Touch & Go (Region 1 Import DVD)

Action director Ringo Lam, who had previously directed comedies but had since infused the action genre with real drama and social concerns with CITY ON FIRE, returned halfway with TOUCH AND GO. There's a lot of action, but it is all done with tongue planted firmly in cheek. The star, Sammo Hung, a very popular actor in such Hong Kong kung fu films as DRAGONS FOREVER, plays Fat Goose, a noodle stall worker who has the misfortune of witnessing a Mafia murder. He is convinced by the police to do his civic duty and testify in court against a known Triad member. The police promise to protect him from mob reprisals but fail to do so, and he is left to defend himself. Hung, who stages and choreographs his own fight scenes, has a deft comic touch that includes a lot of silly gags along with the violence. The resulting style is more like a Jackie Chan film, in which realism is often jettisoned in favor of entertainment. The plot, which could be a serious indictment of the incompetence and corruption of the Royal Hong Kong Police, is played for laughs instead. After this effort, which is very much a Sammo Hung film, Lam returned to his own brand of stylized realism in his portrayal of crime and violence with the hit FULL CONTACT.