattle, and the US cops still
wants him too as a suspected drug
criminal, and Hong Kong cop Lai-Ching wants him also, to protect him.
There are a lot of amazing action done the Yuen Woo-Ping way and some
Donnie Yen stuff too, and
the western underlings that are called in to stop the police are delightfully
skilled in martial arts, as
John Salvitti, Michael Woods and Female kung fu world champion farlie
Ruth Kokdica.
Cynthia can be seen in a daring stunt on an ambulance, in a fight in
an elevator shaft against the
blonde Kokdica fighter, and Donnie i.a. in a tough roof fight against
Michael Woods.
Above: Old Hong Kong Universe DVD edition
The film is presented in 1.85:1 widescreen
and with cantonese 2.0 mono or english mono audio.
Region A release.
English subtitles to be turned on and off from the remote.
Extras: Audio commentary with Frank Djerf and Michael Worth, Archive
audio commentary with
Stefan Hammond and Michael Wong, Export version with classic english
dub, Archive interview
with Donnie Yen (20 minutes, in english, 2001) and an Hong Kong and
English trailer
