Yuen Biao prepares to right some wrongs

Exceptional - even brilliant - action make this eighties HK actioner a minor masterpiece. Yuen Biao stars as a righteous barrister who finds his case thrown out of court when his witness (and family, INCLUDING THE KIDS) gets offed in an obvious attempt to shut them up. Frustrated, he takes the law into his own hands and goes after the perpetrators.

Would it were that easy to play Punisher; he finds himself the quarry of a gweilo policewoman (Cynthia Rothrock) and her slob partner (Corey Yuen). However, it turns out that Yuen’s not the only guy that disregards the law - the police sergeant (Melvin Wong) does too, and he’s a nasty piece of work. By the time Cynthia catches on to who the real bad guy is, it may be too late, as the blood of innocents and all pretense of actual justice are thrown completely out the window.

The plot is paper thin, serving as nothing more than a thematic framework in which Corey Yuen weaves a supremely dark story punctuated by uncompromisingly sudden violence. This is the sort of film that’s so mired in its pessimism that it has no compunctions about killing off important characters. Sure, the dialogue and symbolism is cheesy; in one moment of thematic overkill, a random passerby steps on a law book that has already had holes shot through it. However, that's only a small caveat in an otherwise exhilarating and remarkable genre picture. (Kozo 1998)

image courtesy of Universe Laser & Video Co., Ltd.