R E V I E W

High Risk

Universe / 1995 / 99 minutes
Directed by Wong Jing
Written by Wong Jing

With Jet Li, Jacky Cheung, Chingmy Yau

B A C K G R O U N D
director, in cinemas, recent and related films

Wong Jing has been commercially successful and incredibly prolific in his filmmaking career, but he is evidently not well-liked in the Hong Kong movie industry (see Hong Kong Babylon, pages 48-49). Most of his films have catered to the lowest common denominator, or so I've read, which seems to make it easy to call him the "Cantonese Roger Corman" (see again Hong Kong Babylon). He directed Jackie Chan in City Hunter in 1994, and the experience was mutually unpleasant.

I don't know if the director got mad, but he certainly got even by making High Risk. It features a Jackie Chan-mocking performance by Jackie Cheung (although I believe that high-pitched yowl he continually emits is a take-off on Bruce Lee), portraying the character "Frankie" as a drunken, womanizing coward who enlists a stunt double (Jet Li) despite his claims that he never uses a stunt double. Over time the film has gained recognition not only for its savaging of Jackie Chan, but also for its action sequences.

Director Wong Jing has made more than a dozen films since the release of High Risk. Jet Li made another handful in Hong Kong before moving on to conquer Hollywood.

M O V I E

plot / performances / production
The opening scene turns out to be tragic and influences Jet Li throughout the remainder of the story. It also establishes the theme of the movie: redemption. The fact that High Risk watches several characters work through an arc from personal disgrace to the salvation of their soul (I'm not kidding!), while at the same time providing comic relief, amazing stunts, and the destruction of millions of dollars worth of commercial property, all in the furiously-paced running time of just 99 minutes, should put Martin Scorcese to shame.

The mechanics of the plot and many individual scenes appear to be influenced by Die Hard (it's fun to play "let spot the rip-off"), yet these borrowings are thrown into a blender and mixed up into something fresh and altogether superior in execution. Jet Li anchors the film with his humanity (just watch his eyes every time the camera zooms in for a close-up and dissolves to a flashback). Jackie Cheung deserves kudos for his vocal work alone (you have to hear it to believe it) and the one dazzling scene in which he tries to gain his own personal redemption. Chingmy Yau is very effective as a nosy reporter, while Valerie Chow is dynamic as a nasty villainess and Charlie Yeung is appealing as a waitress trying to break up with her cop boyfriend.

Whatever you may think of Wong Jing and his working methods (it's been reported that he become distracted on the set after calling for "action" and has allowed assistants to direct scenes on one movie while he's working on another), the result here is incredible. All the crazy, constantly-changing camera angles and the manic editing really work well to punctuate the action. The excellent martial arts choreography is by Corey Yuen.

rating
Category IIB. High body count and a considerable amount of martial arts mayhem along with plenty of blood. Some of the gunshot violence is explicit. I viewed the remastered version which has two very brief cuts of more explicit violence. The book cited above, Hong Kong Babylon, also mentions the death of bystanders during the helicopter crash sequence, but it is not present in this version.

D V D

look
The version I saw is the remastered one, which has a menu (the original version did not). The DVD's widescreen (1.78 to 1) image quality is good, although the source print is less than perfect. Blacks are very deep and fleshtones are accurate; the colors are a bit soft.

sound
The Dolby 2.0 sound is good, with a fairly deep soundfield. Cantonese and Mandarin audio tracks are provided.

subtitles
Traditional Chinese and English subtitles are burned into the print, and here we have the disk's greatest handicap: the size is fine, but the white subtitles are washed out quite a few times in the early segments of the film (which take place outside during the day). Since these early scenes provide important exposition and help set the tone of the film, it is incredibly frustrating to not be able to read them.

features
There are just 8 chapter markings. No features are included.

R E C O M M E N D A T I O N
buy, rent, or pass?

Buy. A very entertaining movie that gets better as it goes along. The DVD quality is good but the illegibility of the subtitles at times is a deficiency that should have been corrected by now. Having in mind that reservation, I still believe this is a disk you won't regret buying -- anytime you need a little "pick me up," pop this disk in the player, start watching at chapter 6, and prepare to be energized.

(Reviewed 12/02/00)

(Click here to read a review of the Region 1 release, retitled Meltdown)

THIS DVD IS AVAILABLE AT HKFLIX.COM