The Robin Shou "Action" Series (from Tai Seng)

Eastern Heroes (1991)
Aka: Fury in Red
Chinese Title: 轟天龍
Translation: Roaring Sky Dragon

Starring: Ben Ng Ngai-Cheung, Robin Shou, Conan Lee, Jo Jo Ngan, Newton Lai Hon-Chi, Ngai Suet, Lee Chun-Wa, Yau Gwok-Keung, Mark Houghton, Vincent Lyn
Director: Chong Lei
Action Director: Hung San-Nam, Tony Tam

Strange modern-day action produced by Phillip Ko Fei, with top billing given to Conan Lee and Robin Shou, even though both men disappear from the entire first half of the film after their initial introduction. The movie was part of Tai Seng's "Robin Shou Collection" in the late 1990s, alongside Fatal Chase and Interpol Connection (aka Hard to Kill).

The movie opens with gangster Hawk (Robin Shou) getting released from prison (in Los Angeles) and reconnecting with his boss, George (George Cheung, of The Amsterdam Connection). Hawk swears revenge against the cop who put him in jail, John (a white guy). John's wife is a Chinese woman named May, who is pregnant. May's brother, Roy (Conan Lee, of Tiger on the Beat), is John's partner.

After that introduction, we switch to Hong Kong, where we meet CID officer Steve Mak (Ben Ng, of Phantom War and Daughter of Darkness II). Steve is Roy and May's brother, and he's married to Jo Jo Ngan (of Brave Young Girls and City Warrior), who is also pregnant. Yeah, nothing good can come out of that. After an explosive introduction involving Mak taking down some bank robbers (including female Taiwanese bodybuilder Tu Kuei-Hua), Mak is assigned to handle the kidnapping of a successful businessman named Yau (Lee Wah-Kon).

Yau was kidnapped by a Vietnamese gang led by Vincent (Vincent Lyn, of Blonde Fury and Operation Condor), who in turn was contracted by the head of a rival company (Chang Ging-Cheung). The companies had been in a bidding war for a lucrative piece of property in the States and Yau had won, but if he's not around the sign the contract, then the rival gets the deal. Things are going swimmingly for the rival company until Vincent gets greedy, upping the price of the kidnapping (when the boss asks Vincent to murder Yau) and simultaneously negotiating a ransom with Yau's daughter.

Mak suspects that the rival businessman is involved and follows him around until the latter is ready to hand over the money to Vincent, which results in a three-way gunfight between the gang, the businessman's flunkies, and the police. When Yau's daughter tries to pay the ransom, the police step in and kill several members of the gang. At this point, the surviving members call George in the USA to help the, who sends Hawk to terrorize the Mak family and get revenge for his incarceration while he's at it...

The problem with Eastern Heroes is two-fold. First, it really does feel like two different movies stitched together. Not quite in the IFD/Filmark type of way, but after the introduction of Robin Shou's and Conan Lee's characters, the film spends the rest of the first half focusing on Steve Mak and the kidnapping. When the Vietnamese gangsters call George, which is where the film remembers that they had Robin Shou and Conan Lee in the cast, it becomes a completely different movie. And unfortunately, that new movie is extremely unpleasant, culminating in a long and explicit gang rape and mutilation of Jo Jo Ngan's character. And I guess this is the film where Conan Lee was making such a pest of himself on set that they finally blew his character up without telling him they would.

The action was staged by Hung San-Nam and Tony Tam. The former got his start as a stuntman in Venom Mob films and later went on to choreograph films like Vampire vs. Sorcerer and Escape from the Brothel. Tony Tam was one of the Baby Venoms (arguably a better kicker than Sun Chien himself) and later a member of Donnie Yen's team. There are only a handful of short fights dispersed throughout the movie, with the rest of the action being some well-staged gunfights. The finale gives us a shapes fight between Mark Houghton (playing an annoyingly smug FBI agent) and bodybuilder Lee Chun-Wa (Drunken Master), which is almost comic and clashes with the tone of the other fight going on. And that would be a feral, knock-down, drag-out brawl between Ben Ng and Robin Shou. Not a lot of neat-looking moves, just two men taking turns wailing on each other and kicking the other while they're down.

Fatal Chase (1992)
Chinese Title: 執法威龍
Translation: Law Enforcer

Starring: Robin Shou, Phillip Ko Fei, Waise Lee, Dion Lam, Yukari Oshima, Cheung Chi-Tak, Shing Fui-On, Jason Pai Piao, Ronnie Ricketts, Gabriel Romulo, Rachel Lobangco
Director: Phillip Ko Fei
Action Director: Dion Lam

Another movie that had been included in Tai Seng's "Robin Shou Action Series" back in the 1990s (God bless VHS). This one teams Robin Shou teams up with Yukari Oshima and Phillip Ko Fei in what comes across as a low-budget version of Ridley Scott's Black Rain, only with more kung fu.

After a gang boss (Jason Pai Piao, almost unrecognizable in his cameo here) is gunned down in public by a Filipino gang, the police (led by Wing Chun's Waise Lee) put Officer Dragon (Robin Shou) on the case. Dragon tails the gang leader, Torres (Dion Lam), who seems to be in league with a corrupt cop, Sai Gwai (Cheung Chi-Tak, of Cyprus Tigers). Torres sends his men to attack Dragon--they tie him up to his Filipina maid in a compromising position with a bomb next to them. Waise Lee tails Sai Gwai to a big drug deal between Torres and a local dealer (Shing Fui-On, in a cameo). Bullets fly and in the end, both the drug dealer and Torres are arrested.

Dragon (who was rescued offscreen) is assigned to take Torres back to the Philippines to be tried for his more extensive local crimes. Joining Dragon is a special investigations inspector, Cynthia (Yukari Oshima, of Avenging Quartet and Ultracop 2000). Dragon and Cynthia hand Torres over to the police, only for the real police show up several minute later, led by Sergeant Franco (Phillip Ko Fei). Ah ha! They have been bamboozled! Torres is now free and back with his boss/godfather, Tiger (Subas Herrero, of Guardian Angel and Asian Cop - High Voltage).

Tiger and Torres have a beef with another local gang leader, Tang (Franco Guerrero, of Warriors of the Apocalypse and Dynamite Johnson). Tang is meeting with some American gangsters to purchase some currency plates to make counterfeit currency, but Torres decides to steal them. This alerts Franco's old partner, Billy (Ronnie Rickets, of Angel on Fire), who is able arrest a member of Torres' gang. Tiger hires a pair of assassins to kill the guy before he can testify and then Billy as well. Meanwhile, Torres kills Cynthia in a scene not too unlike the one in Black Rain in which Andy Garcia gets offed. Dragon decides to defy orders and stay in the Philippines and team up with Franco to bring Torres, Tiger, and even some of the corrupt cops in their pockets to justice...

Unsurprisingly, this film is rather talky, jumping back and forth between multiple sets of characters. The action comes in fits and spurts, staged by Dion Lam (Spider-Man 2 and The Storm Riders). The fighting is rather uneven. When Phillip Ko Fei throws down with the female assassin (Rachel Lobangco, Lethal Panther 2 and Guardian Angel), the scene is undercranked and over-edited, which suggests that Ms. Lobangco wasn't a real martial artist. Shou's fight with her partner, played by Gabriel Romulo (the main villain in Ultracop 2000), fares better...until the fight inexplicably becomes comic (in an otherwise serious movie) with lots of intentional undercranking played for "comedic" effect.

The gunplay is mainly uninspired, although it gets a little better in the climax. Shou has a neat fight with Dion Lam at the very end, although it's a little too short. Don't expect much from Yukari Oshima: her role is essentially an extended cameo. She gets one fight alongside Robin against a room full of assassins disguised as baseball players. She throws some good kicks, but she's done much better work elsewhere. Not terrible, but I expected a lot more.

Interpol Connection (1992)
aka: Hard to Kill
Chinese Title: 至尊特警
Translation: Supreme Special Agent

                                                          

Starring: Robin Shou, Yukari Oshima, Simon Yam, Phillip Ko Fei, Lee Kwok-Leung, Lee Chun-Wa, Gabriel Romulo, Leung Yuen-Jing
Director: Phillip Ko Fei
Action Director: Dion Lam

The third and final movie in the "Robin Shou Action Series" that was released by Tai Seng back in the 1990s. This is another Phillip Ko-action fest starring Robin and Yukari and set in the Philippines. It's also not very good, once you get down to it.

The movie opens with a Hong Kong drug dealer played by Phillip Ko Fei arriving in the Philippines for a big heroin deal. The deal is interrupted by the arrival of the police, including the klutzy King Kong (Lee Chun-Wa, the muscular chef from Drunken Master). We know he's the Odious Comic Relief because he's the only member of the police force who doesn't wear a uniform: he's always decked out in a Hawaiian shirt, khaki shorts, and a Panama hat. The police manage to arrest Phillip Ko and that is that.

Back in Hong Kong (or at Interpol headquarters in Hong Kong), tough-as-nails Robin Shou is tasked with going to the Philippines and bringing Phillip back. He arrives in Manilla, where he's picked up by King Kong and the become friends of sorts, despite the fact that King Kong is a mostly ineffective boor. During transport to the airport, Phillip Ko is rescued by his men in a huge shootout. Robin and King Kong torture some suspects to find out what nightclub Phillip hangs out at, which culminates in a scene where a sex show involving Asian girls in bikinis lathering themselves in soap try to do the same to King Kong onstage, only to discover that he's wearing a bra, too...WTF?

Robin Shou follows Phillip's lover to his hideout, where Phillip gets the drop on him. Both he and King Kong are saved by the last-minute interference of Yukari Oshima, who shows up for no reason. At one point, Phillip and his men storm the hotel where Robin is staying and try to kill him, leading to another shootout. And finally, Robin, King Kong, and Yukari team up to take down Phillip at his next drug deal.

Despite the film's reasonably short running time, not a lot actually happens in this movie. And thus it feels slow and boring between most of the action scenes. I will admit that I watched this without subs, so I'm still not entirely sure what Yukari's role was supposed to be, though it seems she had some connection to Phillip Ko's lover--she even briefly fights Robin when he tries to shoot the other woman in the back. Much of the film revolves around King Kong acting stupid, which gets old very quickly.

The action was once again staged by Dion Lam, although he himself doesn't show up. Most of the action is gunplay--Robin gets to blow a number of stuntmen to pieces with a ginormous revolver. Yukari Oshima doesn't show up until about 50 minutes in, but has a nice one-on-many fight against Phillip Ko's men. At the end, Yukari has a nice fight against Ko's bodyguard, played by Fung Wai-Lun. It involves lots of kicking and staff fighting, plus the only time where an over-the-shoulder kick is used as a defensive counter to a jump kick. Meanwhile, Robin has a shorter-but-decent scuffle with Gabriel Romulo. The final fight between Robin and Phillip is a letdown, though.