Tiger On The Beat 2

Director: Lau Kar-Leung

Starring: Danny Lee, Conan Lee, Ellen Chan, Gordon Liu and Roy Cheung.

Plot: Lam (Danny Lee) is a beat cop, who has not accomplished much in his career, with his superiors, fellow officers and gangsters against him, it’s not hard to see why. One day Lam’s sister phones telling him that his nephew Buffalo (Conan Lee) is on his way to HK, and that she expects Lam to look after him. As soon as Buffalo arrives though, the trouble starts. He becomes involved with Sweetie (Ellen Chan) she has stolen a ring from a notorious gang (headed by Gordon Liu and Roy Cheung), and they need to get the it back as when they sale drugs to overseas buyers the only way of identifying them is by the ring. Lam has a difficult decision to make, either uphold his promise and look out for his nephew or try and be a good cop by going “by the book”.

Review: Tiger On The Beat 2 is a standalone film, by that I mean it doesn’t connect in anyway with the first Tiger On The Beat. Tiger On The Beat 2 is a decent flick that entertains on many levels, the comedy may be too broad for western standards but the action (helmed by Lau Kar-Leung) is international. Fight scenes, gun battles and car chases are executed in both tense and light hearted scenes. The major letdowns are that the plot sags and drags during the Conan Lee/Ellen Chan relationship, just thank god it actually pays off and obliviously Chow Yun Fat didn’t return for the sequel.

Danny Lee has fine comic timing and he is best used in the gun battles, most of the time he sports a pump action shotgun, an intentional nod towards Chow Yun Fat’s character in the first film. Conan Lee is great in the hand to hand fight scenes and by the looks of things does most of his own stunt work. In one scene he jumps from a 30ft ledge onto a lamppost, but doesn’t grip it fully, then plummets to the cement below. In the script it was intended that he slide down the pole and continue the chase. After this mishap Conan was seriously injured and delayed the production a few months, in the final cut we get to see the stunt twice from two different angles and in slow-motion. In the other action scenes though about 5% of the time it is obvious that Conan is being doubled by the more able Ridley Tsui.

There are loads of other appearances from the likes of Roy Chueng, Gordon Liu, Melvin Wong, Phillip Ko, Maria Cordero, Tsui Sui Keung, James Wong, Mark Houghton, Ridley Tsui, Hung Yan Yan, Robert Mak and Wilson Tong.

I have to point out that one scene had me laughing out loud, it wasn’t even a comedic scene either. Basically Conan Lee is drunk out of his head but when he sees Ellen Chan being attacked and almost being pushed over the side of the building, he magically sobers up and springs into action.

The finale is set in a bus depo, and features a tense fight between Conan Lee and Gordon Liu, this time it doesn’t feature any chainsaws but it is still wildly inventive. Danny Lee and Roy Cheung’s scrap is well shot and makes the performers look like martial arts experts. This blood filled final showdown does not lack in entertainment, their are several high falls which will “wow” viewers, the most notable one being the stunt from the top floor of a double decker bus.

Overall Tiger On The Beat 2 is an average film that doesn’t standout among the many other action/romance/comedies Cinema City produced in the 80‘s. Nevertheless fans of the first film, wacky HK scripts or Lau Kar Leung action should not be disappointed.

Rating: 6.0 out of 10.0

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