Zui jia pai dang 3: Nu huang mi ling

This third Mad Mission film continues the adventures of King King (Sam Hui), Albert Au (Karl Maka) and Superintendent Nancy Ho (Sylvia Chang). The films had become an institution in Hong Kong at the time, and Maka and co-producer Dean Shek knew that they had a ready-made audience.

Whether this led to a weaker script is not known but it is, apart from the fifth and last instalment, the weakest of the series penned by Maka and company. But the first two were hard acts to follow and there was always a risk of comparison.

For a start, you need to have seen the first two to understand the development of the characters. Nancy has married Albert, and have a bald son, who is introduced in this outing. King Kong receives a mission from Her Majesty the Queen (remember, this was in colonial Hong Kong) and along the way meets certain characters who resemble Sean Connery, Oddjob and Jaws.

The silliness of the film is not helped by Maka's willingness to make a fool of himself. This may be part of his humour and style but here it is taken to tiresome extremes. Certain ingredients from the earlier films are taken and exaggerated too greatly: Au's stupidity and suggested infidelity, Nancy's tough-cop routine, and King Kong's cad, James Bond-like attitude. The plot is extremely thin and at best confusing. Even by early 1980s Hong Kong standards, it leaves a lot to be desired.

It has its moments: Albert Au trying to use the police computer; the interrogation of King Kong by a police detective (played by Sam Hui's real-life brother, Michael); and the 'Aw, how cute' factor provided by Au's screen son. Mission: Impossible's Peter Graves makes a brief appearance in a scene which is entirely in Chinese (Graves is dubbed - badly). Some of the lines are not too bad, but one wonders how well they hold up in the dubbed English versions.

There is some poor dubbing in the Chinese original, with non-Chinese actors sounding typically bad. I suppose it's pleasing to know that the tables can be turned from time to time.

Fans of the series would be advised to go straight to the fourth instalment, which is far superior in humour and pace.

and i'm not just speaking about technical surroundings like cinematography or editing. It is a more ambitious movie that tries to be as silly and enjoyable as his predecessors.

It's especially a credit to Tsui Hark for his fast pace because there'll happen so many things in so little time that it makes you sweat, here's a way more rich story and better portrayal of its characters, simply the best even though Hark reportedly lost any creative freedom over this film, but still managed to make it much more hilarious and balanced movie than any other in this fun series.

It's especially a credit to Tsui Hark for his fast pace because there'll happen so many things in so little time that it makes you sweat, here's a way more rich story and better portrayal of its characters, simply the best even though Hark reportedly lost any creative freedom over this film, but still managed to make it much more hilarious and balanced movie than any other in the fun series.

I watched the Mad Missions in order 1, 2, 3 (4 will be next). The first confused me so much that I stopped the viewing and restarted the next day. The second stunned me so much that I re-watched it the same evening. And now this one..

It is different, with another director, and a much higher budget, it appears. It is still silly, but seems to have grown up and dropped most of the boys' toys the first two featured.

But I also noticed how with experience one sees a film differently. Had I watched it without context, I might have thought, "that hairy-beardy police chief is very unconvincing". But what I thought was, "Hey, there's Tsui Hark again, the FBI loonie from #2". And soon to find out he's also the director of this piece. With experience, one starts to feel as part of the family of Sam Hul, Carl Maka, Sylvia Chang (why, I even was at their wedding) ...

Again there were cute details that made me laugh out loud. Consider a high security access system that plays Tic-Tac-Toe (and can be cheated with extra hardware). There's a glimpse of that old boy's humor again.

The German CinePlus DVD has the English soundtrack for which I'm very grateful (the German dub added excess silliness). And, if you care to spend another half-hour, a very rich set of cut scenes (some adding new content to the plot, some just out-takes). Silent (just with the title music), but ample proof how much hard work goes into making such a film - innumerable retries of the fight at the Seine, or just the scene in Bond Street which starts at street level and then pans up to a window.

I must say I have now acquired the Zuijia Paidang taste, and look forward for #4 now :)

Our Man From Bond Street, the third in the Mad Mission series, sees Tsui Hark taking over directorial duties from Eric Tsang, but fans of the films needn't worry, 'cos pretty much everything else stays the same: Sam Hui, Karl Maka and Sylvia Chang all return for more daft comedy/action and spy-spoofery; there are tons of crazy stunts and silly gadgets; and the whole effort has a chaotic, shambolic feel to it that makes one suspect that they made everything up as they went along.

Part 3 sees Sam Hui's affable thief duped (by a faux British secret agent, his beautiful partner and a Queen Elizabeth II lookalike) into stealing the Crown Jewels. When he is made aware of his mistake, he is convinced by a real British agent (played by Peter Graves, star of 60s TV series Mission Impossible) to team up with his Hong Kong police buddies and get the valuables back.

As much as I like daft films with shonky effects (there are dodgy models, bad mattes and visible wires from start to finish), I do find the Mad Mission movies leaving me distinctly unimpressed thus far. There's only so much awful slapstick comedy that I can take (and that theme tune is also starting to grate).

However, with totally whacked-out action featuring such jaw-dropping sights as a gang of jet-pack wearing Santas staging a heist, a huge shark-shaped submarine (complete with teeth!), and a crazy fight atop an Eiffel tower elevator (between Sam Hui, and genuine Bond villains Richard 'Jaws' Kiel and Harold 'Oddjob' Sakata), those who have enjoyed the previous installments will no doubt also find this one enjoyable.

For the most part, this is pretty entertaining.But it has one delightfully visually inventive robbery sequence featuring among other things santa claus's on jet packs, and motorcycles flying through the air. If only for that sequence alone, the movie is worth watching.