Tiger on The Beat - Liu Chia-Liang (1988)

On the commentary to John Woo's Hard Boiled, Hong Kong Cinema expert (pffff that's not a real job) Bey Logan, spends a portion of his commentary talking about how HK action stars like Chow Yun Fat and Jackie Chan are, in real life are a far cry from their onscreen personas. What's so delightful about Tiger on The Beat is how much Fat plays against his image; this is a buddy cop movie but instead of Fat playing the no nonsense cop who has his shit together, he's cast as the loveable drunk. For the first half of the film, Fat has a comedic grace that combines low comedy of him pissing in his pants when held at gunpoint with all the precision of one of the great silent comics. With American action films, especially buddy cop films, its common to criticize a film for overdoing comedy but if anything Tiger on The Beat doesn't play to that strength enough. Which brings me to my next point; how few buddy cop movies fire on both cylinders equally? Where the comedy and the action are perfectly in synch. This one does, in fact these two contrasting elements come together thematically in a way that few films do. The first half of the film gives little indication this will be a full on action film but its surprisingly slow burn when it takes one of the films ongoing jokes, Fat's womanizing and actually turns it tragic in a surprisingly powerful moment. The final 15 minutes is as go for broke as any action sequence, with two characters battling each other with chainsaws (this is always the selling point of the film). Though even in the end sequence there are bits where Fat's skills as a physical comedian come into play with his badass persona that he morphs into in the second half. Fat fights off  the henchman with a shotgun with a tether rope attached to (you'll have to watch to find out how this works). When I was in high school I used to write film blurbs, that I look back on now as really embarrassing (like I will with these in 10 years) but one claim I made that I'm proud of is that Buster Keaton invented action comedy. Pair Tiger on The Beat with any Keaton feature (I'd suggest The Navigator on the basis one similar gag) and maybe you'll see where high school Greg was coming from......Or you can just watch the chainsaw fight and tell me to go fuck myself.