Taiwanese actress Cynthia Yang Li-ching's first outing in the popular D & B series, this is a lesser entry that still shows her to be a worthy replacement for Michelle Yeoh Chu-kheng. In Japan, Red Army terrorists Nakamura (Stuart Ong/Yung Sai-kit) and Michiko Nishiwaki (played by the actress of that name) pull off a major robbery that appears to be part of an insurance fraud scheme cooked up by a renowned fashion designer (Yueh Hua). Having lost his partner (Chris Lee Kin-sang, also one of the film’s action choreographers) while trying to apprehend the criminals, local cop Hiroshi Fujioka (played by the like-named actor) follows the two to HK, eager to get revenge. HK policewoman Yeung Lai-ching (Yang) is ordered to simply shadow Fujioka and keep him out of trouble but, when the latter stumbles upon his targets, he loses control and a number of innocent people die. The HK police allow Fujioka to stay in the country (one of several implausibilities in the storyline) and he continues to track the two killers. When Lai-ching kills Nakamura, Nishiwaki swears vengeance.

D & B Films seemed uneasy about the commercial prospects of YES, MADAM (reviewed in issue #281), so they played it safe by adding a multitude of humor to the movie, along with the (then) novelty of gwai mui Cynthia Rothrock fighting along side Michelle Yeoh. The company followed a similar pattern here, relying on Paul Chun Pui, Sandra Ng Kwan-yu, Richard Ng Yiu-hon, and Eric Tsang Chi-wai for comedy relief, while also partnering Yang with a Japanese star, echoing the Michelle Yeoh/Hiroyuki Sanada combo from the series’ second installment, ROYAL WARRIORS. The resulting film (co-directed by Arthur Wong Ngok-tai and Brandy Yuen Chun-yeung) is a step down from both of its predecessors, though not without some pleasures. The plotting is simplistic even for these films, but the action is entertaining if one can overlook the often obvious undercranking. The final showdown between Nishiwaki and Yang (best known to English speaking audiences as Cynthia Khan) is also disappointingly short. An alternate version of the film exists, which is missing some of the violence and Michiko Nishiwaki's nude scene; Universe’s DVD presentation is thankfully intact. Dick Wei, Melvin Wong Kam-sun, Stanley Fung Shui-fan, Robin Shou Wan-bo, and Season Ma Si-san also appear.

Aside from some occasional mild smearing, a somewhat thin 5.1 re-mix, and dodgy English subtitles (a Japanese character actually refers to his fellow countrymen as "Japs" at one point), the presentation here is quite good. The film’s trailer is included, along with a Star’s File for Yang, and trailers for YES, MADAM and IN THE LINE OF DUTY IV & V. This DVD is apparently no longer being manufactured, but can still be acquired without much difficulty as of this writing.