In The Line of Duty 1 - 4 : Disc 1 - In the Line of Duty: Royal Warriors (1986); Disc 2 - In the Line of Duty 2: Yes, Madam! (1985);
Disc 3 - In the Line of Duty 3 (1988); Disc 4 - In the Line of Duty 4 (1989)

US 88 Films 4 disc 2023 Blu-ray collection - Region A

Finally restored Blu-ray editions of this legendary 80's film series that introduced
the great Hong Kong Girls With Guns genre and with tough female cops and lots
and lots of martial arts fighting. Films from the glorious Golden Era of HK filmmaking.

Above: Book with text and pictures

This film series was a Hit in Hong Kong and besides presenting the new film genre
"Female Fighters Girls with Guns" it also were the film debut of The Queen of
Martial Arts - Goddess Cynthia Rothrock, the action film debut of Malaysian ballet
dancer and beauty queen - Michelle Yeoh, and the action film debut of Taiwanese
actress Cynthia Khan. Also, a young Donnie Yen can be seen doing his stuff in no.
4, Tsui Hark doing comedy stuff in no. 2, Michael Wong being annoying in no. 1
and 4. This nice Bluray Box edition has a lot of extras as interviews and audio
commentaries


 


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 for them.

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

 
 
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