Oh! Yes Sir!: Reviews

Another formulaic Frankie Chan action comedy that's redeemed only by its exciting fight scenes. Power Chan (Frankie Chan) is a hot-headed cop whose girlfriend has just become a porn star. He has trouble dealing with that fact, so he channels his rage into beating up a group of foreign gun runners, including such familiar faces as Jeffrey Falcon, Mark Houghton, and Kim Maree Penn. To get back at Chan for busting their latest shipment, the villains hire an assassin to impersonate him and kill all of the key witnesses. Framed for murder and wanted by the police, Chan enlists the aid of a bitchy Taoist sorceress (Eric Tsang in drag) and together they manage to track down the real killer and beat him up in spectacular fashion.

Like Frankie Chan's other action comedies of the same period, the dichotomy of comedy and action is jarring, and the make-it-up-as-you-go plot exists only to string together the various set pieces. Like many Hong Kong comedies, the humor is dark, violent, sexist, misogynistic, absurd, and almost completely inaccessible to Western audiences. The action, on the other hand, translates extremely well and Chan's direction, choreography, and execution are stunning as always. He and his stunt performers are all in top form, and their movements are fast, fluid, and hard hitting. While the majority of the film is tedious and annoying, the pay-off of such high precision stuntwork is what makes the journey worthwhile.

Thanks to appearances in films such as 'The Outlaw Brothers' and 'Prodigal Son', Frankie Chan is an actor/director who is often mentioned alongside the unforgettable action movie icons to emerge from Hong Kong cinema in the 1980s. However, despite displaying a clear ability in the Martial Arts along with the odd flash of quirky charm, I've never really considered him to be anything more than a mildly entertaining bit part player. Unfortunately 'Oh Yes Sir!' is not the film to enhance my opinion of Chan as it highlights his inability to maintain a leading role as well as his lack of credibility in the directors chair.

Power Chan (Chan) and his partner (Yung) are on hot on the trail of a notorious weapons smuggling ring but when they get too close, the bad guys decide to enlist new help to protect themselves. As such, they hire Nine Face Fox, a killer who is capable of changing his appearance to resemble absolutely anyone (I'm sure you can see where this is going!). Unsurprisingly, Fox takes the appearance of Power Chan and kills one of the key witnesses in the case which not only leaves the smugglers in the clear but also gets Chan out of the picture. Now a key suspect, Chan finds himself on the run from the police so he turns to a psychic (Tsang) who lives next door. With her help, he hopes to communicate with the dead witness to find out the true identity of the killer which should allow him to clear his name and track down the men behind the weapons smuggling.

For those familiar with the Hong Kong classics of yesteryear, the plot and concepts featured within 'Oh Yes Sir!' will be second nature and are often responsible for creating a minor classic. However, in this particular outing it has to be said that these ingredients fail to gel successfully and the film suffers badly in both it's style and execution. For starters, the bizarre option to have leading actors play members of the opposite sex is a pointless and uninspiring one that leaves Wanda Yung looking awkward throughout and wastes the obvious talents of Eric Tsang. Furthermore, the comedy that goes hand in hand with this concept relies heavily on crude humour that lacks the subtlety and charm that we have come to expect from Hong Kong's slapstick comedies. Leading man Frankie Chan also puts in an extremely uninspiring leading performance with only his short spurts of action creating anything remotely interesting but even these look somewhat clumsy in comparison to his earlier efforts.

Overall, 'Oh, Yes Sir!' is a sub-standard effort that could have perhaps been saved with a more substantial storyline or added emphasis on the action. As it is though, this is a sloppily pasted together movie that is littered with unsophisticated humour and mediocre action that is probably one for hardcore Eric Tsang fans only.