The Red Wolf (1995)



	The Red Wolf		Return to Review Archive - R
	Year:	1995	Kenny Ho holds man with goatee hostage
	Director:	Yuen Woo-Ping
	Action:	Yuen Woo-Ping, Cho Wing, Yuen Cheung-Yan
	Cast:	Kenny Ho Kar-King, Christy Chung Lai-Tai, Ngai Sing, Elaine Lui Siu-Lung, Ng Sin-Si, Wu Feng, Cho Wing, Mary Hon Ma-Lee, Michael Lai Siu-Tin, Mandy Chan, Tam Suk-Mui, Yuen Cheung-Yan
	The Skinny:	It's Die Hard on a boat! With Kenny Ho Kar-King (?). Yuen Woo-Ping directed this B-grade flick which uses welcome action scenes to offset the nonexistent acting and boilerplate storyline.
	Review by Kozo:	Yuen Woo-Ping directed this fun action movie that entertains despite having zero in the way of story, character or acting. The lead is Kenny Ho Kar-King ,who's famous for playing Wah Ying-Hung (aka: A Man Called Hero) on TV. Here he's Dragon, a security staffer onboard a chintzy-looking luxury liner which is celebrating the New Year on the high seas. The boat gets taken over by evil bastard Ngai Sing, who's supposed to be the co-captain, but is instead out to steal some uranium stored on board. Elaine Lui is the singer/evil seductress who uses high kicks and good looks to take down her foes, and Christy Chung shows up as Lai, a cruise employee who's using her job to grift off of the rich passengers. Add a little girl (Ng Sin-Si), some blood and bullets and mix generously. What you get is The Red Wolf. Originality be damned! Yuen Woo-Ping and company don't fake any inspiration; this is just a boilerplate product which takes the standard Die Hard formula and executes it in ninety minutes. That said, it also proves to be somewhat entertaining, thanks to the nearly constant action and lack of manufactured emotion. There's a little bit involving the little girl (her parents were friends of Dragon's), and some minor histrionics from Christy Chung (who functions as both love interest AND comedy relief), but it's all gratefully downplayed. Kenny Ho does a good job with the action, and though he overacts occasionally, he's generally likable, if not a little bland. This movie won't make anybody forget Fist of Legend, or possibly even High Risk, but it's decent throwaway fun. (Kozo 2003)

		image courtesy of World Video
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