Tiger on Beat (1988).
The Stage.
A pair of mismatched cops go after a big time heroin trafficker named Johnny Law.
The Review.
It was 1987, and Lethal Weapon had just blown the doors off of cinemas, opening the floodgates of late 80’s action comedies. Tiger on the Beat takes the tone of Lethal Weapon and ups the brutality.
Chow Yun Fat plays Sergeant Francis Li, a womanizing, lazy veteran cop who’s really out to collect an easy paycheck. He’s paired with an overachieving rookie named Michael who’s only out to bust bad guys. His determination puts them up against a heroin trafficking organization led by the ruthless Johnny Law.
It’s easy to see how Chow Yun Fat was already in the process of becoming a star here. He oozes charisma and adds a ton of levity to every scene that needs it. His physical comedy is really on and his facial expressions alone had me laughing out loud in certain scenes. Conan Lee plays the rookie officer, the straight man in the wacky duo. Most of the hand-to-hand stuff is done by him and he kicks ass.
Like many action comedies, this film switches between slapstick and brutal, but when it gets brutal, it doesn’t pull punches. There are tons of people straight up murdered in this film, women are beat up, a guy gets dynamite taped to his hand as a form of punishment and then he’s shot in the back like seven times. The finale features a chainsaw battle that rages on for a very long time. Speaking of, the finale in this movie is absolutely breathtaking, pitting our two heroes against scores of bad guys in a garage that also features the coolest use of a shotgun ever put to film and a bayonet standoff.
The End.
This is an extremely enjoyable Hong Kong action comedy. The only reason I can’t give it five stars is because there’s a scene in which Chow Yun Fat inadvertently beats up a woman and it’s played for laughs. He’s not just slapping her around, she goes through a glass table and gets a packed palm of flour to the face. It made me feel kind of gross and I’m not sure how it would have even been funny back in ‘88. Maybe it was a case of comedy getting lost in translation. The rest is great, however, and it’s got a fever pitch pace that never lets up.
