“Tiger on the Beat 2” Poster
Director: Lau Kar Leung
Cast: Danny Lee Sau Yin, Conan Lee Yuen-Ba, Ellen Chan, Roy Cheung, John Cheung, Chim Bing Hei, Norman Chu, Maria Cordero, Mark Houghton, Phillip Ko, Gordon Liu, Mai Te-Lo, James Wong, Xiong Xin Xin
Running Time: 94 min.
By Z Ravas
Producer A: Hey, we’re doing a sequel to Tiger on the Beat, but Chow Yun-fat doesn’t want to come back. What should we do?
Producer B: Just get the other guy from The Killer!
Do you imagine that’s how it went down? The other guy from The Killer, of course, being the Super Infra-Man himself, Danny Lee! Tiger on the Beat 2 is one of those sequels in name only that doesn’t have any story connection to the first installment, it’s really just an excuse to do another buddy-action flick co-starring Conan Lee. I’d call it a ‘buddy cop flick’ except that Conan Lee doesn’t even play a cop this time around. Danny Lee, of course, plays a cop—please show me an 80’s or 90’s Hong Kong movie where he doesn’t—who’s tasked with finding his California-born nephew a wife while he visits Hong Kong. This simple set-up very soon finds them bumping into an escort/scam artist played by Ellen Chan, who is on the run from a vicious drug dealer (Gordon Liu, also returning from Tiger on the Beat but playing a different character). This ends up being the perfect excuse for a string of dynamic action setpieces, courtesy of director Lau Kar-Leung…
…though not every setpiece went according to plan: Tiger on the Beat 2 tends to be overshadowed by its predecessor, but chances are if you’ve heard of the sequel it’s because of its reputation as the film that put the kibosh on Conan Lee’s career. There’s an outrageous stunt gone wrong that occurs fairly early in the movie’s runtime—and, this being Hong Kong action cinema, the footage was kept in the film!—in which Conan Lee suffered a severe injury. The complications of the injury, as well as Lee’s reputation for being difficult to work with, put an immediate damper on his rising star after 1990. In hindsight, it seems like an incredibly reckless stunt, to the point that you’re not sure why anyone involved in the production let Conan Lee attempt it. (Director Lau Kar-Leung’s background was in pure martial arts films like The 36th Chamber of Shaolin and Eight Diagram Pole Fighter, you almost wonder if he was a bit out of his element on the more stunt-heavy productions of this era). The resulting injury meant that Lee had to be routinely doubled for the rest of the production; fortunately, the action in Tiger on the Beat 2 is so fast-paced that the doubling isn’t terribly noticeable, but the meta-knowledge of what occurred behind the scenes can potentially put a damper on one’s enjoyment of the film.
It’s a bit of a shame because there are some ways in which Tiger on the Beat 2 offers an improvement on the first film: the last time I revisited the original Tiger on the Beat, I remember feeling like the movie was less exciting than I remembered and largely taken up with the womanizing antics of Chow Yun-fat’s character, relegating most of the action for the climax (which is admittedly one of the greatest Hong Kong action climaxes of all time). Tiger on the Beat 2 might offer slightly better pacing, with more consistent action throughout its runtime, including a crazy sequence in which Danny Lee does his best Die Hard impression by jumping off the side of a building while holding onto a firehouse. (That’s not the only time this movie references the 1988 John McTiernan hit either…but it’s okay, Tiger on the Beat 2 displays some originality when Conan Lee fights a bunch of guys on a patch of oil, a sequence that would later get purloined by Luc Besson in The Transporter).
This sequel is not without its own slow patches, most of them involving Elena Chan’s role in the film—speaking of which, Chan feels like a likable actress stuck playing an unlikable character, as most of the misfortune that befalls our characters is the result of her lying and scheming ways. There’s a lengthy scene where Conan Lee is being seduced by Chan’s roommate while, unbeknownst to them, an intruder is sneaking around the apartment in an attempt to kill Chan, and the whole sequence feels stuck somewhere between a series of clever physical gags and a momentum-killing slog. Later, the pacing again lags when Danny Lee receives a baffling lecture from his police superior about why sleeping with prostitutes is the hip new 90’s thing to do.
Nevertheless, if you’re anything like me, you consider Hong Kong cinema from around 1980 to 1993 to be the peak of action filmmaking, so there’s no way you’re going to pass up an opportunity to view Tiger on the Beat 2, particularly now that it’s received an official Stateside release courtesy of Shout Studios. As the film reaches a wider audience, I doubt many will be rushing to call it a lost classic, but it’s still an enjoyable action romp. Just be prepared to wince during Conan Lee’s infamous stunt gone wrong.
Z Ravas’ Rating: 7/10
