Sing si jin jang (1988)

User Rating:

6.2/10   

Director:

Chung Sun

Writers:

Tung Lo (written by) &
Wai Ting Leung (written by) ...

Release Date:

21 December 1988 (Hong Kong)

Genre:

Action

Tagline:

Together They'll Tear It Apart!

Plot:

Two cops--both partners and best friends--find their friendship and their lives at stake when they try to take down a ruthless drug dealer.

Plot Keywords:

Child Murder | Loss Of Wife | Fall From Height | Revenge

Cast

Yun-Fat Chow	...	Officer Dick Lee Chiu (as Chow Yun Fatt)
Lung Ti	...	Officer Ken Chow (as Ti Lung)
Niu Tien	...	Penny (as Tien Niu)
Norman Chu	...	Ted Yiu Tat (as Chui Siu Keung)
Mary Hon	...	Mrs. Yee
Teresa Carpio	...	Maid
Lieh Lo	...	Uncle Kuen (as Lo Lien)
Ka Ding Lee		(as Lee Ka Ding)
Michael Chow Man-Kin	...	Bobby (as Michael Chow)
Kwai Sing Wong		(as Wong Kwai Sing)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Chi Fai Chan	...	Yiu Tat's Henchman
John Ching	...	Rex
John Ladalski	...	Foreign Boss (as John V. Ladalski)
Kam-Sam Leung	...	Lien
Eddie Maher
Robert Mak	...	Tony
Robin Shou	...	Killer
Chi Wai Wong	...	Lau
Fan Wei Yee	...	Wu

Also Known As:

Cheng shi zhan zheng (Hong Kong: Mandarin title)
City War (Hong Kong: English title)
Yi daam hung sun (China: Cantonese title) (alternative title)
Yi dam hung sun (China: Mandarin title)

Runtime:

92 min

Country:

Hong Kong | USA

Language:

Cantonese | English | Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-18 | Hong Kong:IIB | South Korea:18 | UK:18

Company:

Cinema City Film Productions

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: Obvious dummy used in place of Ti Lung's child in the arms of the mainland hitman who falls from the roof.

Quotes:

Ken Chow: What? What are you looking at? Do you see six eyes or five noses on my face?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Ninja Mission 2000 (2000)

emotional openness

while not a great film, of the first round of 'new wave' action films to come out of Hong Kong in the later 1980s, this has been the most imitated - not the films of Woo and Lam.

Probably the main reason for this is that the characters wear their emotions on their sleeves. When it's time to have fun, they do nothing but have fun, when it's time to cry, they cry rivers. And of course, when it's time to fight, they go at it with a fury rarely seen in action films - which of course makes this a very good action film, since such fury is really what action film fans want to see.

This emotional openness invites over-acting, and there are certainly moments of that here, especially from the usually more guarded Chow Yun-Fat. On the other hand, this is a perfect venue for Ti Lung, who was trained in the more histrionic method expected of all Shaw Bros. stars of the '70s; and Ti Lung's performance really makes this film believable, despite some rather twists in the relationships presented here (such as the odd respect everyone pays to the aging triad boss).

It's a tough, dramatic story, and the gun-fight at the end is among the best in Hong Kong action cinema. Certainly not a classic like "The Killer" or "City on Fire", but you won't go wrong watching this, even a couple times.