Hard to Kill
AKA: Interpol Connection
1992
Director: Phillip Ko
Action director: Dion Lam
Stars: Robin Shou, Yukari Oshima, Phillip Ko, Simon Yam, King Kong
Hard to Kill has the seeds of a good movie, but is ultimately let down by its' low budget and overemphasis on dumb comedy. The simple plot has Robin Shou as the typical hot-headed Hong Kong cop who heads to the Philipines in search of a vicious drug dealer played by Phillip Ko. After getting there, he is teamed with a bumbling officer (King Kong) and a Interpol agent (Yukari Oshima).
Like most Phillip Ko movies, it feels as if Hard to Kill was edited with a meat cleaver. For instance, there is a cameo by Simon Yam as Shou's partner which looks as if it comes from another movie and it is put into Hard to Kill with all the subtlety of a crack addict looking for a fix. Also, as per Ko's style, the film is very low-budget. Most of the sets look like some guy's apartment, the squibs mis-fire at times -- Ko goes so far as to re-use some of the same actors during the final fight after they get killed.
However, the action is done well enough that Hard to Kill doesn't become a total stinker. The movie starts to wear thin during the exposition scenes, especially with King Kong's lousy comedy (which consists of a lot of stupid jokes involving urine), but redeems itself with solid fights. The ending (which "borrows" heavily from A Better Tomorrow 2's mansion shootout) is done especially well, with both Shou and Yukari displaying well-tuned gun and kung fu skills.
RATING: 5