Tiger on the Beat [DVD]

International movie star Chow Yun-Fat (The Killer, All About Ah Long, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon) plays Francis Li, a lazy, womanising sergeant in the police force – a refreshing change from the role of a hard-boiled cop which Yun-Fat plays in so many of his films. Not to worry, Yun-Fat still uses a good selection of guns in the movie, and despite his character apparently being inept at just about everything, he still has a practically perfect aim. He is forced to work with Michael Tso, a hard working, idealistic rookie, essentially the opposite of Li. The actor, who plays Tso, Conan Lee, has been described as “Jackie Chan on steroids”. Watching some of the martial arts scenes in this movie, it seems that this is an accurate description.

The film starts off with plenty of genuinely funny, light-hearted scenes of comedy. However, perhaps a little surprisingly to those who are used to American comedy action movies, there are soon some heavy dramatic events.

The action in this movie does not disappoint. The scenes with martial arts, while a little short, make up for that with the quality. The shootouts are equally good, with Yun-Fat finding a way to fire a shotgun with originality that rivals the shotgun/flowers scene in Terminator 2. And on the subject of action, Tiger on the Beat is renowned for its chainsaw martial arts scene towards the end. I won’t spoil anything, but suffice to say, chainsaws haven’t been as fun since Evil Dead. The comedy is also excellent, in particular the facial expressions from the two leads, although in the last third or so of the movie, comedy is abandoned in favour of drama and action.

In conclusion, the following quotation from Total DVD really sums up this excellent movie, “Like Lethal Weapon, only far funnier and with more chainsaw action”.

The DVD:

As always, Hong Kong Legends have put out a first rate DVD. The transfer is as good as possible, and same goes for the audio. It’s all presented nicely, with the usual full-length audio commentary by Bey Logan, as well as interviews with cast and crew, the most interesting of which being the one with Gordon Liu, of Kill Bill fame. Deleted scenes would have been nice, but the tribute (again by Bey Logan) to director Lau Kar-leung more than makes up for this.

Things complicate when the sister of one of the suspects, Maria-Donna (Nina Li-Chi, 'Twin Dragons' -- nowadays better known for being married to Jet Li), becomes involved in the police work...

Although compared to 'Lethal Weapon' in terms of content, which is understandable given that it mixes comedy with very violent action (be it gunplay or martial arts), but some of the verbal comedy may not be understood by those unfamiliar with Hong Kong culture (for example, there's one, ahem, 'exchange' between Chow Yun-Fat and Nina Li-Chi that may cause offence to Western audiences, but was included because it played well to Hong Kong audiences). However, it still passes as great entertainment, due mainly to the performances -- Chow is his usual brilliant self, and it is refreshing to see him playing a comedic role compared to the gun-toting hero we're familiar with from his later roles such as in 'The Killer' or 'Hard Boiled'; in fact, Hong Kong audiences PREFERRED to see him doing comedy, but due to a requirement for a knowledge of local humour these are unlikely to get a release in the West -- , the visual comedy and, of course, the action.

A lot of the action is gun-play, but Conan gets to bust a martial move (sort of; he's not really a martial artist but passes as one quite well) and even does a lot of his own stuntwork -- it's a shame he didn't become the star he so easily could have! However, his most famous scene is his duel with Gordon Liu, in which both brandish chainsaws, which they swing like swords!

Extras include Bey Logan's audio commentary (which is even better here, as he explains some of the humour that may be lost on those unfamiliar with culture and Cantonese language), the usual choice between subtitled Cantonese or English dubbed, trailers, interviews (Gordon Liu and Wellington Fong) and further attractions.

Recommended, even if just for the chainsaw duel!

The first 15 minutes are just so funny with Chow playing the laid back cop who has an eye for the ladies while Conan Lee plays it straight and has some excellent fighting scenes.

Chow also has some great action scenes and the film is just so well put together I could not really see any flaws in this film and feel that this is one of Chows better films.

Also this HongKong legends version has an excellent picture and so the film looks like it could have been made yesterday.

I can heartily recommend this film to any action junkies out there looking for a fun action film that does not take itself to seriously.