In the Line of Duty 4: Witness (1989)

In the Line of Duty 4 kept the action rolling from beginning to end. Cynthia Khan returned for the fourth installment of the franchise made popular by Michelle Yeoh. Khan was joined by Donnie Yen, Yuen Yat Choh, and Michael Wong.

Luk Wan Ting is a dock worker in Seattle. A mortally wounded police officer hands him a roll of film before he dies. Now Luk is being hunted by the bad guys and considered a cop killer by the good guys. Inspector Rachel Yeung doesn’t think he’s guilty though Capt. Donnie Yan is less flexible. CIA officer Michael Wong is determined to have Luk extradited to Hong Kong. The attacks on Luk are non-stop for a nice guy who just wants to see his mom and be done with all of the cloak and dagger danger and trickery. Rachel has to figure out how to keep him alive and who is the mole betraying them at every turn.

This entry in the franchise is one of my favorites. Khan and Yen had an appealing chemistry in their push-pull professional relationship that thankfully didn’t veer off into romance. For the most part there was no idiotic comic relief character which was a huge relief for me as well. Yuen Yat Choh, in what became his final movie, was a sympathetic character who was dedicated to his mother. Michael Wong’s performance as the duplicitous CIA agent wasn’t particularly strong.

What made this movie entertaining for me, aside from the acting rapport, were the numerous well-choreographed fights. Yuen Woo Ping and his brother Shun Yee resisted the wire-fu for the most part and relied on their actors’ athletic abilities and flexibility. Cynthia moved believably against the various foes she faced and delivered some punishing kicks. A young Donnie Yen had no problem reaching kicking heights all by himself. And Yat Choh was another of the Yuen clan who knew how to sell a fight. No wires didn’t mean characters weren’t left dangling on several occasions or even falling to their deaths. Gravity is a harsh mistress. Cynthia had an exhilarating ordeal on top of, on the sides of, and on the grill of an ambulance. Donnie faced real life martial artist Michael Woods in a brutal fight on a rooftop and jousting on motorcycles with ax and shovel.

The story had some narrative gaps and not all of the acting was strong, but for the most part the story held together by the relationships of the characters. The fights were fast, exciting and creative, all that any martial arts movie enthusiast could want.

14 March 2024

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