Where’s Officer Tuba?

Directors: Ricky Lau and Phillip Chan

Starring: Sammo Hung, Jacky Cheung, Joey Wong and David Chiang

Plot: Officer Tuba (Sammo Hung) is a shy policeman that spends his time playing the tuba. Another Officer (Jacky Cheung) has just passed cadet school and is eager to fight crime. Officer Chiang (David Chiang) is the superintended, he decides to bring Tuba along to raid a deal, things go wrong and Chiang ends up dead but not before Tuba promises him revenge. When Tuba has no intention of avenging his boss, Chiang’s ghost comes to make his life a living hell. Tuba falls for the new owner of the supermarket (Joey Wong) but his hopes are soon destroyed by the ghost. Finally Tuba plucks up the courage to fight back against the criminals and him and Jacky Cheung fight it out.

Review: Another wacky action/comedy from 80’s Hong Kong. Where’s Officer Tuba? is packed full of action scenes that will leave you gasping for breath, crazy stunts that you make you winch and funny comedy that will make you laugh of loud. Thankfully most of the comedy is visual so it easy to understand, there are a few spoken jokes, which as usual, don’t travel beyond the subtitles.

As well as a great cast, this film had many big names behind the scenes. First off were the directors Ricky Lau and Phillip Chan, the late great Barry Wong was the scriptwriter, Andrew Lau the cinematographer, and Sammo Hung and Dickson Poon producing. The film is produced under D&B films, and was a success throughout HK.

The main cast consists of Sammo Hung, Jacky Cheung, Joey Wong and David Chiang. There are also boat loads of cameos from many HK performers. Billy Chan as the first criminal in drag, Yuen Wah, Chang Yi and Hwang Jang Lee as a bad guys, Tai Po as an addict, Lam Ching Ying and Yuen Kwai as Taoist priests, Fung Lee and Chu Chi Ling as mental patience’s, John Sham as the photographer and other appearances include Deannie Yip, Paul Chun, Stanley Fung, Melvin Wong, Wu Fung, Garry Chan, Seung Yee, Dennis Chan, Alfred Cheung and Teddy Yip.

The film starts with a chase scene and a stuntman jumping head on at a moving car, which when flies over a ramp and crashes into a river. Then like many films of this genre, it stops dead to allow for some comedy. There are short bursts of action throughout but it’s not until the final reel there things really pick up. Jacky and his stunt double fight it out with Chang Yi, there are some impressive stunts pulled off by both performers, meanwhile Sammo is having a fight with Hwang Jang Lee. I thought this was the best Hwang fight ever and I have been waiting for a Sammo Vs Hwang showdown since I saw their little encounter in Millionaires Express. One problem I had was Hwang’s coat, that alone says the film is set in the 1980’s.

The comedy was great and Sammo performs it well. There is a funny scene in a lift with Teddy Yip, Sammo and the ghost, but bear in mind that Sammo is the only one able to see and hear it, go figure what the ghost gets up to. I liked the connection between Sammo and Joey Wong during their scenes together, the audience just knew that something was about to go wrong. Another standout comedy skit is when Sammo is waiting to trade briefcases with the bad guys, he doesn’t know who he is meeting up with, so members of the public are mistaken.

Not the best film ever but if you’re a fan of Sammo Hung then I recommend you see this. It’s kind of like the Lucky Stars films crossed with Police Story but all together different, if you see what I mean?!

Rating: 6.7 out of 10.0