Also known as The First Mission, this Chan film is remarkable for how un-Jackieish it is - until the last 15
minutes, all you have is one lacklustre car-chase. Instead, this is an
earnest drama which has JC as a cop (and wanna-be merchant seaman), whose
life is hamstrung by his retarded brother, played by Hung. While Samo
can handle serious themes well, as in Pedicab Driver, here, the main ploy
for audience empathy is simply having other people treat his character
badly. And Jackie is really well out of his depth: his strengths are in
comedy/action, not social realism - any chance he might have had is
drowned by the traditional sucky dubbing (in particular, check out JC's girlfriend who.
Pauses awkwardly in the. Middle of sentences). In a more action-packed
movie, this wouldn't matter, but it sinks drama below the waterline, though
the tape is available in a subtitled + widescreen version too. That would
help, but on the whole, this is a majorly flawed item. [Available from
Hong Kong Classics, 1st March 1999: £12.99 for the dub, £13.99 for
the widescreen sub, which also has the cinema trailer.]
D-
