The titular trio are sophomoric supercops policing the Mediterranean isle. Mediocre action and haphazard plotting are secondary to the insufferably childish humor. This 1991 action opus saw its first official US release on home video in 1997.
When a trio of policemen nicknamed "the Tigers" cause him to lose his counterfeit printing plates, Mr. King (Philip Ko) frames the team and gets two of the three suspended from the force. These two, Ricky (Simon Yam) and Bobby (Conan Lee) later tangle with a pair of Japanese forgers, Tomoriki
Jiono (Robin Shou) and Wushi Jiono (John Yasukawa), whom King has brought in to cut new plates. One of the forgers is killed and the plates seized, but the third Tiger, Alan (Collin Cheung), steals the plates from the station when King threatens his friends--although he refuses to turn them over
to the counterfeiter. Instead, Ricky finds the plates hidden in his apartment while tangling with King's henchman, Bull (Winston Ellis), who's been sent to search for them. Offering to trade the plates for captive Alan (who tried to double-cross King), the other two Tigers meet with King and a
fight ensues. King is killed and Alan is taken hostage by the remaining Japanese forger. Grabbing Bobby's gun, Alan shoots through himself to kill the forger. In handcuffs, Bobby and Ricky then carry their friend's body away.
Exactly what all these Asians are doing in Cyprus to begin with is a moot point. Simon Yam is suave and appealing as usual, appearing at one point in the briefest of briefs on a beach full of topless women. A fashion model as well as an actor, his forte isn't fighting, but he's given a fair amount
of brawling to do here. Conan Lee's forte is fighting. Born Lloyd Hutchinson to Chinese-American parents, he was renamed in the post-Bruce Lee boom. Robin Shou was a regular with Philip Ko's Regent Films company, appearing in numerous of their low-budget actioners before cracking the big time with
MORTAL KOMBAT (1995). Fourth-billed Joey Wang (A CHINESE GHOST STORY) is only present for marquee value, appearing for less than ten minutes as Ricky's ex-wife in Hong Kong, a model who poses for a brief photo-shoot in an inconsequential subplot.
Undoubtedly the most striking aspect of the film is its condescending and insulting humor. King's method of getting the Tigers suspended is to lure Bobby and Ricky to a hotel room and, at gunpoint, force them to undress and simulate gay sex for a video camera. King's bodyguard Bull is constantly
shunned and belittled for being black--at one point he's scolded and told, "No woman for you tonight, do you understand?" (he lowers his head and pouts in response); ultimately he accidentally stabs himself in the back and then trips, killing himself. But then again, in the unrepentantly boorish,
original Chinese-language version of the film, the Asians came off no better--Bobby was called Climax, and Ricky went by the name Brother Dick. (Violence, extensive nudity, sexual situations, extreme profanity.) leave a comment