Undercover Punch and Gun (2019)

Undercover Punch and Gun (2019)
Aka: Undercover vs. Undercover
Chinese Title: 臥虎潛龍
Translation: Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon[1]

 

Starring: Vanness Wu Chien-Hao, Philip Ng Wan-Lung, Andy On Chi-Kit, Joyce Feng Wen-Juan, Aka Zhao Hui-Shan, Chi Shuai, Meng Jia, Aaron Aziz, Jiang Lu-Xia, A-Wei, Siu Yam-Yam, Ada Wong Chi-Hom
Director: Philip Lui Koon-Nam, Frankie Tam Kwong-Yuen
Action Director: Philip Ng Wan-Lung, Joe Chu Cho-Kuen, Tang Tai-Wo

 

I think it’s a sign of the times that movies today are over-produced. Lots of film scholars and critics have talked about this phenomenon. And when I say “over-produced,” I don’t simply mean that people threw too much money at a concept that didn’t need it in the first place. I mean that this movie has far too many producers in the credits, not to mention an obscene number of production companies[2] associated with its creation. The latter may have always been a thing—a dozen or so investors pooling their money in a project--but now they simply want to flout their money and get the publicity, too. But then you get to the producer credits and you have 13 executive producer credits, three co-executive producers, ten co-producers, three producers, two supervising producers, two associate producers, three administrative producers, and two more names in the “Produced by” credits. That’s 38 producers—bigger than the main cast sans stuntmen and extras—for what is ultimately a goofy little throwback to late 80s/early 90s Hong Kong action movies.

Philip Ng (Once Upon a Time in Shanghai and Birth of the Dragon) plays King Wu, an undercover cop who is currently assigned to follow the activities of Bob (The Mission’s Lam Suet), a big dealer in the crystal meth industry. We open with Bob having a deal with some buyers dressed in military fatigues and armed with automatic weapons. Unbeknownst to both parties, a sniper, Eva (Joyce Feng of Operation Mekong and Helios) is following along, ready to fire at any moment. She eventually does, but uses a sonic weapon instead. This provokes a gunfight between the two parties and King Wu has to fight to save both his skin, Bob’s, and Tiger’s (Star Runner’s Vanness Wu), another undercover cop. During the fracas, Bob is mortally wounded and an unknown person on motorcycle makes off the money.

Despite the usual warnings that an undercover agent shouldn’t get involved with the quarry, King has been dating Bob’s daughter, Dawnie (Aka Zhao). As a result, King Wu becomes the De Facto head of Bob’s gang. But before he can go about looking for the identity of the sniper and motorcycle thief, King is kidnapped by another gang, who does business on a huge container ship in the Pacific.

Said gang belongs to Ha (Andy On, of Special ID and New Police Story), a former special forces operative who went rogue. Ha is already making lots of money on the white slavery market, and now wants to corner the crystal meth one as well. So he asks King Wu to steal the “cook” who works for Bob’s supplier, Madam Tung (a cameo appearance by Carrie Ng of Naked Killer fame). The “cook” is Chief B (former Shaw Brothers naughty-film actress Siu Yam-Yam) and she’s a real character. Later on, King Wu discovers that the motorcycle assailant is Magnum (Chi Shuai), a former member of Ha’s outfit, along with Eva. Neither of those two went bad when Ha did, so they’re looking to bring him down. King Wu (and Tiger) might just be the two to help them do it.

It’s hard to believe that seven--yes, seven—writers churned out a script that Philip Ko Fei could do for 150 HKD back in 1992. From a writing standpoint, Undercover Punch and Gun is certainly a model case of “too many cooks spoil the broth.” There are too many characters and a lot of subplots—especially the one about King Wu taking over Bob’s gang—that are forgotten about almost as soon as they are brought up. Heck, nothing much even comes of the fact that King Wu and Tiger are undercover cops, beyond a few conversations with King’s superior, played by Nicolas Tse in an extended cameo. And because there are too many characters, relationships are mentioned and backstories are hinted at, but ultimately are left by the wayside. In the opening scenes, Bob makes a big deal about having King Wu as a son-in-law, but him and Dawnie spend only one or two brief scenes together before we get to the climax. It’s all bad writing here, folks.

And when the writing isn’t a problem, the direction by career screenwriters Philip Lui (Legend of the Fist; Kung Fu Monster; Enter the Fat Dragon; The Last Tycoon) and Frankie Tam (The Four trilogy and The Gallants) is just as amateurish as you might expect from the first-time directors. On one hand, the direction is no more amateurish than the Hong Kong action films of yore, which I believe was the point of the exercise. On the other hand, Vanness Wu’s comic performance is so broad that it belongs in another film. When you set his over-the-top silly meth cooking scene next to a harrowing one in which a villainous sniper shoots down several human trafficking victims in cold blood, you get a schizophrenic change of tone that would impress Sammo Hung! But again, that might have been what the directors were shooting for.

Speaking of Sammo, this is an action movie first and foremost and thankfully, it manages to follow the best of 80s and 90s Hong Kong action movies in spirit. The movie starts with a bang as two groups of people fight each other with automatic weapons and machetes. Caught in the middle is Phillip Ng, who has to fend for himself with only his fists and feet. Later, we get a huge action sequence set in a meth lab. It starts as a John Woo-esque gunfight, with Andy On and Phillip Ng looking too coo’ fo’ schoo’ as they mow down dozens of flunkies with two-fisted pistols. Meanwhile, Vanness Wu is performing all sorts of (wire-assisted) acrobatics as he chases down Chief B’s car while running, jumping and somersaulting his way across various scaffolding structures. It ends with Phillip Ng taking on Madame Tung’s top enforcers in an extended bout of well-choreographed kung fu.

The finale is even better. We start with three individual action sequences playing simultaneously. In the first, Phillip Ng faces off with wushu goddess Jiang Luxia (Coweb and Bad Blood), who plays a member of Ha’s mercenary army. Those two do a lot of kickboxing and jiu-jitsu grappling in this dust-up. Meanwhile, Vanness Wu, who mainly has been obnoxious until now, whips out the butterfly knives and has a knife fight with another mercenary, played by Aaron “the Malaysian Andy Lau” Aziz. Knife fights are always cool and Vanness appears to have spent a lot of time practicing his balisong game. Third, we have a showdown between snipers: Eva and Phantom (Meng Jia, of the girl group Miss A), who works for Ha and apparently was his lover at some point.

But then you get to the big final fight between Phillip Ng and Andy On and things really kick into overdrive. Vanness Wu joins the scuffle and it becomes a classic two-on-one against a more-powerful enemy. Andy On has always been a great screen fighter, even in his earlier films like New Police Story. For being a guy who started his martial arts training by copying Jackie Chan, the man has really upped his game over the years. Phillip Ng has studied numerous styles, including wing chun, choy li fut, jiu jitsu, boxing and more. He performs some great aerial kicks in this movie. Vanness Wu, despite playing the lead in Star Runner and Kung Fu Chefs, was never a great screen fighter. But his does some really good fighting in this one and I commend his performance.

Undercover Punch and Gun is a lot like No Problem 2 (2002) and Sha Po Lang (2005), movies that bring us the viewer back to the old days of Hong Kong guerilla filmmaking where the stunts were legitimately dangerous, the fights were intense, and everything else was just a set up for said fights and sunts. I could complain that some of the punches look and feel soft in some of the fights. I could complain in greater depth about the shortcomings of the script. But the truth is, fans need to support movies like this, especially give the crappy wuxia and period kung fu movies that Mainland China keeps giving us. It didn’t improve upon its model’s flaws, but it gave us way more than enough of what made those older films fun in the first place.

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[1] - The Mandarin title for the 2000 film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is 臥虎藏龍, or Wò hǔ cáng long. The Mandarin title for this movie is 臥虎潛龍, or Wò hǔ qián lóng. The characters 藏 (cáng) and 潛 (qián) are synonyms in this context.

[2] - Said companies include Sil-Metropole Organisation Ltd., Dadi Film, Pineapple Movie, SG Movies Limited, CashFlower Communication, Dreams Salon, Fatcat Entertainment, OC Merit Entertainment, Amigo (Films?), Yes Event Planning Co. Ltd., Huaxia Taigu International Cineplex, Wuhan Honghe Cinema Investment Co. Ltd. and Holder Fund.