Tiger on the Beat

Crazy Hong Kong action with international star Chow Yun Fat. Watch as Chow Yun woos the ladies and smacks them around, dresses like a Vegas lounge lizard, wields a yo-yo shotgun, and wets his pants.

You’ll also get Conan Lee as his buddy-cop partner. Conan may not be as smooth with the ladies, but he does get to tear up the place in some terrific kung fu battles and an epic chainsaw duel.

Sgt. Francis Li (Chow Yun Fat) is more interested in sleeping with married women and drinking on the job than actually solving crimes. His boss (and uncle) pairs him up with rookie cop Michael Tso (Conan Lee), who is supposed to be a model cop, but who seems pretty determined to beat the crap out of half the people he meets if they look at him funny. Hong Kong’s finest, these two are not.

The two cops wind up catching wind of a Thai drug smuggling operation. They proceed to investigate the hell out of it using it a minimum of smarts and a maximum of tomfoolery, eventually resulting in a completely ridiculous—and extremely entertaining—final showdown.

Tiger on the Beat’s plot isn’t the strong point of the film, and it’s a little slow getting started.  Once things get rolling, though, there’s a lot to recommend the film to anyone that likes Hong Kong action. Conan Lee handles the bulk of the onscreen heroics here and he’s quite impressive. There’s some very nice stuntwork and some great fights. The final chainsaw battle pretty much sells the whole film by itself.

Chow Yun Fat has less action to handle but he gets to have some fun too; the yo-yo shotgun (also in the brilliant final showdown) is hilarious stuff—also nearly worth the price of admission—and he also has a machete bayonet fight with a Western tai chi expert, along with some gun fu.

I feel that I should mention that the film contains a very politically incorrect scene where Chow Yun Fat interrogates and physically abuses a woman. If that bothers you, you may wish to seek your entertainment elsewhere.

Very typical of the time in which it was made, Tiger on the Beat deals out death and grim situations and then immediately forgets about them; 5 minutes later the heroes celebrate and they all pose and get promotions. This isn't a problem as long as you don't try to take the film seriously. You don’t get realism and an elaborate chainsaw fight in the same film, after all.

Recommended for people who like Chow Yun Fat, crazy Hong Kong action, and chainsaws. But who doesn't love those things, especially if you put them all together?