MERCENARIES FROM HONG KONG is a breakneck, roller-coaster ride of an action movie from those champions of cinema at the Shaw Brothers studio. It's one of their rare contemporary thrillers in which a hard-ass bunch of mercenaries are tasked with crossing the border into Cambodia and kidnapping a deadly assassin with a price on his head.

This is one of those ensemble all-star productions similar to THE A-TEAM or THE EXPENDABLES, but to my mind better than both. Ti Lung has never been tougher as the moustachioed lead and he assembles a crack squad of classic Shaw stars to go on the mission. Wong Yu is the magician who'll do anything for money; the great Lo Lieh is a sniper; the extremely tough Johnny Wang Lung Wei is a boxer; Michael Chan Wai-Man is a soldier with combat experience in Vietnam; Chan Pak-Cheung is the comic relief and ladies' man. The odds are stacked against the heroes, with a vengeful Yuen Wah hunting them in Hong Kong, Phillip Ko playing the target, and the ultra-imposing Lee Hoi San as a sinister character who keeps turning up to commit murder.

Don't go in expecting dense plotting, because the emphasis of this film is very much on the action, and it delivers in spades. From Lung's opening hit to the assembling of the team and the eventual mission, it's exciting stuff indeed with a strong mix of hand-to-hand combat and explosive gun-dominated set-pieces. The stakes continue to raise in the second half, and there's an admirably dark streak well handled by writer/director Wong Jing at the outset of his career. The only contemporary Shaw film that I like better than this is the exemplary HONG KONG GODFATHER.

Wong Jing's Mercenaries from Hong Kong (1982) was a late Shaw Brother's attempt to break into the modern action genre that was taking hold in the Hong Kong Cinema in the early 80's. Ti Lung plays a Vietnam vet who's now an 'honourable' mercenary-for-hire taking on an assignment tracking down an assassin who's fled to Cambodia after murdering an industrialist from Hong Kong. He recruits a team for the task which consists of who's who of the Shaw Brother's action stars (Lo Lieh, Johnny Wang Lung Wei, Wong Yue, Chan Wei Man and comedy relief Nat Chan). However once they arrived for the mission nothing is what it seems with the standard plot-twists and turns as we find out who's the traitor among the group...

It's interesting to see Shaw Brother's attempt to move into contemporary action genre from the Kung Fu/ Wuxia staple and this is not a bad effort even if the plot is lifted from the 'Wild Geese' At least in the hands of Ti Lung we see him and his group busting out a few nice Kung Fu moves in a contemporary setting which I can't imagine Richard Burton or Roger Moore doing. Low-brow humor is kept to a minimum for a Wong Jing film other than scenes with Nat Chan and this helps the general flow of the film. The gun play and action is competently done although not at the level of John Woo's films a few years later. All in all an enjoyable early Wong Jing popcorn action movie.

So this was fun! An early Wong Jing flick with lots of action, stunts, violence and moronic jokes. It's basically the old we've-got-to-get-the-team-back-together mercenary story. A gang of ex-military guys are hired by a mysterious dame who wants them to go into Cambodia and kidnap the man who killed her father. Before the gang gets to Cambodia there are numerous fights and gags, some of them pretty stupid, like the one with the cross dresser, but that comes with this type of silly Hong Kong flick. In the last half hour or so, the flick turns pretty violent and dark. I like those extreme gear changes in Hong Kong cinema: one minute you're laughing you ass off, the next you're hit on the head with the death of a child. Worth your time if you are fan of eighties Hong Kong action flicks.