88 Films: Cynthia Khan Takes Over for Michelle Yeoh in IN THE LINE OF DUTY III (1988) - Blu-Ray Reviewed

 

All Images Courtesy 88 Films

Earlier this summer 88 Films released standalone editions of the first two movies in the long-running Hong Kong action series In The Line of Duty, which had previously been released by the studio in a four-film box set. Because the naming conventions of the In The Line of Duty series are incredibly confusing, and the films are only very loosely related, those first two series entries are 1985’s Yes, Madam! and 1986's Royal Warriors, both of which star Michelle Yeoh in her first two major roles, alongside Cynthia Rothrock in the first film and Hiroyuki Sanada in the second. Now 88 Films are back with standalone blus of In The Line of Duty III and IV, both out this week. These films take the series into its next phase: Yes, Madam! and Royal Warriors were actually standalone movies linked only by the basic concept, the producers, and Yeoh as the star, but with In The Line of Duty III, not only has Michelle Yeoh has been replaced by new lead Cynthia Khan, but Khan is introduced as an ongoing character who will be followed through subsequent sequels, Inspector Yeung. It is also the first film in the series to actually use In The Line of Duty as its primary title; it had previously been used as one of several alternate titles for the international distribution of the first two films, but it happened to be title that caught on (confusing, I know – best not to worry about it, as the films up to this point aren’t narratively linked anyway). We are bringing you back-to-back reviews of these next two entries in the series to get their own individual US discs, beginning with In The Line of Duty III from 1988.

 

THE FILM:

 

While none of these first three In The Line of Duty films are narratively connected, they all share the same premise. A young woman, rookie Hong Kong cop (who is of course a martial arts expert) struggles to be taken seriously in the chauvinistic boys-club of the police department, but gets her chance to prove herself when she ends up in the middle of an international criminal investigation against a nefarious group of terrorists or thieves. In each film our protagonist ends up partnering with a fellow cop from another country, who has come to Hong Kong to investigate the international crime. This time around, Cynthia Khan’s Inspector Yeung – by far the most capable cop in a unit of bumbling idiots, who is nonetheless constantly sidelined and patronized because she’s a woman – partners with a Japanese detective (Hiroshi Fujioka, long-running star of the various Kamen Rider series) to take down a pair of ruthless and sociopathic master thieves (Michiko Nishiwaki and Stuart Ong) who have arrived in Hong Kong on a crime spree.

 

Viewers will understandably be nervous that losing an iconic lead like Michelle Yeoh might be a disastrous downgrade for the series, but the film’s fantastic opening scene is designed to prove beyond a doubt that it is good hand with Cynthia Khan. Her introductory fight is phenomenal, showing off not only her fighting prowess and stunt physicality, but her presence and charisma as a movie star as well. By the time the opening credits are rolling, we are definitely on-board with Khan as our new lead. The villains are likewise extremely compelling: as twisted psychopaths who are also passionate and kinky lovers, Michiko Nishiwaki and Stuart Ong ooze both menace and charisma, and feel genuinely unpredictable. Add in Hong Kong action staple Dick Wei as a heavy in their employ, and you have a formidable cast of characters for some great action sequences.

As expected, it is in the action sequences that In The Line of Duty III really shines. The film has an excellent team of fight directors, led by co-director Brandy Yuen, who is the brother of one of the most iconic fight directors in all of Hong Kong cinema, Yuen Woo-Ping (of The Matrix and Crouching Tiger fame). The other co-director, Arthur Wong, is a master cinematographer whose credits are too numerous and impressive to choose from. Between these two co-directors and their team of fight directors, it is no surprise that In The Line of Duty III is a gorgeously shot film with fantastic fight choreography, of both the martial arts and gunplay varieties.

 

Unfortunately the other aspects of the film are not nearly as compelling as the action scenes. The plot is by far the weakest of the three films so far, and the most bare-bones take on the formula. It really is just, “thieves come to Hong Kong, Hong Kong cop and Japanese cop try to catch them, cat and mouse action/thriller ensues,” with very little in the way of twists or unexpected surprises.  This might not be as much of a problem were it not for the fact that this is the third film in the series to employ this exact formula, and so since it does very little to switch up the formula, it gives a major sense of déjà vu. And since our young woman rookie Hong Kong cop is once again paired with a brooding Japanese cop with a tragic backstory, it really does feel way too much like Royal Warriors all over again, but not as good. Plus, Hiroshi Fujioka is oddly underutilized by this film, not getting nearly enough to do, especially in comparison to how much there was to Hiroyuki Sanada’s character in Royal Warriors. The other major flaw of this film is that the comedy elements wear out their welcome very quickly: the movie basically has one joke, that all the other cops besides Khan’s Inspector Yeung are bumbling idiots who screw everything up while refusing to let her do anything about it because she’s a woman, and it gets old fast, to the point of making the audience feel just as frustrated by their nonsense as Inspector Yeung is.

None of this is to say that In The Line of Duty III is bad; it is just wildly uneven, and doesn’t cohere into a particularly satisfying film. It is absolutely worth a look for the fantastic action scenes, and especially for the brilliant physicality of Cynthia Khan, but that’s about all that makes it worth a watch. I’m not sure that the great action scenes make it very rewatchable when the rest of the film is pretty weak, so I might advocate watching this one digitally if possible before buying the disc. The next film in the series, however, sounds like an improvement: it notably stars Donnie Yen as the latest cop that Cynthia Khan must partner with, and is directed by master fight choreographer Yuen Woo-Ping, so I am very excited to continue the series, even if this one was a bit of a low point for me.

THE 88 FILMS SPECIAL EDITION:

 

As with Royal Warriors, 88 films has given In The Line of Duty III a solid, reasonably impressive disc, even if it isn’t the absolutely stacked definitive special edition that Yes, Madam! was.

 

The film itself is in a new 2k restoration from the original camera negative, and it looks fantastic. Detail is strong, the color grading and contrast are absolutely beautiful, with deep blacks and rich pops of neon color, and the transfer has a very organic appearance, with a healthy and natural level of film grain. Visually I have no complaints; it looks great. The audio, however, is unfortunately another story. The 2.0 Cantonese mix is decent enough, but it sounds like it was sourced from some type of lossy analog tape with a bit of distortion/static in the high end. In louder and higher-pitched moments, some noticeable analog static creeps in which I would expect to hear on a VHS tape, but not a blu-ray. It does not sound like an encoding error on 88’s part, but a limitation of whatever late-80s analog source they used, and I assume it’s just baked in to the master that Fortune Star gave them. It is by no means ruinous, just unfortunate.

 

The extras are sparse, but what is here is great. There is a sit-down interview with producer John Sham, who had previously been in Yes, Madam! as an actor, which is a very good, wide-ranging interview. It is much more about his career on the whole than this film in particular; in fact, this film is barely mentioned at all, and a lot more time is spent talking about Yes, Madam!, so perhaps this interview would have been more at home on that disc. If you are interested in 1980s Hong Kong cinema though, it is a very interesting interview all the same. Then there is a commentary by Frank Djeng and Michael Worth, and like all Frank Djeng commentaries, it is fantastic. Extremely informative and packed with information about the production of the film, and also a very lively and entertaining track. It will absolutely increase your appreciation of this film, whether you are a big fan of it as Djeng clearly is, or if like me you think it is a just-okay entry in the series. It is definitely the essential extra here.

Overall 88 Films has given In The Line of Duty III a quite solid disc, odd audio flaws aside. The transfer looks beautiful, and the extras, while few, are very good. That is about as much as one could reasonably ask for the film which is (by general consensus and I tend to agree) the weakest link of the original four In The Line of Duty films. It is by no means bad, and is absolutely saved by some great action, but it is a just-okay film which does the same thing as its excellent predecessors, but a bit worse. Now on to Part IV, to see if the Donnie Yen-starring, Yuen Woo-Ping directed next installment can bring the series back to a higher level…

 

-  Christopher S. Jordan

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