Cops And Robbers (Hong Kong 1979)

 

Before I dug kung fu films, zombie yarns or sexploitation muck I loved crime movies. Especially the gritty kind of crime movies, leagues away from the safe soft-boiled tv detectives and their pristine murder of the week mysteries that show up on daytime tv. 1979's 'Cops And Robbers' is Hong Kong's first step towards the modern cops and triad yarns of Dante Lam and Johnnie To. The director was Alex Cheung, one of the best of the initial HK New Wave directors in terms of genre movies. There was attempts in the 70s but I have always found those films stiff and clunky.

Alex Cheung, for a handful of films, caught a spark that became a fire for Hong Kong crime cinema. Much in the same way, Fernando Di Leo's crime movies marked the epicentre of the Italian cop wave, something similar should be said for Cheung and his legacy.

'Cops And Robbers' begins wistfully with little kids playing cops and robbers in the street in that knockabout fashion as is the way children play. Then the audience is thrust into the action with the introduction of a plain clothes Hong Kong police unit helmed by Sergeant 'Dirty Happy' and his handful of other hardboiled officers, along with a baby-faced new recruit 'Pretty Boy'. They are on the trail of a bunch of robbers pulling off violent heists that culminate in the shooting and violent murders of several beat cops. 'Dirty Happy' and his colleagues hit the streets and some with some smash-and-grab busts get their men. Yet, the sadistic, cross-eyed lunatic Biu escapes and goes on a rampage of revenge.

'Cops And Robbers' is in turns sedate and episodic yet at points goes into overdrive, with bullets and blood flying over the screen. The pace never slackens, despite an abundance of character development and a police soap opera at the beginning of the film, even when the police visit a cheesy Hong Kong bar for a Cantonese glam rock sing-a-long, it's never dull. Just like Ringo Lam, Cheung crafts intense street scenes with inventive camera work to capture the jagged urban blues of night-time Hong Kong.

Towards the end of the film, Cheung flips the film on its head with people you think would survive getting slain and you're left quite literally with an underdog situation. Biu is a terrifying lunatic in this, the sort of man straight jackets were sewn for. He's the equal to the nutters that appeared in the Italian police films of the 70s.

An excellent film, both as a piece of Hong Kong cinema and as a slice of World Wide Pulp.