TIGER ON THE BEAT
(Chinatown Video)
Reviewed by Jonathan
Marshall
This absolute treat from the Chow Yun-Fat back
catalogue is very similar to the contemporary blaxploitation classic Bad
Boys in both story and mood. Two mismatched cops - one an avowed
womaniser (Chow naturally) - become involved in a series of gently
romantic, crime-busting entanglements as they bumble their way through
their investigation and a clueless witness protection situation. The aptly
named Conan Lee plays Chow’s offsider, looking like a
slightly stiffer, heavier-set, muscle-bound version of Jackie Chan,
smashing stuff, people and himself with great abandon in between scowling
at his partner. Chow even manages to bust a few moves himself - not
bad given his complete lack of martial arts proficiency (revealed to all
the world with his terrible sword-play in the stinker Peace Hotel).
The story is only marred by an extremely negative view of anyone involved
with drug traders, authorising a misogynistic scene where Chow beats
the crap out of his female witness.
From the moment we meet Chow’s character sucking
back a carton of raw eggs for some inexplicable reason, the frenetic
nuttiness and very, very cheap gags never stop. In one delightfully naff
moment, the pair are forced to relinquish their trousers to a criminal
dressed only in his underwear who is holding two women hostage.
The other endearing feature of the film is the way its
every feature is imbued with HK’s love affair with all things ‘80s
(although made in 1988, this stylistic feature of HK cinema extends well
into the ‘90s). Everything from the priceless power-pop-rock score by Teddy
Robin Kwan (think Billy Idol or Tina Turner from the
‘80s) to Chow’s bright yellow slacks, tacky
tied-around-the-waist Hawaiian shirt and generally slightly camp demeanour
screams bad new wave.
Director Chia-Liang Liu’s whole package is capped
off by some lovely little filmic rip-offs, like Chow repeating the Crocodile
Dundee knife joke with a pair of bayonets, the ‘sword-fight as a
gunfight’ that Kurosowa most impressively represented with the
finale to Sanjuro, and even a wonderfully gratuitous kung fu
chainsaw fight which reworks scenes from such schlock horror classics as Evil
Dead and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Together with Beast
Cops, Tiger on the Beat I is amongst the best of this year’s
Siren/Chinatown new releases.
© 2000 Jonathan Marshall
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