Disc 4. In the Line of
Duty 4: Yes, Madam! (Royal Big Sister IV: Eyewitness,
1989) Direction: Yuen Woo Ping
A great entry to the series and with almost constant
action all through,
shoot-outs and martial arts fighting. A young Donnie Yen shows his stuff
and impresses and Cynthia Khan have had time to train and better her
moves
and skills even more. Many think this film is the best in the series.
Cynthia Khan plays Hong Kong cop Yeung Lai-Ching (again ... also in
In the
Line of Duty 3) on a mission to Seattle US trailing a drug gang, and
Donnie
Yen plays the Seattle cop ... Donnie Yen (maybe this has something to
do with
which dub you watch, i always use the cantonese audio and maybe in the
english audio dub the actors names doesn't have the same names as their
real ones ?).
Please note: This film supposedly takes place
in Seattle, USA and the cops
wears US uniforms and they have put US flags everywhere in the film.
BUT, the film was shot in Vancouver, Canada and not in Seattle. You
even see
Canadian flags at the harbour, canadian signs, buildings and the foggy
draped
mountains surrounding Vancouver. Yes, there couldn't be any mistake
about
this and the only Seattle pics we see would be some seconds of probably
stock
footage in the intro (of the Seattle Tower).
So, the film takes place in Vancouver for the first part (then in HK)
and it's
strange that the audio commentary doesn't mention this, and Michael
Wong
maybe whispers that fact (and he acted in the film ...) but Frank Djeng
doesn't
budge and insists that the American action takes place in Seattle, USA.
Above: Reversible sleeve
Innocent but illegal harbour worker Luk Wan-Ting (Yat
Chor Yuen) accidently
gets hold of a film roll with information about corrupt CIA agents involved
with drug smuggling. The Vancouver cops .... OK, Seattle cops xxx and
Donnie
also, just like Cynthia's Lai-Ching, monitors the movements of the Chinese
smugglers. Somehow young hothead and violence proned cop Donnie suspects
poor Luk Wan-Ting and arrests him and beats him up at an almost torture
level.
Poor Luk is chased by both the police and the drug gangsters and Luk
flees to
Hong Kong by boat whereby the action moves to another location, to Hong
Kong.
Luk is still chased by the drugsters who wants the film
roll and to kill Luk as he
witnessed the boss bad guy killing a cop in Vanco ... eeh, Seattle,
and the US
cops still wants him too as a suspected drug criminal, and Hong Kong
cop Lai-Ching
wants him also, to protect him.
There are a lot of amazing action done the Yuen Woo-Ping way and some
Donnie
Yen stuff too, and the western underlings that are called in to stop
the police are
delightfully skilled in martial arts, as John Salvitti, Michael Woods
and Female kung
fu world champion Ruth Kokdica.
Cynthia can be seen in a daring stunt on an ambulance, in a fight in
an elevator shaft
against the blonde Kokdica fighter, and Donnie i.a. in a tough roof
fight against
Michael Woods.
Above: Old Hong Kong Universe DVD edition
The film is presented in 1.85:1 widescreen
and with cantonese 2.0 mono or
english mono audio.
Region A release.
English subtitles to be turned on and off from the remote.
Extras: Audio commentary with Frank Djerf and Michael Worth, Archive
audio commentary with Stefan Hammond and Michael Wong, Export version
with classic english dub, Archive interview with Donnie Yen (20 minutes,
in
english, 2001) and an Hong Kong and English trailer
