Final Run (1989) Review

“Final Run” Theatrical Poster

Director: Philip Ko Fei
Cast: Michael Miu, Cheung Kwok-Keung, Simon Yam, Phillip Ko Fei, Francis Ng, Daan Gwai-Chi, Yukari Oshima, Ridley Tsui, Dick Wei, Newton Lai, Ha Chi-Chun, Ricky Wong, Shum Wai, Mark Houghton, Suen Kwok-Ming
Running Time: 79 min.

By Paul Bramhall

When discussing kung fu cinema, chances are it’ll never take too long before the name Philip Ko Fei comes up. One of the greatest screen fighters of all time, his ‘shapes’ work in the likes of Master Killers, The Loot, and The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter contributes a large part as to why they’re considered genre classics, and when any of his fight scenes are viewed it’s easy to see how he was in a league of his own. As a director, Ko Fei was somewhat of a different story. Making his directorial debut in 1982 with the crime thriller Dirty Angel, Ko Fei spent the rest of the 80’s toiling away at IFD shooting additional footage to create cut ‘n’ paste atrocities with various Thai, Filipino, and Korean productions that Joseph Lai had bought the rights too. By the time the 90’s rolled around Ko Fei had broken away from IFD, and took to shooting a string of cheap and cheerful B-movie action flicks in the Philippines, many of which starred Yukari Oshima.

In the couple of years before putting his IFD era behind him and setting up shop in the Philippines though, Ko Fei spent most of 1989 and 1990 finding his feet as a director. Many will speculate (including me) that he never really found them even by his final production in the directors chair with 2004’s Majong King, but at least during this brief window we got a change of scenery from the increasingly familiar Philippines locales that dominated much of his 90’s output. In 1990 he hit Europe to make both Killer’s Romance (shot in the UK) and The Cyprus Tigers (shot in, yes, Cyprus), but before either of those, in 1989 he’d make his first full length feature since his directorial debut in the form of Final Run, which saw him shooting in Thailand.

Yet to gain the reputation of a director that shoots action cheapies, Final Run is arguably still a B-movie, but it’s a B-movie that comes with a killer cast of martial arts and local Hong Kong talent. The plot involves a pair of corrupt officials played by Michael Mui (Burning Ambition, The Fortune Code) and Ko Fei himself. They’re looking to make some extra money off smuggling drugs so they can emigrate before 1997, and just need a connection in the customs department to make sure they get the stashes through without any issues. Mui gets in touch with an old friend who’s now working in customs, played by Cheung Kwok-Keung (Cops and Robbers, Raging Fire), however he wants nothing to do with their scheme. Unfortunately for Kwok-Keung, Ko Fei has a psychotic streak, and orders his mother and sister to be murdered, which ultimately sees Kwok-Keung escape to Thailand to plot revenge.

While that’s the story in a nutshell, since Ko Fei has managed to enlist so much stellar screen fighting talent, the core plot constantly finds itself side-tracked by numerous subplots of varying quality, created to give the rest of the cast some worthy screen time. Leung Kar-Yan (Warriors Two, The Victim) plays an army general who Yukari Oshima (Iron Angels, Dreaming the Reality) reports to. He believes that Oshima’s brother, played by Dick Wei (Yes, Madam!, Heart of the Dragon), may have left the army to get involved in the drug trade under the guise of being a kickboxing coach. It’s not a spoiler to say that he’s not involved with drugs, and really did leave just because he wanted to be a kickboxing coach, which renders the whole subplot kind of pointless. He’s even given a bizarrely over dramatic introduction at the start where he’s filmed in close-up declaring that he’ll return, even though it’s the first scene we see him in.  

We get Simon Yam (Black Cat, Run and Kill) as a drug kingpin who’s protected by Mark Houghton (Killer Angels, The Outlaw Brothers) and Ridley Tsui (Tiger Cage III, Night Life Hero), and of course since it’s set in the golden triangle, we also need a rogue military unit who are controlling the supply of the drugs. Headed up by Lung Ming-Yan (A Better Tomorrow II, Bloody Brotherhood), under his command is Francis Ng (Big Bullet, The Mission) in an early role, and muscle in the form of Ha Chi-Chun (Eastern Condors, Thunder Run) and Dan Mintz (Fatal Termination, That’s Money). With such a formidable cast all crammed into what’s essentially a fairly simple revenge tale involving a trio of key players, it’s fair to say that narrative coherency and characterisation are not some of Final Run’s strong points.

However it’s also fair to say that most people who watch Final Run won’t be clocking in for either of those things, and I also fall into that category. Final Run is probably best described as an exercise in building up to a bunch of action sequences, the kind of which sees our various cast members go at each other with their fists and feet, run around with rocket launchers blowing stuff up, and take a number of wince worthy falls. In short, everything you want from a late 80’s Hong Kong action flick, and to his credit Ko Fei does end up convincingly bringing everyone together for a big all action blowout in the finale which doesn’t disappoint. In between the action, the tension during the dialogue sequences tends to rely on that distinctly 80’s HK trope of having a constant high-pitched synthesiser tone playing in the background, even when the scene doesn’t necessarily warrant it. It may be a cheap workaround, but it’s effective enough.

The action itself had a large amount of input, including from the rarely seen Ko Fei’s Stuntman Association (who’s only other credits are 1995’s Angel on Fire and 2003’s Soccer Clan), and an even rarer chance to see Yukari Oshima provide input on the action design. Principle fight choreography duties though go to Ridley Tsui, and there’s plenty of it to go around. The sheer amount of martial arts talent in Hong Kong during the 1980’s made it easy to take for granted, and in retrospect it can feel frustrating when a movie that contains a number of amazing screen fighters doesn’t take the opportunity to have them face off. Final Run thankfully doesn’t suffer from that issue, and there’s a number of exciting matchup’s throughout.

Highlights see Dick Wei squaring off against Mark Houghton, Yukari Oshima goes toe to toe with Ha Chi-Chun, Leung Kar Yan exchanges blows with Lung Ming-Yan, and Ridley Tsui battles it out with Ishida Kenichi (Killer’s Romance, Drugs Fighters). While none of the fight sequences can match the quality of the higher budgeted productions everyone involved has worked on, they’re still solid, with a focus on impact and falls giving them a welcome hard-hitting edge. Yukari Oshima in particular performs a stunt where she abseils down a building and appears to suffer a rope burn injury on her hands, as after performing it she spends the rest of her scenes with her hands covered in bandages. While it could well be an aesthetic decision for her character, considering its Hong Kong action cinema the prospect of it actually being a legitimate injury certainly isn’t one to rule out!

As close as we get to a main character, Ko Fei wisely has Cheung Kwok-Keung sit out the finale from a martial arts perspective, instead letting him loose to rampage through the enemy camp after Michael Mui and Ko Fei with a machine gun and rocket launcher. The pyrotechnics and bullet riddled mayhem compliment the fisticuffs well, coming together to deliver a worthy finale to Ko Fei’s fully fledged return to the director’s chair. 

While Ko Fei would never match Final Run in terms of both quality as a movie and the action contained within it, the fact that he was able to bring so much onscreen talent together helped to ensure 80’s Hong Kong action cinema went out with a bang. The likes of Yukari Oshima, Mark Houghton, Francis Ng, and Simon Yam would all go on to really establish themselves in the 90’s, and this would be the only time for many of the cast to share the screen together. This alone makes Final Run a worthy watch for fans of both Hong Kong cinema in general, and those who crave a dose of late 80’s HK style action, and let’s face it, you should fall into at least one of those categories!

Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 7/10