High Risk: Quick Takes

In City Hunter, director Wong Jing 'borrowed' the concept of Under Siege to a certain extent and with High Risk he gives us Hong Kong Die Hard. It comes with trademarks of his and a common one is the main flaw with this otherwise entertaining spectacle. That is the often crude and silly humour but where it does work is in Jacky Cheung's funny performance as movie star Frankie. Corey Yuen, Yuen Tak and Bruce Law also gives us some very slick action, THE element plus Jet Li that makes High Risk memorable.

Going back to Jacky Cheung's character, Wong Jing apparently had disagreements with Jackie Chan during the making of City Hunter. The Frankie character is obviously modeled after Jackie (and Bruce Lee in a less mocking fashion) and portrays him as a cowardly womanizer. That's fine, often public figures becomes the target of parody, satire etc. However, having Wu Ma play Frankie's father, again absolutely inspired by Jackie's real life father, is a good casting choice but seems like a rather pointless inclusion since Wong never really attempts to mock him. Also in the cast; Chingmy Yau, Billy Chow and Valerie Chow. The newly released Universe DTS dvd is now uncut, as opposed to the remastered release that was trimmed for violence.