![\"in-the-Line-of-Duty](\"https:\/\/allouttabubblegum.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/in-the-Line-of-Duty-3-1.jpg\" "\\"in-the-Line-of-Duty")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Two murderous terrorists engage in a violent killing spree after a foiled jewelry heist.\u00a0 Only an ambitious Hong Kong policewoman and a hard-boiled Japanese detective on a mission of vengeance can stop them.<\/p>\n
She may not have the flexible acting skills or fluid movements of Michelle Yeoh, but Cynthia’s got a burning fire in her eyes and a definite presence.\u00a0 I think she more than acquits herself in this film.\u00a0 Rachel is a scrappy and persistent pup, but one with quite a bite to her.<\/p>\n Fujioka is pure personality in a jar.\u00a0 He naturally exudes a strength and confidence reminiscent of Sonny Chiba without the cruelty.\u00a0 His cleverly named Hiroshi Fujioka works for the emotional weight of the narrative, as we can see his earnest desire to avenge his murdered partner.<\/p>\n Sensual like a knife and ferocious like a shark, Michiko (also imaginitively named) is easily the most hardcore member of the In The Line Of Duty III<\/strong> cast. She is death shaped like a woman.<\/p>\n Genji is dying of some disease, and will use every ounce of strength left in his dying body to kill or maim anyone who gets in his way.\u00a0 Nothing to lose and everything to gain, Genji is a heavily armed wounded animal.<\/p>\n While I will readily admit this film’s use of nudity is clearly an attempt at titillation bordering on exploitation, I have to applaud the film makers’s use of this to further their own storytelling ends.\u00a0 In a shortcut to characterization, we get a rather sweaty and intense sex scene, complete with hair pulling, bloodletting (with a knife, no less!), and Basic Instinct<\/strong>-like impossible positions.\u00a0 And though Michiko Nishiwaki spends much of the duration in somewhat of a submissive “taker” position, it is Michiko herself who initiates this moment and literally draws first blood.<\/p>\n In fact, Michiko Nishiwaki’s entire character is one who willingly will use her sexuality to catch her opponents off guard, as seen in the opening, wherein she begins kissing a guard who spots her.\u00a0 She then knifes the man to death, lips still locked onto the poor fellow, in order to silence his screams.\u00a0 So is this misogyny?\u00a0 I wouldn’t say so.<\/p>\n For a film that is basically about two cops versus two criminals, this is one damn big violent movie.\u00a0 And it’s not just the large bodycount I’m talking about.\u00a0 People are repeatedly shot, ever after they’re dead.\u00a0 There are deaths by fire, explosions, car crashes, knifing, and more.\u00a0 People are beat to a bloody pulp, scalded with hot water, and stabbed with an assortment of devices.\u00a0 It’s a Jackie Chan routine gone horribly wrong.\u00a0 But it’s amazing to watch.<\/p>\n I would say the opening of the film, with its sudden burst of violence.\u00a0 Our two lead baddies come swinging off a balcony, firing their machine guns into an ever-panicking crowd,\u00a0 The movie starts on this high note and plays it to the end, but it begins here.\u00a0 Wow.<\/p>\n Speaking of wow, the fight between Hiroshi Fujioka and Stuart Ong is one for the ages.\u00a0 These two kick and punch each other into oblivion, use old boat equipment, ropes, fire, and everything in an old warehouse to destroy the body of the other.\u00a0 And all this while one of them is handcuffed.\u00a0 By the end of it they can both barely stand.\u00a0 It’s so gruesome it gets disgusting.<\/p>\n Ever been watching one of those films where the main bad guy treats his bodyguards like shit and you just start wondering why they even bother coming to work everyday?\u00a0 Why don’t they just quit?\u00a0 Well, we finally have a film where exactly that happens.\u00a0 After being bullied and yelled at for several minutes, two bodyguards literally quit.\u00a0 As bad timing would have it, our renegade Japanese cop is showing up to go after their former employer and he meets them at the doorway.<\/p>\n In The Line Of Duty III<\/strong> is a curious film, starting with its name.\u00a0 To be clear here, there is no In The Line Of Duty<\/strong> or In The Line Of Duty II<\/strong>.\u00a0 In 1985 the D & B Films Company (founded by Sammo Hung and Dickson Poon) released Yes, Madam<\/a><\/strong>, a breakout film for both Cynthia Rothrock and Michelle Yeoh.\u00a0 Yeoh was going by the name Michelle Khan at the time.\u00a0 It was an impressive debut for both women, and kickstarted an entirely new genre featuring female protagonists kicking massive amounts of ass.\u00a0 The following year would see the release of Michelle Khan’s Royal Warriors<\/strong><\/a>, wherein a policewoman teams up with a vengeful Japanese cop and an airline sky marshal against renegade terrorists.\u00a0 While also a success, Michelle Khan went on to marry producer Dickson Poon, who apparently convinced her to “retire” from films.\u00a0 With Rothrock off doing her own thing<\/a> and their other star out of the film making game, D & B Films pulled a move so scandalous and so bold I honestly can’t believe it worked.<\/p>\n First, they re-released Royal Warriors<\/strong> under the title In The Line Of Duty<\/strong>.\u00a0 Pushing Michelle Khan’s name into the foreground of their marketing, they then re-released Yes, Madam<\/strong> as a sequel to Royal Warriors<\/strong>, proudly putting new white person star Cynthia Rothrock right up there with Michelle.\u00a0 Then, they took Taiwanese actress Li-Tsing Yang and renamed her Cynthia Khan, and put In The Line Of Duty III<\/strong> into production.\u00a0 Now, we all know what sort of trickery<\/a> hack film studio The Asylum is willing to do in order to gain a potential audience, but this really takes it to another level.\u00a0 It really shows what kind of faith the studio had in its audience, and I think this film would simply be relegated to a very curious historical anomaly, perhaps best long forgotten.\u00a0 But amazingly, In The Line Of Duty III<\/strong> is great.\u00a0 Like, seriously great.<\/p>\n When we speak of great Hong Kong films, the conversation can often be dominated by John Woo.\u00a0 This is really too bad, because there are so many other wonderful directors and so many truly awesome Action films from that era.\u00a0 In The Line Of Duty III<\/strong>, I believe, is absolutely one of them.\u00a0 The action beats bounce steadily from a contained, almost comedic rhythm to an epic intensity that easily rivals some of the more well-known Action flicks produced around the same time.\u00a0 The fight scenes are brutal and the gunfights are simply crazy violent.<\/p>\n But the thing that stood out to me upon my first viewing, and still stands out after repeated watching, is the movie’s incorporation of the more effective bits from other films.\u00a0 The casual eye may not spot it, but In The Line Of Duty III<\/strong> makes use of snippets from films like The Terminator<\/strong><\/a>, Nighthawks<\/strong>, Armour Of God<\/strong>, and more.\u00a0 Quentin Tarantino and The Wachowskis would go on to use the same technique to great success in the following decade, and here it is is equally effective, if not more because you almost don’t notice it.\u00a0 This isn’t a knock on the movie, of course, just an observation.\u00a0 I think what they’ve done here is a wonderful way to co-opt something they thought would work for their film.\u00a0 If it didn’t work, I might think otherwise, but joint directors Arthur Wong and Brandy Yuen make great use of what came before them.\u00a0 But the real highlight is what they bring to the table themselves.<\/p>\n Despite the usual tendencies of these kinds of films to be melodramatic to the point of soap, Wong and Yuen take the film almost preposterously serious.\u00a0 They move from what I’d at first thought was going to be a James Bond-style title sequence to a fast-paced heist scene, complete with out well-dressed, heavily armed antagonists causing panic at a jewelry expo by firing into the crowd with automatic weapons and tossing smoke grenades.\u00a0 Their heist of the jewels seems ludicrously simple, and their dispatching of an army of security guards is quick and insane, but the pacing is enough to keep you from overthinking what’s happening.\u00a0 It’s almost overwhelming.<\/p>\n All the more impressive is that the film manages to keep the pace for much of the (fairly short and sweet, at just about an hour and a half) running time.\u00a0 The introduction of several loaded Action scenes keeps the pace brisk, and the focus locked.\u00a0 But there is just enough breathing room to make for an interesting story.\u00a0 The villains of the picture aren’t out for financial gain.\u00a0 At least, not after they discover the jewels they stole were high-end fakes.\u00a0 In The Line Of Duty III<\/strong> quickly becomes a brutal tale of savagery, as Michiko Nishiwaki and her lover Stuart Ong go on to seek revenge for their betrayal.\u00a0 But violence only begets more violence, and with every attempt to fulfill a vendetta, more bodies hit the floor.\u00a0 One of our protagonists, played by Sega spokesman Hiroshi Fujioka, attempts to apprehend the two maniacs, only to have innocent civilians killed all around him.<\/p>\n![\"Cynthia\"](\"https:\/\/allouttabubblegum.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Cynthia-1.jpg\" "\\"Cynthia\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\nCynthia Khan as S.C.S Rachel Yeung<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nHiroshi Fujioka as Hiroshi Fujioka<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n
THE BAD GUYS:<\/span><\/h3>\n
<\/p>\nMichiko Nishiwaki as Michiko Nishiwaki<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n
<\/p>\nStuart Ong as Nakamura Genji<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n
[THE SEX AND VIOLENCE]<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nEXPLOITATION AND MISOGYNY:<\/span><\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nMURDER BY NUMBERS: [145]<\/span><\/h3>\n
[THE BEST OF THE REST]<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n
EPIC MOMENT:<\/span><\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nBEST FIGHT: <\/span><\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nBEST LINE: <\/span><\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n[THE EXECUTION]<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n