TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film

Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

Neive Bellamy Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Patience Watson One of those movie experiences that is so good it makes you realize you've been grading everything else on a curve.

Leofwine_draca While its international title is ROYAL WARRIORS, originally this film was IN THE LINE OF DUTY, the second of a long-running series about hard-hitting kung-fu-fighting female cops in Hong Kong. Inevitably these are excellent action movies for their era which mix car chases and martial arts fights, along with detective stuff and a little comedy. They feel a lot like Jackie Chan's POLICE STORY films, albeit with a little less humour and a more ensemble team. The first four in the series are particularly excellent and helped inspire a decade of similar films from the region.ROYAL WARRIORS is a must for kung fu fans thanks to the presence of not one but two genre luminaries in the title roles. First up we get a young, agile and athletic Michelle Yeoh as the heroine; while her acting isn't as assured here as later on in her career, she certainly livens up the screen in her many fight scenes. She's given excellent support by imported Japanese star Hiroyuki Sanada (ROARING FIRE) in one of his detours into Chinese cinema. It's a worthy follow-up for him to NINJA IN THE DRAGON'S DEN, and he once again plays the same honourable, hard-assed character.A lot of people give Michael Wong (IN THE LINE OF DUTY 4) a hard time, but I don't have a problem with the actor and he does well with his annoying-but-likable character in this movie. And the action is very good indeed, as is the suspenseful plot which forever moves forward with very few slow moments; a massacre in a nightclub is the dramatic highlight. Chan Wai-Man always makes for a decent villain too. While I would have liked a few more bad guys for our heroes to go up against - that's where the later sequels have the edge - this is still above average for the genre and a thoroughly entertaining movie.

Dave from Ottawa This cops vs. terrorists chase flick featured a pretty familiar plot line - Yeoh stops a terrorist on board a plane, and the terrorist chief targets her and two male confederates for a rub-out. But this is a must-see for Yeoh fans. The former (1983) Miss Malaysia first introduced her unsmiling, no-nonsense cop persona here and comes off as a kick-boxing female Charles Bronson. Yeoh's fabulous fight scenes (which, typically for any Hong Kong action star, she performed herself) and on-screen charisma made her a star in this role and it needs to be seen by her fans. It helps that the movie had a decent budget, with good looking production design and elaborate stunts to go with the martial arts. This is a first rate movie of its type.

fertilecelluloid From the mid 80's to the early 90's, D & B Films produced some spectacular features. This is one of them. Everything here is big and loud and brutal. Michael Yeoh, credited as Michelle Kahn, plays a policewoman who prevents a major incident on a airliner, ably assisted by secret agent Henry Sanada. Kahn and Sanada's actions infuriate the mob and revenge comes quickly in the form of an explosion that kills the Japanese agent's wife and daughter. Michael Wong, another cop, assists the Chinese-Japanese duo in their quest for justice, but he only gets in the way, as does his bad acting.This has car stunts, explosions, rafts of grievous bodily harm and lots of woman-to-woman, man-on-man and man-on-woman fighting. John Chung, who directed the excellent "Web of Deception" and the delightful "I Love Maria", stages his action with tremendous energy and works hard to make us feel the pain the characters are feeling.The film has an expansive feel and, though it guns for some comedy relief now and then, never gets sidetracked by it. Kahn's character was replaced in "In the Line of Duty 3" by the aptly named Cynthia Khan, another tough cookie (but not as tough as Michelle).

moribana Fine follow up to Yes Madam. Not nearly as witty, but heavier on action (most of the scenes are very exciting with extremely tough baddies).The last baddy is particularly good, with a silly mocking smile and grin. I loved the scene where he shoots the TV set.The plot is by turns clever and cliched, and the "music" makes the whole thing feel much more cheesy than it otherwise would. Really, in some of these 80's Hong Kong films the DVD's should have an option of removable soundtracks. Alot of the films such as this would come across much stronger now without a synthesizer in the background banging away. Of course this would remove the campy bad guy forte chord which I know many viewers are endeared to.Those who enjoy hard-edged action over wit might even prefer this to Yes Madam as the best of Michelle Yeoh's early action films.