In the Line of Duty 5: Middle Man (1990)

Lots of high flying kicks not encumbered by a coherent plot!

Cynthia Khan returns to the In the Line of Duty franchise for Middle Man. This 1990 film feels more like an 1980’s Hong Kong martial arts movie. Lots of fighting, very little plot.

Cynthia is joined by David Wu in this convoluted story that goes from Hong Kong to Korea. It involves the US military, CIA, HK police, and an underground information spy ring. Wu’s David is accused of spying and the race is on to see who can kill him first. He has to drag around the dumbest girlfriend ever for awhile until the writers mercifully divest him of her. Khan’s Inspector Yang Li Ching helps her cousin elude the murderous gang, CIA, and police so that they can hunt down The General and collect evidence to clear David. David is not the smartest seaman on leave making Inspector Yang’s job even tougher trying to keep him alive.

The thin plot only served to grant space for the fights, lots and lots of fights. Most of them were well choreographed with a minimum of wire-fu and cranking. Khan was quite proficient and believable as she athletically ran, kicked, leapt, slid, and even dangled off of buildings and ropes. She lacked some of the onscreen personality of say Michelle Yeoh, but was likeable enough in this role. Wu was adequate but not terribly charismatic. Lo Lieh, at nearly 60, showed up as the gentle godfather who still had a few moves left. A nice surprise was Australian Kim Penn, a real-life martial artist and member of the Hong Kong Stuntman Association who made a beautiful foil for Khan as they had one of the bloodiest girl on girl fights I’ve seen in some time.

Middle Man was an entertaining martial arts movie if you don’t pay attention to the plot and just enjoy the fight choreography. It’s rare that a female lead is allowed to carry a gun toting, fists and kicks movie, so I bumped it up a bit in my rating.

1/25/23

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