A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

IN THE LINE OF DUTY III: FORCE OF THE DRAGON is the third of an excellent series of Hong Kong action films about female cops kicking ass in the city. The first two had Michelle Yeoh as lead actress, but for this instalment she was replaced by the great Cynthia Khan, who would stay on for the rest of the series. Khan is very much Yeoh's equal in the high-kicking action stakes, and she's a fine actress too.FORCE OF THE DRAGON is a high point in a series packed full of them. In fact, the first four films of this series are simply great, and this one has more intense action scenes than in many a rival Hollywood flick from the time. Khan and her allies (including Hiroshi Fujioka as an imported Sonny Chiba-alike, complete with '70s hair do) go after a couple of Japanese jewel thieves who have nefarious plans to smuggle arms to Japan's Red Army.It's pretty much wall to wall action here from beginning to end, and it's expertly choreographed by Brandy Yuen, one of Yuen Woo-ping's brothers. Although the action is near non-stop, none of it ever feels tiresome or repetitive, and instead it remains electrifying throughout. The fights are incredibly hard-hitting and the use of wirework to show characters being tossed around like rag dolls is very effective.Fans of Hong Kong cinema will spot plenty of familiar faces here, including Melvin Wong and cameos from three of the LUCKY STARS performers, but best of the lot is Dick Wei in another villain performance. Wei is the most intense and violent I've seen him yet in the fighting stakes, leading to an incredible climax that has to be seen to be believed.

There's never enough of Cynthia's fighting or her lovely face. I love watching her fight.I think that she's so beautiful. She would be a great candidate for a long shot of her face. Notice the long shot on Shu Qi in Millennium Mambo, or the shorter long shots of her in So Close. Tarentino used that well with Pam Grier in Pulp Fiction. The 8 minute opening of Natalie Portman's face in Free Zone was pure bliss.The scene at the beginning where she rips her skirt to fight the bad guy, wow.What I couldn't tolerate was the horrible dubbing. I didn't know they spoke Cantonese in Japan.The love scene was so HK. I'm from HK. It wasn't sensuous, it wasn't realistic, it wasn't believably passionate. The love scenes in Tampopo were shockingly erotic and passionate. The sex scenes in Korea's Bad Guy made me feel such genuine disgust, but it was real.Logic, are at least a semi-smooth flow of credible story line, was missing.That leaves nothing but more Cynthia. I don't know, maybe I'm just gushing. For me, never enough Cynthia.

Hong Kong action films of the Eighties were so bloody tough and so beautifully made, especially films that had budgets (like this one).Against the bland, CGI-driven Hollywood action flicks of the Noughties, a film like IN THE LINE OF DUTY 3 looks like an artifact from another planet.Everything you see was done for real. Every sequence was staged by stunties who risked their lives.There is an amazing relationship between two Japanese lovers (Michiko Nishiwaki and Stuart Ong) in this mind-blowing film. Ong is dying of leukeamia, and in one scene, they make love while Ong's hair comes off in Nishiwaki's hand. Later, after Ong is killed, Nishiwaki vows a brutal revenge that we clearly understand because we've been intimate with them.It is this kind of attention to nuance that lifts this Arthur Wong-Brandy Yuen-directed pic to classic status.Cynthia Khan, debuting as D & B Films' replacement for Michaelle Khan, does a terrific job as a cop assaulted at ever juncture by the murderous villains.A sequence involving a jewellery heist is one of the best of its kind and possesses a kineticism rarely seen in any films these days.Ditto an incredibly violent and realistic fight sequence between genre stalwart Dick Wei and Hiroshi Fujioka's hardcore cop.Relentless, operatic and explosive.

Seminal film in the modern Hong Kong action film series, notable for the debut of Cynthia Khan, who had the unenviable task to replace the `retired' Michelle Khan/Yeoh.In a bloody beginning, a pair of stylish Japanese thieves steal some valuable gems. In a harrowing scene, during their escape, they kill the partner of a ruffled detective (think Columbo with a Chuck Barris hairdo). The detective swears revenge, and the thieves played by the athletic and lovely Michiko Nishiwaki and her terminally ill partner/lover played by Stuart Ong plan on going to Hong Kong, sell the loot, and buy weapons for the Red Army. All the while Cynthia, a rookie cop in Hong Kong, tries to get in on the action of the task force she has been assigned to, but unfortunately her superior is her uncle who wants to keep her out of harms way. The Japanese thieves and the detective trailing them, all make their way to Hong Kong, and Cynthia ends up entangled in the same mess with the detective, trying to bring the cold blooded and desperate thieves to justice. People on both sides are killed, leading to crossed paths of personal revenge, everyone out for each others blood.The action, typical of the genre, is fast, bloody, and brutal, both Cynthia and Michicko are firecrackers and, in addition to being very easy on the eyes, display some great kicks and punches. The fight scenes, particularly the finale, are directed in a rapid paced, blink and you'll miss it fashion, with shots edited so that someone will be falling down from a punch, then in the next shot they are already up and spinning a kick against the opponent (any kind of reaction or recovery shot is gone, its just kick, punch, kick). Highly entertaining film.