FORBIDDEN CITY COP

The clumsiest secret agent ever, Ling Ling Fat - also completely untrained in Kung Fu - is given the chance to prove his mettle when the emperor is kidnapped and the world's most beautiful prostitute comes to town.
Stephen Chiau once again in the role of a Chinese James Bond. Unlike ”From Beijing With Love” , ”Forbidden City Cop” is set in imperial China. The secret policeman Fat spends most of his time on his clever, but not always completely functional inventions. Stephen Chiau is enormously popular in his home country, and together with Chow Yun-Fat and Jackie Chan, is among the absolute favourites of Hong Kong audiences. Since 1992 he has had between two and three films in the top ten listings every year.
Chiau, however, is still relatively unknown outside Hong Kong and the Chinatowns of the world, due mainly to the difficulty of translating Cantonese jokes, and western audiences' predilection for action films. ”Forbidden City Cop” proves that he deserves better. In this film he convincingly moves from stupid to smart, and from fighter to loving husband. His interpretation of Ling Ling Fat is an indescribable combination of facial expressions, a myriad of references, strange inventions, wordplay and nonsense humour.
The 32 year old director and scriptwriter Vincent Kuk also deserves praise. With his smart, reference-packed, though not always logical screenplay, he has created a film with brilliant supporting roles and plenty of genre parodies. Mainly it is the fantasy - and kung fu- genres that are targeted, but even the Academy Awards, plastic surgery, postmodernism and aliens, who are dissected on TV, get their share.
At the same time, the scenes between Fat and his wife are surprisingly sensitive and loving. Both Chiau and Lau, who plays opposite him, display a wonderful comic interaction, as well as a feel for more sensitive scenes. The scene in which Lau offers noodles as a conciliatory gesture and Chiau apologizes provides a worthy counterweight to the senseless fighting scenes in the rest of the film,
without affecting the overall tempo. It is impressive that Kuk manages to sustain such a balance between hysteria and calm already in his second film.
Jakob Abrahamsson

Orig. titel
Daai Noi Mat Taam Ling: Medverkande
Stephen Chiau Shing-Chi,Carina Lau Kar-Ling,Carman Lee Yeuk-Tung: Producent
Wong Jing: Manus
Vincent Kuk Tak-chiu ,Lo Man Shun: Foto
Lee Kin Keung: Musik
Lau Yee Tat: Talat språk
Cantonese with English/Chinese subtitles