Cantonese: Hung kit
Mandarin: Xiong xie
English: Killer Scorpion

If you watch old school kung fu movies with any regularity, you definitely know the face but probably not the name. He is Dai Sai Aan, a pseudonym which literally translates as "Big Little Eye." That bizarre moniker refers to a facial flaw that makes him hard to miss and a seemingly unlikely leading man. However, Dai Sai (as he is affectionately known) does indeed topline this episodic Golden Harvest actioner as Officer "Goony," who is introduced foiling an armed felon aboard a municipal bus. Risking his life in the line of duty is preferable to Goony than being stuck at home with his shrill, mahjong-obsessed wife, who is constantly carping about him being irresponsible when nothing could be further from the truth. Goony and partner Nan are ordered to meet up with an undercover policewoman but fail to do so when a triad brawl breaks out and they have to intervene. The main storyline concerns a gang of murderous thieves, led by the Ho Brothers (Phillip Ko Fei and Tsai Hung), who ice several people and also make it look like a police captain committed suicide. When Goony is almost successful at apprehending them, the men threaten to turn their guns on his family.

Too much of the running time is devoted to Goony's troubled marriage and unfunny comic relief from the actress playing his wife. There is also little in the way of story but, without a name star, director Chung Kwok-yan no doubt realized that action would be the project's selling point anyway. Chases and gunplay occur at regular intervals and, while none of the staging is exemplary, it is consistently efficient. The cinematography is less competent, however, with several shots clearly out-of-focus and a lighting-related flicker marring one sequence. Dai Sai is no threat to more conventionally handsome action stars but he has an everyman quality that keeps him likeable and one is definitely routing for him during the protracted finale. Wong San appears briefly as one of the Ho's victims.

WA #D-DVD 2367 (Mainland China label) Dolby Digital 5.1 Dubbed Mandarin Language Track Optional Subtitles In English and Simplified Chinese 8 Chapters Illustrated In the Menu With Clips Letterboxed (2.40:1) Coded for ALL Regions 88 Minutes (apparently at 25 frames-per-second) Contains brutal violence

DVD menu courtesy WA.

HIRED GUNS is available at Poker Industries.