image courtesy of HK Flix
Rating:
7
AKA: Point of No Return
Year of release: 1991
Company: Media Asia
Genre: action
Running time: 93 min.
Director: Ringo Lam
Action director: Yuen Tak
Script: Nam Yin, Candy Cheng
Producer: Nam Yin
Cinematography: Ardy Lam
Music: Noel Quinlan
Stars: Sammo Hung, Irene Wan, Teresa Mo, Vincent Wan, Tommy Wong, Ann Mui, Lam Chung, Billy Chow, Lau Kong, Terrence Fok, Victor Hon Kwan, Helena Law Lan
Rated IIB for violence
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This DVD is available for purchase at www.hkflix.com
Touch and Go
Irene Wan, Helena Law Lan and Sammo Hung. Image courtesy of WA.
Sammo Hung and Ringo Lam are two of the biggest names in Hong Kong cinema, and most any film they have done is well-known. But this title has flown under the radar of many HK film fans, which is kind of a shame. While it's nothing great, Touch and Go is a solid action movie.
The plot has Sammo as his usual "loveable loser" who sees a gangster known, at least according to the subtitles, as "The God of the Hell" (played by HK heavy mainstay Tommy Wong) killing a cop. At first, Sammo is reluctant to become a witness for the police, but after his home is torched and his friends are threatened, he teams up with a tough cop (Vincent Wan) to take down the bad guys. Along the way, he romances Wan's sister (Teresa Mo) and tries to keep his meddling mother (Helena Law Lan) from driving him nuts.
Tommy Wong. Image courtesy of WA.
This is pretty standard HK action movie stuff, but it's a lot lighter in tone than Ringo Lam's usual work, and perhaps that's why more HK film fans haven't heard about it. Frankly, Lam's direction does fall a bit flat in the expository scenes, especially with those involving comedy. But for the most part, Touch and Go moves along at a fast clip and does a good job of keeping its' focus on the main story, instead of wasting a lot of time on the romantic subplot.
More importantly (at least for this reviewer), the action in Touch and Go is solid stuff. It's nothing mind-blowing, but when you have Sammo Hung working with one of the Yuens (in this case Yuen Tak), you're bound to get good results, and the movie doesn't disappoint in this regard. It's the kind of hard-hitting but still acrobatic style that so many newer HK films are lacking in, and should satisfy any action junkie. Of particular note is the finale, where Sammo takes out the villains while having his arm in a sling. One can only hope that HK movies will once again display this amount of style and balls, instead of the by-the-numbers crud they're churning out nowadays.
