Bullet Points: Mercenaries from Hong Kong
1982’s Mercenaries from Hong Kong is not your typical Shaw Brothers production. The modern setting, the practical locations and martial arts not being the only action content all give Mercenaries from Hong Kong a much different feel.
- Here We Go: Mercenaries from Hong Kong starts off with the intense workout routine of Ti Lung’s Luo Li and then it is time for him to go to work… Luo Li poses as a telephone repairman to gain access to Mr. Wen’s swanky apartment… Lo Lik is there to dish out some vengeance, you see Mr. Wen likes to bring girls back to his place, get them high and take advantage of them (including Luo Li’s 15 year old niece). And if they die, he just has them dumped in the sea. Luo Li gives Mr. Wen a taste of his own medicine… literally! Moments later Mr. Wen’s security team busts in and Luo Li has to blast his way out before he takes a header out the high rise window, landing on the truck he had waiting for him below. Inside the truck was a motorcycle and just like that we have some high speed chase action complete with car flips, motorcycle jumps and one car that ends up in the drink!
- Ho Money, Ho Problems: Luo Li now has a price on his head form some unsavory Hong Kong gangsters and he thinks someone is about to collect when Miss Ho and her bodyguards show up outside his door. Miss Ho wants to hire Luo Li for a job… his wages $1 million dollars. Miss Ho wants Luo Li to travel to Cambodia and bring back a man who killed her father and stole a secret tap from her. This man is now in hiding with the Cambodian guerillas, Miss Ho chose Luo Li due to his past smuggling medicine from Thailand to Cambodia, so she knows he can get inside. The man in question is Thailand’s most wanted man, Naiwen aka The Devil (Phillip Ko Fei, The Dragon, The Hero).
- Mercenaries Assemble: Miss Ho does not expect Luo Li to go on this mission alone, but the team can be no more than six… Luo Li’s first recruit is Ruan Nan Xing (Michael Chan, Legacy of Rage). Nan Xing served with Luo Li during the Vietnam War… Next up, Brand, a munitions and explosives expert that Luo Li first met during the Vietnam War… The team is going to need an expert marksman and that is where Lei Tai (Lo Lieh, King Boxer) comes in… Then we get Hung Fan (Johnny Wang, Chinatown Kid), a professional fighter who used to help Luo Li during his medicine smuggling days… Rounding out the Dirty Half Dozen is con man, thief and lock picker extraordinaire, Curry. The movie did a great job establishing the back stories of all the team members without bogging the proceedings down.
- Go With What You Know: Before they even begin their million dollar mission, Luo Li and the team purchase a variety of matching jogging suits. After that they get in a few team building exercises, while adhering to two longstanding action movie rules… The heroes go into a bar, they need to get into a bar fight AND that fight spills out to a parking garage, further establishing that parking garages are some of the most dangerous places on the planet… From there, the team spends their last night before the mission at Miss Ho’s. The mission will incorporate Luo Li’s past as a medicine smuggler. Each member of the team will carry a medicine kit BUT, there’s a secret compartment in each kit that contains weapons… a variation on the old Trojan Horse plan.
- The Mission: Business really picks up after Luo Li and team arrive at the guerilla compound waving a white flag and gaining entrance just as they planned. Later that night, Luo Li and team take advantage of a skeleton crew on duty (most of the men went out into the jungle to track down some rivals) and take Naiwen prisoner, but before they can leave and head back to Hong Kong, the guerillas are back and now there’s no way out! Throw in the fact that Brand has the place wired to blow in about 30 minutes and things get even more interesting. SPOILER ALERT… that’s not even the end of the movie! There is betrayal, heartbreak, a knife fight, torture, sacrifice, oddly shaped telephones, a bazooka and more!
It was actually the trailer for Mercenaries from Hong Kong that sold me on investing in Arrow Video’s Shawscope Volume 2. Now after watching Mercenaries from Hong Kong for the first time this past weekend, I can say that it was money well spent.
As I said in my intro Mercenaries from Hong Kong had a much different feel from the Shaw Brothers movies I have already experienced, while maintaining the quality one would expect from a Shaw Brothers picture…. Ti Lung was great as the grizzled hero and is the undeniable star of the show, but you can’t discount the amazing supporting cast that surrounded him in this movie filled with action craziness.
It’d be crazy if I didn’t include some Bonus Bullet Points…
- If You Ever: …wanted to see a man nearly get his junk cut off by an angry husband with some hedge clippers, then Mercenaries from Hong Kong is the movie for you.
- Bastard Check: While this was not the typical Hong Kong fare that I enjoy partaking in, Mercenaries from Hong Kong still managed to drop quite a few “bastards” through out the film.
- Musical Cue: The music used for the “urinal scene” really added to the ridiculousness.
- Double Duty: Mercenaries from Hong Kong was written and directed by Wong Jing. Some other notable Wong Jing films include Magic Crystal and Future Cops.
