Dois Tiras em Apuros

I used to watch this movie with my cousin when we were kids. It's a pretty entertaining cop comedy starring Chow Yun Fat as Sergeant Francis Li Conan Lee as Michael Cho as mismatched detectives who try to solve a case involving a cocaine ring. Nina Li Chi also stars as Marydonna, the woman unfortunate enough to get caught up in the drug ring mix.

As mentioned earlier, it's a pretty entertaining old school cop comedy - plenty of good guy vs bad guy action, slapstick moments and even a touch of drama and gloom.

The plot is pretty fast-paced and the acting was spot-on.

Grade B-

'Tiger On The Beat' is considered by some to be the Hong Kong version of 'Lethal Weapon', in which Chow Yun-Fat plays Sergeant Francis Li, a police officer who has not had a promotion in 11 years due to his constantly chasing women with his irrepressible charm instead of knuckling down to his work. His supervisor gives him his big case that he needs to earn a promotion -- a drug heist that may or may not involve a group of local Thais -- and is put with antagonistic martial-arts cop Michael Tso (Conan Lee).

Unfortunately, Francis and Michael really do not see eye to eye, and clash frequently over many things. But when things hot up, can they put their differences aside for long enough, especially when their trail leads to that of a possible link to the crime, a woman named Marie-Donna (Nina Li Chi ['Twin Dragons'], who's now best known for being married to Jet Li), is thrown into the mix?

This is more of a comedy than an all-out actioner, and some possible unintentional comedy can be found in the 1980's fashions (bright yellow trousers, anyone?). The intentional humour will depend on whether you are watching an English dub (which, like many other English dubs, loses some of that comedy) or its original Cantonese with English subtitles (and those will depend on who released the version you watched). Some of the humour doesn't travel that well outside of the Cantonese-speaking market, but there's still some great one-liners in the version I saw (the DVD release by Hong Kong Legends, which also has an audio commentary from Bey Logan explaining some of the more obscure gags), and one particular one from Chow when up against a Western kung-fu fighter had me in stitches when I first saw it -- just the timing of it! Chow is actually a gifted comedy performer, and for those used to his work in 'The Killer', 'Hard-Boiled' or even 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' may be surprised at this difference. He does still get to do some action himself, though.

As with many Hong Kong 1980's movies, the main reason people lapped up these movies was because of the action sequences, and that's largely where Conan Lee comes in, although he really doesn't get that much fighting to do in the movie. He still gets to do a one-on-one encounter with Gordon Liu (recently seen in 'Kill Bill') in which they are both armed with some very unique weapons in one of the most memorable battles of this era (I won't give it away but it's crazy!). Still, there are some bits that make you really wish that things had worked out better for Conan (who's also known as Lloyd Hutchinson in other movies) in terms of his potential career as an action superstar.

One thing I should warn women in particular of, however, is a scene where Francis and Marie-Donna have a bit of a disagreement. It's something that played well to local audiences in Hong Kong, but many Westerners may object to it and it may leave an unpleasant taste in the mouth, and it wouldn't surprise me if even some Chinese-speakers found it over-the-top in today's climate.

All in all, though, while not completely great, it does have a certain retro charm, and the action in it is enjoyable.

Before Tiger on a Beat hits the ten-minute mark Chow Yun Fat is taken hostage, not only does he wet his paints, but he faints and falls into a puddle of his own urine. If his wardrobe of a black sun visor, a Hawaiian print shirt tied at the waist, and bright colored golf pants didn't clue you in that he is not the same tough character he played in The Killer, Prison on Fire, or Hard Boiled, that diner holdup scene will. However, in the same scene he does swallow eighth raw eggs in one gulp, so thats to his credit.

Tiger on a Beat features Yun Fat and muscle-bound Conan Lee (who looks like Jackie Chan on steroids) as mismatched cops, Yun-Fat the unambitious, streetwise, womanizer, and Lee the hot-tempered, rookie. Its a buddy cop movie, the Hong Kong Lethal Weapon or Running Scared, with less emphasis on action than the cops drama-comedy antics in trying to bust a drug smuggler. They use a girl named Marydonna, who has started smuggling dope for her no good brother, to try and catch the gang, one of whom is the great Gordon Lui as the main henchman, but even rarer is the fact that he has hair (fans will know what I mean). Veteran Lau Kar Lueng keeps the pace going, though the action is minimal, until a fantastic final battle that involves Conan Lee and Gordon Lui dueling with some big chainsaws. Other than that it is your standard fare, some humor, some drama, an action scene or two. The film is dated, you can tell it was an 80's flick as easily Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo. Die-hard Hong Kong action fans should enjoy it. All others may want to approach with caution, as the comedy and wardrobe may be too silly for some tastes.

Also, A Better Tomorrow fans take note, Ling Ti does a cameo as an informant.

The HK action film had by the mid-80's developed a set of characteristics that hardly varied from film to film. Absurd gun fights, swingy arm kung fu fights with lots of people yanked around on wires to simulate powerful kicks, lots of dangerous stunts frequently involving unprotected falls from balconies or second story windows and plots that shouldn't be dwelled on lest the holes be revealed. This is one of those but with some pluses that lift it above the crowd.

Chow Yun Fat plays it light and gives his character an appealing goofiness that carries the entire film. His chemistry with co-star Conan Lee works really well. Anyway the movie deals with drug smugglers and a beautiful mainland Chinese woman whose criminal brother gets her to delivery his stolen illegal drugs. Chow and Lee are cops assigned to the case.

The film is very rough at times. The action scenes are frequently bloody and harsh which is in contrast to the light comedy of Chow's scenes. There's a lot of juvenile humor about breasts and a tough scene where Chow's character smacks around the beautiful woman, tosses her through a glass table and stuffs her mouth full of powder. She, of course, falls in love with him. Director Liang, know for his distinctive kung-fu films earlier in the decade, is absolutely invisible in the film. Aside from the well paced fight scenes, his style is not apparent at all. The whole film is very much in debt to Jacky Chan's earlier police films.

Not bad if you give it a chance and don't expect too much.

Man this movies chainsaw fighting seen is probably the best their ever will be, if you need any more reason to see it there is something wrong. Good script, good ideas (shotgun on a rope, who would have thought) and good acting, an explosive action packed movie