The Hidden Enforcers (2002)Prolific producer Nam Yin's border-hopping b-flick The Hidden Enforcers makes no exception to the anything-goes feel of the Hong Kong cinema off-seasons. Released in an insignificant one-week theatrical window in the lead up to summer with a couple of reliable stars to its name, the film's spirited ineptitude should keep it standing out in video catalogues for the remainder of the year. Crude social justice leanings build the basis of a story, which kicks off in sunny Thailand. Ex-Hong Kong cop King (Sammo Hung) is living there after quitting the police force in disgust years earlier. He's adopted a gang of five youths and has taught them the skills needed to catch wrongdoers who've escaped the law. After watching his students make their first kill -- a wild tiger for a beachside barbecue -- King sends the three guys and two girls out to maintain law and justice across Asia. Once a test run on a local crime figure proves successful, the group sets its sights on a drug dealer back in Hong Kong. But as King soon finds out, the young killers aren't ones for restraint on foreign ground. When folks on both sides of the law take hits and the team goes into hiding, the idealistic ex-cop can only watch as good intentions turn sour. Even with the appeal of Sammo Hung and Nadia Chan to woo local audiences, it would be wrong for film buffs to expect anything accomplished in this enthusiastic low-budget quickie. Storytelling is piecemeal and ludicrous, not least in the initial concept of a man teaching assassination skills to naive students without letting on that they must one day kill someone. The idea of killer hicks lost in a big bad Hong Kong is happily played up and astonishing coincidences keep the plot rolling for the sake of scripting convenience. The vigilante angle provides space for action co-ordinator Ridley Tsui to craft skirmishes to keep fans of fights and gunplay amused while resulting death scenes and a body disposal are cheap and charming. General production standards look quick and dirty -- repeated junctions and vehicles make for some easy give-aways -- but could initial cinemagoers have expected anything better? If anything, the films' general shoddiness offers more entertainment value to the curious viewers. Even with just five people at the screening I attended, giggles could still be heard in the 1,033-seat hall. Hung gets the main credit and is prominent in the film but his younger enforcers deserve praise for the movie's low-end highlights. The team of Ken Wong, David Lee, Nadia Chan, Monica Lo and Tang Ka-fai is cheery and fun to watch even though their acting is appalling. Wong and Lee particularly overplay their intensely stupid characters and, along with their co-stars, sport some of the worst '80s fashions to grace a recent Hong Kong movie. The Hidden Enforcers may not showcase crash hot filmmaking but at least the title characters can be a sight to behold. |
Credits: Directed and produced by Nam Yin |
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