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Skinny Tiger & Fatty Dragon

AKA: Skinny Tiger and Fatty Dragon, Nutty Kickbox Cops

1990

Director: Lau Kar-Wing

Action Director: Hung Yan-Yan

Stars: Sammo Hung, Karl Maka, Carrie Ng, Lau Kar-Wing

A pair of mismatched cops (Hung and Maka) bumble their way to take down a drug dealer in this enjoyable comedy-action picture. The comedy, like many of Karl "Baldy" Maka's movies, might be too broad for some, but it works well for the most part, and the action scenes are also effective. Hung returns to his Enter the Fat Dragon style of imitating Bruce Lee, and does so with a nice panache which takes the performance out of the region of parody, which could have really hurt this movie. I would have liked more action bits, but the stuff that's in here is pretty exciting stuff, so I was able to forgive this possible shortcoming.

What stops Skinny Tiger & Fatty Dragon from getting a higher rating are the detours it takes during the running time. There are several instances of pro-China sentiment that come off as heavy-handed and uneffective. Sammo's dad being a virtual fortune cookie of Chinese rhetoric, the usual nasty gweilos turned up a notch, and one sequence where a foreign car is demolished seem to go a bit over the top. It's okay to be proud of one's heritage, but you don't need to beat it over the head of your viewers -- Bruce Lee's "no dogs or Chinese allowed" bit from Fist of Fury seems subtle versus some of the stuff in this movie.

More disarmingly, there is a sense of misonogny which seems out of place in this supposedly family-friendly film. There are a few scenes, such as one where Maka "beats some sense" into Carrie Ng, and a later very violent assassination attempt against her (as well as some gratutious nudity), which feel very out of place with the rest of the movie and come off as a bit unsettling.

All in all, though, this is a pretty fun movie that should please fans of Sammo Hung, and action films in general -- it's worth a look. And in case you're too dense to notice (like the guy at the video store where I rented this), this movie has no relation whatsoever to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, other than the fact that there's kung fu in both films.

RATING: 7

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This DVD is available for purchase at www.hkflix.com

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