Extreme Crisis
Review
Format: DVD
Stars: Cheung Chi Lam, Theresa Li, Shu Qi, Kenya Sawada

A Japanese cult, Shojenomichi, lead by Yoshinaga, now in prison, is attempting to bring its leader back into the group by taking hostages and threatening to unleash a bomb on Hong Kong containing a deadly poison that could easily kill 6 million people. The leader of the clan temporarily is named Lone. Ken Cheung (Chi Lam) and Captain Takami (Sawada) have to intercept the cult to stop it from spreading the sarin toxin onto Hong Kong.

I had heard that this movie had action every 5 minutes. It didn't seem very true in the beginning, but now that I think about it, there was a LOT going on in Extreme Crisis. And although a lot of it was gunplay, it was well done. Chi Lam did his own stunts, amazingly well too. I heard he broke his leg while falling down an elevator shaft when the wire snapped. I was surprised to hear that he even attempted this stunt without a double. I knew that he did some of his own, but didn't think he did them ALL. Anyways, great job on his part. He looks very professional. Sawada did a good job too, though he didn't have half as many stunts as Chi Lam.

But the two of them make a great duet here. One is Japanese, who speaks English, sometimes Japanese, and the other is Chinese, who speaks either Cantonese or English. I like the mixing of languages, even if it makes it hard to read the subtitles (because I was watching their mouths to be sure they were actually speaking the language). That's what's nice here, no dubbing. Everything sounds real, and looks real. Very nice. It's not like Blacksheep Affair where, in Russia (Lavernia or whatever), they speak English with an English accent, dubbed English mind you. What I was expecting from Extreme Crisis was another Blacksheep Affair because of the similar plot, the Japanese cast, and overall look.

Even though there really isn't any martial arts besides some brawls at the end, it all works. Sure, Sawada seems to be capable of doing a fight scene, and Chi Lam looked that way too, but since they didn't get in one, they had to do other stuff like more gunplay or stunts, which was ok in this case. The film quality was extremely high, and the cinematography was so well done that I had a nightmare about it that night (explained below). Oh, the DVD. That's what I bought this on. Sure, extra stuff is included, but the quality of the DVD is really bad. I don't know if it's the codec that they're using or what, but when I see the chunky, flashing black stuff on jackets and anything else that has a trace of light on it, I wonder if DVDs are really any better than VCDs. A VCD refreshes the blocks (what I call them) almost every frame, while the DVDs have smaller blocks, BUT THEY DON'T CHANGE UNTIL MAYBE THE 20TH FRAME!! This angers me because, frankly, I want more from a $25 DVD than an $8 VCD. Nonetheless, that's only in dark parts. The light scenes look awesome, and so do the dark ones anyways despite the stupid MPEG-2 format (couldn't they do better with 4.5 gigs on their hands?).

I want to elaborate here. Chi Lam's scene outside while boarding a moving big rig, from a moving sports car (his stunt too) is well done. He gets inside the truck and finds out it can't be stopped, so his girlfriend (Shu Qi, from Gorgeous) stops the sports car in front of the truck, which pushes the sports car more, so he manages to get out after the truck slows down, grab her, duck, and the whole deal explodes right behind them. If they used computer effects, I couldn't tell. There were lots of explosions, all of which were filmed CORRECTLY and VERY WELL. There was one part where 3 or 4 cars explode outside the Mandarin Hotel and the camera work done on them made my jaw drop. A simple explosion, filmed correctly, can look very nice.

Take note here. This movie isn't for the faint hearted. Lots of people die, even ones you'd expect to live. Hostages are killed routinely, and you see it. Gruesome, but it has some truth behind it I guess. These terrorists were correct in their own eyes, so they had no remorse and no reason to hold back, and they didn't. Reminds me of the Crusaders... or Columbus... ahem, nevermind. But I started getting a little edgy from all of it, which is good I think because the camera work and storyline really hit me hard, and because of it, as I mentioned above, I had a nightmare about it the same night when I watched it, one with the same plot and similar characters, and lots of good guys getting blown away. At one point in my dream, I was standing next to someone who was an integral part of the plot, and someone comes up behind him and puts a hole in his head with a magnum. Not pretty. But like I say, this movie hits hard, harder than any American shootemup like Die Hard 1, 2, or 3, or any Arnold movie because they don't have the right music, settings, camera work, or characters. This one has all that.

Perhaps it hits so hard with the way they moved while shooting and being shot at. They don't just strafe and shoot, with the enemy missing the entire time like in Commando with Arnie, but have to get down and fear for their lives. Hell, they might get hit! Does Arnie think of that? No, he's got his chopper-gatling gun to do the scaredy cat business and he's got work to do, so the viewer thinks, "Ok, Arnie can't get hit. I'm not worried." Here, Chi Lam, Sawada, anyone can get hit, easily. The enemies have machine guns, pistols, and even a flame thrower, which takes out an entire group equivalent in equipment to a SWAT team, which is an extreme scene (makes me think of why they picked the name Extreme Crisis). So, here, the viewer ducks with Chi Lam and Sawada, looks around the corner carefully, and doesn't make quick decisions, which Sawada points out when Chi Lam quickly lifts a dead body with a bomb attached, which would go off if the body is lifted. Luckily Sawada isn't a "careless cop" and prevents the bomb from going off.

Chi Lam takes on a beefcake in a bathroom which is pretty brutal. He does his own stunts, again, one of which is being thrown against a mirror behind a sink and also throwing himself through a stall door. He mostly gets thrown around like a toy, but has the last laugh with a toilet tank cover. I rubbed my head after seeing that.

Because I expected more from the stunt department and there was only that one fight with Chi Lam, as well as Sawada constantly breaking one guy's arm who was holding a knife, I don't want to give this a 10. So, because it's such an enjoyable movie, it's worth a buy.

9/10

UPDATE - 10/4/00 - After thinking a little while, I decided that there wasn't enough material here to make me want to watch it any time soon, and I haven't, so I'm downgrading it to an
8/10

UPDATE 10/9 - Rating System Change

4/5

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