In the Line of Duty 4
Review
Format: DVD
Stars: Donnie Yen, Yuen Yat Chor, Michael Wong, Cynthia Khan, Michael Woods, John Salvitti

Inspector Donnie and Cynthia are on the trail of a drug deal. What they find frightens them. A person from inside the American government is the chief dealer. Not only that, but the evidence for it falls into the hands of a passerby, an illegal immigrant up until recently, who must be protected at all costs.

I tried not to ruin the story too much from that small paragraph. It should give you an idea of what to expect from the plot. I bought ILD4 having heard that it was the most action packed of the series, and I must say that even though I haven't seen the others, I agree anyways. ILD4 has action every 5 minutes. From shootouts to car chases to kickboxing to whatever else there is, it's packed into this film. Having the DVD in my hands was an extra treat as well. Included on it were trailers for "Yes, Madam!", ILD3 and ILD5. None of them looked as good as this, though. In addition, since it IS a DVD, the quality of the film is so good that it's scary. For a film made in 1989, it looks great. The scenery is so well lit and colored that I thought they used effects, but that's ages up the road. Donnie plays a pissed off cop, Khan plays a cop too, and Yuen Yat Chor is a small fellow who plays a humble immigrant in America. Great acting jobs by all characters, even Michael Wong. I didn't have a problem with him this time because he wasn't some love sick idiot like in Royal Warriors (I think ILD1).

But what deserves commentary is the action. I'm sure that's why you're reading this anyways. Well, since I'm not much of a fan of gun play, I'll focus on the fist fights. There must be around, oh, 10 or so. Maybe 12. More than enough. And these aren't your late Lucky Stars 3 second fights either, but more like 2 minutes a piece. They're fast, mostly boxing, and good too. The hits look like they're supposed to hit, like they did in Tiger Cage 2. Yuen Chor does a good job for being so short. He takes on Donnie a couple times. Donnie is amazing. He does numerous kicks that I envy every time I see them. And the guy can move too. I think Michael Woods does his best (as far as I know) in this one, and Salvitti is CRAZY!! Oh, he fights Yen in the street and makes the weirdest sounds and moves all over the screen. Best of all, you can actually see what he's capable of, which means some good kicks, which he holds afterwords too, and some jumping moves, plus some Salvitti handwork that should have been paid closer attention to in Crystal Hunt, but they sped it up so it was lame. Hell, even Michael Wong does some stuff too. He's not half bad, but then again, some of the time he had a double do the dirty work. Khan was amazing too. She moves faster than most men in the HK cinema and easily equals them in skill. So, I've gone over most of the fighters.



The fights themselves were great, as you might be able to tell from what I said about the actors. Some stunts thrown in here and there, it's a good presentation. However, they didn't have the flare of those in Tiger Cage 2. The angles were sometimes (very very rarely) a little boring and didn't inform the viewer on the action very well and the slow motion scenes didn't make me scream with delight (like the axe kick did in TC2). Plus, they didn't give much emotion either. In fact, the entire movie is almost emotionless. I didn't really care if Luk (Yuen Chor) died, or if Donnie died, or if Luk's grandma died, or even if Khan died (besides for the fact that she's really hot and I wouldn't be able to see her again). Perhaps it's in the color and presentation. But what ILD4 does have is the emotionless-emotion, one that I think it wanted to present. The morale of the movie was not to get attached emotionally to cases, and really, the viewer doesn't get attached to these guys either. So, I credit it on that count. The fights were very numerous, though, and high quality at that. Besides, it's a period piece, and in the 80's I think that these kinds of fights were common and this one is one of the ones at the top of them all.






I strongly urge everyone out there to go try ILD4. The DVD is flawless. Chapters, bios, previews, Cantonese/Mandarin (always fun to change them the second time around because the fights change due to different sounds), and the subtitles are readable. Very important in an import. All too often I get some VCD that I can't understand cause the subtitles were chameleon colored or camoflauged. These are great and I had absolutely no trouble understanding the plot, even though the translations were off a bit.



All in all I give this a 10/10. Cop movies can have emotion or they can be emotionless. I think I've found the two different ones that really hit me hard, this and Tiger Cage 2. Get them both. Don't think of me as generous when it comes to Martial Arts movies (or HK movies in general). I've basically reviewed all the ones I like the most so far. Wait until you see what else is out there. Think Drunken Wu Tang with a serious plot, actors trying to be serious, with serious dialog.

UPDATE 10/9 - Rating System Change

5/5 - One of the best cop movies out there. Hard to match the quality.

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