On Richie's word we rented this extremely unusual Hong Kong action film entitled, misleadingly (in Japan at least), Spy_N. A rather silly name I'm sure you'll agree, though exactly how much better China Strike Force is is debatable. Now, I say unusual for several reasons. One, it is filmed entirely in English, clearly as a sop for the international market which, in its increasing importance to Hong Kong's shrinking domestic market, tires quickly of subtitles. This allows for some hilariously poor English from those in the cast whose grasp of it is, well, minimal, but as almost all of the main players come from America (rare for Hong Kong) its not quite the experience-destroying situation it could have been.
The casting itself is bizarre, and shows how much money has been pumped into this particular endeavour. The lead good guy roles are filled by Aaron Kwok, a major Far Eastern star but mostly of the romantic lead kind, and rookie Lee-Hom Wang. Don't let his name fool you, he was born in New York. On the bad guy side we have straight-to-video action legend Mark Dacascos, rapper-turned-straight to video 'star' Coolio and, nominally at least, Japanese uber babe Norika Fujiwara. Yes lads, she does strip off at one point in the film (though both pointlessly and very soft-core). Interesting choices to say the least, and their presence does give a bit more scope to a film whose genre has been done to death, raised from the dead, and then killed again in its country of origin.
Essentially it's the cliched story of two young cops who run up against more than they bargained for while investigating the murder of an associate of local crime lord, Uncle Ma. Finding out that his underling Tony (Dacascos) is in business for himself with American drug kingpin Coolio (er, Coolio. Clearly he couldn't be trusted to remember another name) they go over the head of their superior in an effort to bring him to justice. It's farely formulaic stuff despite the original set-up of language choice and casting, and while some of the set-pieces and stuntwork are top notch the basic plot is far too simplistic, yet oddly confusing due to bizarre editing and pacing, to take it above its more mundane action counterparts.
Undoubtedly the best bit of the film was the out-takes at the end, though I did find some humour in the bizarre racial caricature of Coolio and the constant jokes made at the expense of the various nationalities and races taking part. Coolio himself says "never trust the black man", and he and Dacascos manage to make fun of the Chinese, Japanese, Americans, Blacks, Asians AND the poor French during several brief scenes. Funny yet very very wrong, oh yes. |
