Close Escape (1989)

Close Escape (1989)
Chinese Title: 飛越危牆
Translation: Leaping Over Dangerous Walls

Starring: Aaron Kwok, Max Mok, Michael Miu Kiu-Wai, Charine Chan Ka-Ling, Dick Wei, Yukari Oshima, Chan Chik-Wai, Albert Cheung Miu-Hau, Pomson Shi
Director: Chow Jan-Wing
Action Director: Phillip Kwok

Although nominally considered a Girls n’ Guns film because of the presence of Yukari Oshima in the cast, this is actually a more male-centric crime thriller with Oshima showing up in a supporting role. She delivers the film’s second best fighting performance, with top honors going to Dick Wei, whose speed and power were legendary during the heyday of his career.

Max Mox plays Lam Wai-Leung, a fencing student who has dreams of going abroad to study. Unfortunately, he is not all that well off in terms of money and his brother, a widower named Wai-Tung (Michael Miu, of Fatal Termination and The Fortune Code) isn’t much better. Wai-Tung lost a lot of money on the Stock Market in recent years and these days only has his apartment and a second property, a bungalow that he shared with his deceased wife (and his one major memory of her). The two men talk of selling it to finance Wai-Leung’s trip, but Wai-Tung has other ideas.

Another person who was hit by bad Stock Market decisions is a suave businessman named Chiu Ying-Kau (Dick Wei, of Project A and Yes, Madam!). Chiu, however, is the unscrupulous sort whose shift into crime was almost a given after legitimate investing went south. His current racket is diamonds, which involves buying diamonds and selling them to wealthier collectors for a small profit. Although, like many criminals in these movies, he is always looking for a way to get out of paying, which is where Wai-Tung comes in. Wai-Tung rigs the hotel’s AV system to fill the seller/buyers’ room with smoke and then breaks in and steals the diamonds.

Unfortunately, the criminal who betrays his vendor’s trust will ultimately betray the hired help he needed to swindle the former in the first place. When Leung Wai-Tung meets up with Chiu Ying-Kau the next night to hand over the diamonds, Chiu has him ambushed and killed on his way home. The murder is witnessed by both his brother and his brother’s best friend, Sgt. Ben Kwok (Aaron Kwok, of Divergence and The Storm Riders) of the Hong Kong Royal Police. Ben identifies one of the killers, Big Head Man (Albert Cheung), whom Ben’s colleague Uncle Kwut (Chan Chik-Wai, of Dragon Strikes and Return to Action) identifies as being one of Chiu’s men.

Much to Chiu Ying-Kau’s dismay, the diamonds that Lam Wai-Tung gave him were fake, a sort of guarantee on for his life (or a life insurance policy for his brother). Chiu sends his men to trash the Lam residence (and murder their dog) in search of the diamonds. When that doesn’t work, they kidnap Wai-Leung and try to torture the information out of him. When that also doesn’t produce results, Chiu murders Big Head Man—the police were already snooping around about him—and frames Lam Wai-Leung for it. He flees and is hit by a car driven by a Japanese reporter, Miko (Yukari Oshima, of A Book of Heroes and Ultracop 2000). Wai-Leung takes her hostage (he still has the gun that Chiu left in his hands) and forces her to go to his bungalow while he recovers and hides from the police. And maybe, just maybe, that may be where Chiu left the diamonds…

Although Close Escape’s plot is perfectly serviceable for a low-budget 80s/early 90s action flick, the film does suffer from a paucity of action, especially in the draggy middle act. There is a period of 30-40 minutes where Wai-Leung is convalescing in his brother’s bungalow and Sgt. Kwok is going above the law and observing Chiu, whom he knows has framed Wai-Leung. This section of the film may test any viewer’s patience.

It does start to pick up in the last half hour or so, starting with a fight between Yukari Oshima and chopsockey veteran Pomson Shi (Snake in the Monkey’s Shadow), who plays Chiu’s lead enforcer. There is an assassination attempt by Wai-Leung on Chiu, which leads to some fighting. And then there is the final fight in the cramped bungalow, where Yukari Oshima throws down with Dick Wei while Aaron Kwok and Max Mok team up against Pomson (what an interesting Anglican name). There is some good martial arts on display and that finale is very brutal and vicious. I would even venture to nominate this for Phillip Kwok’s best choreographed martial arts sequence of his post-Venom Mob career.

Aaron Kwok and Max Mok do well with the choreography, but it is really Yukari Oshima and Dick Wei who shine. Dick Wei, a Taekwondo expert, was never the flashiest of the kickers, especially given his particular style. But what Dick could do is the basics with speed, precision and ferocity. His roundhouse, side, and spin kicks look and feel like they hurt—oftentimes because they actually did. Yukari Oshima looks as good as ever, even though she only gets two fight sequences. We get to see her perform an “over-the-shoulder” kick and a scorpion kick, which is great.

The two are well matched, even though the script foregoes the usual HK action approach of “a sufficiently-trained woman is just as good as an equally-trained man” (which us fans can easily suspend our disbelief on) and goes for something a little more realistic: if two individuals, a man and a woman, have about equal training and skills in the absolute sense, the man will stay at the advantage based on his musculature and body structure. Dick Wei did it in Angel Enforcers and he does it again here.