Product: The Flying Daggers (1995)
Rating: 4.0
Delightful Hong Kong Wire Fu Comedy Fantasy
FLYING DAGGER (1993) came out at a time when "wire fu" costume fantasies (in which the actors, hoisted on wires, fly back and forth during their swordplay/kung fu battles) were flooding the Hong Kong market (SWORDSMAN II, BUTTERFLY AND SWORD, KUNG FU CULT MASTER, DRAGON INN, etc.). It wasn't the first comedy in the genre, but it remains, arguably, the funniest of them, easily surpassing HANDSOME SIBLINGS and ROYAL TRAMP I & II. Boasting enough fighting & flying thrills to engage the action crowd, it's a typical HK melange of comedy, romance, fantasy, acrobatics, and swordplay, yet is very well put together and utterly delightful from start to finish.It tells the story of a race by opposing teams of bounty hunters, Big Dagger and Little Dagger, and their female rivals, Big and Little Bewitchment, to track down wanted criminal Nine-Tails Fox and his wife, Flying Cat. Eventually the two teams join forces to bring the criminals to justice, only to find out that the wanted parties were framed by Master Lui who had initially hired Big and Little Dagger to pursue Fox. This all leads to a big battle at the end with seven good guys fighting Master Lui and his two super-powerful henchmen. In the course of it all, the male and female bounty hunters pair off romantically.Hong Kong comedies are often hit-and-miss when it comes to actual laugh content, but this one is full of clever and inventive gags throughout. Some of the best gags involve the disembodied hand of "Never Die," one of the villains the heroes encounter. After being chopped off, the hand lives on and chases the heroes, often grabbing them in spots they don't want grabbed, but eventually it becomes their ally and helps them out of rough spots. Think of ADDAMS FAMILY'S Thing as an action hero and you'll get the idea. And the trick effects are easily as seamless as those of the ADDAMS FAMILY.The good-looking cast is full of top Hong Kong names, most notably Jacky Cheung (A BULLET IN THE HEAD) as Nine-Tails Fox and Maggie Cheung (IRMA VEP, IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE) as Flying Cat. This is easily one of Maggie's best action roles and ranks alongside her work in DRAGON INN. Tony Leung (also in DRAGON INN) and Sharla Cheung Man (ROYAL TRAMP) play the older bounty hunters who pair off, while the exceedingly cute "little" partners are played by Gloria Yip and Jimmy Lin, who bring to the film an attractive dose of youthful charm.