The plot is pretty straightforward here -- after foiling a mid-air hijacking attempt, a trio of cops team up to bring down a gang of killers who are hell-bent on revenge.

Royal Warriors falls into many of the traps of the genre, such as weak plot motivators (innocent people getting killed inspires the cops, etc.) and a dull romantic subplot. And Michael Wong stinks up every scene he's in (in fact, he's so bad that he's dubbed in both the English and Chinese versions). But Royal Warriors delivers action, and plenty of it. The first action sequence occurs about five minutes into the movie and it rarely lets up from there. The finale has Michelle driving a Road Warrior-esque armored vehicle and then engaging in a duel with a chainsaw-wielding bad guy definitely ranks among the top of Yeoh's action work. Royal Warrior's script, though pretty weak, does allow Yeoh to be a bit tougher than in many of her other films. Though she is still plenty cute, there's a hard edge to her that makes watching what is really a stock character more enjoyable.

Due to the dubbing, re-editing and re-titling of the movies for international release, there is some confusion as to exactly what movies fall in the In the Line of Duty series. There are several theories about the time line, but this is the one I subscribe to:

• ITLOD1 = Royal Warriors (1986)
• ITLOD2 = Yes Madam (1985) -- this is sometimes called ITLOD 1 because it came out first chronologically.
• ITLOD3 = Force of the Dragon (1988) -- called Yes Madam 2 in some territories; this was the first film to come out in Hong Kong with the ITLOD name. It was also the first movie featuring Cynthia Khan; some international prints and their related promotions had her as Michelle Yeoh's sister (Yeoh was going under then name Michelle Khan at the time) and so Royal Warriors and Yes Madam were released as ITLOD1 and 2 in Europe -- subsequent pressings of HK media (VHS/DVD) also incorporate the name.
• ITLOD4 = Witness (1989) -- this also goes by the name of Survival or Key Witness; in the UK, this is packaged on DVD as ITLOD1. It's easy to spot the difference becuase Donnie Yen (who does not appear in any of the other movies in the series) stars in it.
• ITLOD5 = Middle Man (1990) -- this was released on video as ITLOD2 in some countries.
• ITLOD6 = Forbidden Arensal (1991)
• ITLOD7 = Sea Wolves (1991)
• The movie Queens High is sometimes marketed as ITLOD5 as a prequel to the series, but it really has nothing to do with it (Cynthia Khan actually plays a villain, not a cop in the movie).

Back to Movie Review index

This DVD is available for purchase at www.hkflix.com