Tiger On The Beat
1990
A girl-crazy cop is matched with a rookie partner. Their assignment Read more
| Starring | Chow Yun-Fat, Conan Lee, Gordon Liu |
|---|---|
| Director | Liu Chia-Liang |
| Genres | Action/Adventure, World Cinema |
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Tiger On The Beat
A girl-crazy cop is matched with a rookie partner. Their assignment
| Starring | Chow Yun-Fat, Conan Lee, Gordon Liu |
|---|---|
| Director | Liu Chia-Liang |
| Studio | E1 ENTERTAINMENT |
| Run time | DVD: 1 hr 30 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Genres | Action/Adventure, World Cinema |
| Language | DVD: Cantonese |
| Released | DVD: 26 Jan 2004 Production year: 1990 |
| Format | DVD |
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Critics' reviews
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An odd mixture of violent and bloody action and broad comedy which is likely to have a limited appeal for most Western audiences. (At one point a villain threatens to have a kidnapped female hostage burned alive. When that threat doesn't appear to work, h
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Most helpful member's review
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4 out of 5 people found this review helpful
Hack Job of a Film
Tiresome early-ish asian action film in the mismatched buddy cop genre. Nonesense from start to finish. Probably only of interest to Chow Yun Fat fans (where I came in) to see some of the poorly made material he had to wade through to get where he is today.
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Most recent members' review
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3 out of 3 people found this review helpful
Watchable than Lethal Weapon!
This film should really be compared to the underrated yet brilliant Running Scared than Lethal Weapon as the story borrows from the former in key scenes. Coincidentally, the producer of this film had also produced Skinny Tiger Fatty Dragon, which was also inspired by Running Scared, so it makes you wonder how successful Running Scared was in Hong Kong. Which shouldn't really be all that surprising if it was seeing as how the local audience in Hong Kong are more interested in comedies than action films (hence the mixing of genres that takes place in Hong Kong), something which should also tell you about the reason why Tiger On The Beat made more money than Chow Yun Fat's other/more famous action films - The Better Tomorrow Trilogy, The Killer, Flaming Brothers, Full Contact, Rich & Famous, Tragic Hero and Hard Boiled. In fact, the only action films which made more money than Tiger On The Beat were the God Of Gamblers films made by Wong Jing.......and even those were comedies!!!
A lot of people have complained about the misogynistic attitudes that Chow Yun Fat's character conveys (though the actor himself, thankfully, despised having to do it), but personally it's nowhere near as bad as the fact that towards the end of the film the female victim likes him so much that she cries for him when she has to leave (and for no plausible reason either other than to make her more sympathetic - an acknowledged marketing ploy by the producer to make her more likeable for Asian audiences).
Though this plot development is nowhere near as implausible as in Lethal Weapon where the final fight between Mel Gibson and Gary Busey is so contrived that this is just slightly coherent when undertaking the level of comprehensiveness in order to pinpoint the motivations of Nina Li's character.
Chow Yun Fat and Conan Lee have very good rapport which belittles the fact that Chow thought likewise (they supposedly didn't get along).
Conan looks like a muscular version of Jackie Chan (or a Jackie Chan on steroids) which is the same thing that could be said for Dragon Lee's similarities to Bruce Lee. It's a shame Chow couldn't return for the sequel (Chow's motivation for doing so was probably the reason why Conan was blacklisted for the 2nd time in the Hong Kong film industry) as he much preferred to extremely expand, extend and further elaborate on his comic versatility in Wong Jing's God Of Gamblers and to help John Woo make what he, the director himself, calls his perfectly made film, The Killer.
Whilst some critics note Chow's appearance in this film as being one bumpy ride before fame, it's a shame Conan never capitalized on his talents to embrace fame (ala George Lazenby - the Australian James Bond) as he could have proved to be as big as Jackie Chan and probably bigger due to English being his first language and being more American in nature due to him being brought up in New York. Conan also has that same ability to do risky stunts, even regardless of the fact that he could have easily used a stunt double (there was one who looked liked him, but Conan did most of his own stunts). Conan certainly has that 'If Jackie can do it then so can I' attitude. Interestingly, Conan was involved in Jackie Chan's Police Story 4: First Strike (whether his scene was removed is uncertain) and in that film Jackie does a fight on stilts much similar to a fight scene Conan had performed in Ninja In The Dragon's Den (kind of like Jackie's way of saying 'You can't beat me kid' and his symbolic way of looking down on Conan {not literally though one wonders if Conan was a hidden extra in that scene} with bigger stilts).
The action in this film has both +'s and -'s as even though Lau Kar Leung (a.k.a Liu Chia Liang) is unrivalled for pure traditional martial arts action, he never really hit the same heights in contemporary films as his peers: Corey Yuen Kwai, Yuen Woo Ping and Sammo Hung in particular.
But whilst that could be said, the action is well choreographed and it's obvious that Joel Silver was inspired by this film when he produced Exit Wounds starring Steven Seagal and DMX (from Jet Li's Romeo Must Die).
The shotgun attached with a long piece of equipment to shoot and hide at the same time had been reused except with a beltbuckle. The chainsaw bit was also taken in said Hollywood actioner though not really in the same heights (probably due to the usual Hollywood insurance unions and regulations).
But to give credit to Hollywood, there's a fight scene which was clearly influenced by Tobe Hooper's Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 though this battle (as performed by Gordon Liu {from Kill Bill} and Conan) outdoes the other battle on every level (something which makes up for Lau's resentness, rigidity and/or reluctance for abandoning traditional martial arts action and fitting in with contemporary martial arts action as does the level of gunplay in the film too).
As a piece of trivia, there was going to be a sequel to Running Scared called Still Running but the film only made US$ 38 million at the box office so the idea was scrapped, though it could be argued that the schedule permits of Billy Crystal and Gregory Hines would have stopped such a thing from happening unless a big financial investment was involved. -
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Tiger On The Beat
A girl-crazy cop is matched with a rookie partner. Their ...
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