''High Risk'' (released in the United States as ''Meltdown'' and in the Philippines as ''Super Bodyguard'') is a 1995 Hong Kong action

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

written, produced and directed by

Wong Jing Wong Jing ( born 3 May 1955) is a Hong Kong film director, producer, actor, presenter, and screenwriter. A prolific filmmaker with strong instincts for crowd-pleasing and publicity, Wong Jing played a prominent role in Hong Kong cinema duri ...

and starring

Jet Li Li Lianjie (courtesy name Yangzhong; born 26 April 1963), better known by his stage name Jet Li, is a Chinese film actor, film producer, Chinese martial arts, martial artist, and retired wushu (sport), Wushu champion. He is a naturalized Singapo ...

Jacky Cheung Jacky Cheung Hok-yau (born 10 July 1961) is a Hong Kong singer and actor. Dubbed the "God of Songs", he is regarded as one of the Four Heavenly Kings of Hong Kong pop music. Cheung is known for his technically skilled vocals, lengthy tours, and m ...

Chingmy Yau Chingmy Yau Suk-zing (born 16 May 1968) is a retired Hong Kong actress. Background She entered the Hong Kong film industry after competing secondary school in the 1987 Miss Hong Kong Beauty Pageant. She was one of the leading actresses in the ...

Charlie Yeung Charlie Yeung Choi-Nei (born 23 May 1974), is a Hong Kong actress. She was first noticed after appearing in a commercial with Aaron Kwok. Since then she has participated in the music videos of artists such as Hacken Lee, Jacky Cheung and made a nu ...

and Yang Chung-hsien.

Corey Yuen Corey Yuen (; born Ying Gang-ming (殷元奎); 15 February 1951) is a Hong Kong director, film director, producer, action choreographer, and former actor. Yuen was a member of the Peking Opera Schools and one of the Seven Little Fortunes. As a ...

serves as the film's

fight choreographer Stage combat, fight craft or fight choreography is a specialised technique in theatre designed to create the illusion of physical combat without causing harm to the performers. It is employed in live stage plays as well as operatic and ballet pr ...

. The film is a

parody A parody, also known as a spoof, a satire, a send-up, a take-off, a lampoon, a play on (something), or a caricature, is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satiric or ironic imitation. Often its subj ...

of some of Hollywood's most influential

action film Action film is a film genre in which the protagonist is thrust into a series of events that typically involve violence and physical feats. The genre tends to feature a mostly resourceful hero struggling against incredible odds, which include life ...

s, such as ''

Die Hard ''Die Hard'' is a 1988 American action film directed by John McTiernan, with a screenplay by Jeb Stuart and Steven E. de Souza. Based on the 1979 novel '' Nothing Lasts Forever'', by Roderick Thorp, it stars Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Ale ...

'' and ''

Speed In everyday use and in kinematics, the speed (commonly referred to as ''v'') of an object is the magnitude of the change of its position over time or the magnitude of the change of its position per unit of time; it is thus a scalar quanti ...

''.

Plot

Kit Li, a cop on the Hong Kong Police bomb squad, responds to a call at a local school, where a terrorist group led by an individual calling himself "The Doctor" has taken a school bus hostage. He soon discovers his wife and son are on board the explosives-rigged bus. The bus eventually explodes, killing everyone on the bus. Two years later in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

, Kit leaves the force and serves as a stunt double for martial arts action star Frankie Lone. However, Helen, a tabloid reporter, films one of his stunts and thus discovers Lone's duplicity, using it to boost her show's ratings. Frankie's father and his manager invite Kit to a jewelry exhibition at a newly opened Hotel, but the Doctor also targets the exhibition. At a traffic stop, Kit overhears the Doctor uttering a

catchphrase A catchphrase (alternatively spelled catch phrase) is a phrase or expression recognized by its repeated utterance. Such phrases often originate in popular culture and in the arts, and typically spread through word of mouth and a variety of mass ...

that he used during the school bus bombing, and realizing the Doctor's identity, he follows the car back to the Hotel. The Doctor and his team take over the building and initiate a massacre. Kit and Chow return, only to find themselves ambushed by the Doctor's gang members in a shootout, during which Chow is injured. Frankie manages to escape and runs into Fai. Kit and Chow thin out the Doctor's numbers after driving the car out of the freight elevator. Frankie's father wrestles a weapon away from a terrorist and threatens the hacker trying to deactivate the exhibit's security measures. Chow is reunited with his girlfriend Joyce. Kit tries to kill the Doctor in revenge when the villain mocks him, but the attempt tips the scales back in the terrorists' favor. Kit, Helen and Frankie's father barely manage to escape. Helen runs into a room with an exhibit of poisonous reptiles, places the videotape underneath a display case and hides in the men's washroom. The Doctor's younger brother, Rabbit, throws some of the snakes into the bathroom, poisoning her in the process. Kit and the Lones rescue Helen, administering anti-venom serum, and Kit learns that Helen managed to record the Doctor's face in her footage. Meanwhile, the Doctor warns the police that if they do not meet his impossible demands, he will toss a hostage out the window every ten minutes, with Frankie's manager Charlie Tso as the first victim. Kit retrieves the tape, and successfully kills Rabbit before escaping a grenade blast and landing in police custody. The police refuse to let Kit go back into the hotel, so Kit forces the desk sergeant he encountered earlier to let him return via helicopter at gunpoint. The Lones meet Fai and Kong in the midst of an argument that has escalated into a fight. The Lones intervene, unaware of Fai's true colors, until she holds them at gunpoint. Fai is about to murder Chow, but Chow seizes her gun and shoots her dead. Kong attacks Frankie's entourage; but when he begins punching Frankie's father, Frankie retaliates and kills Kong. The Doctor intercepts a police transmission and sends his men to ambush the helicopter. Helen manages to warn Kit, who rams the helicopter into the building. In the resulting chaos everyone escapes, but the Doctor captures Helen and takes her to the roof. Kit finds Helen with a bomb strapped to her, and the Doctor taunts him to choose between taking revenge on him or saving the life of another loved one. Kit throws a knife, hitting the Doctor in the shoulder before the latter escapes. Kit finds out that the wiring is the same as the last bomb, and this time successfully defuses it. During the defusal, he gets a call from the Doctor. Kit informs the Doctor that the dagger he threw was coated with snake venom from Helen's wound. The Doctor dies in agony and his body is looted by a trio of passing teenagers. Frankie decides to use the incident as the basis for his new movie, while crediting everyone for their heroics. Kit, however, leaves with Helen, who expresses her gratitude with an announcement of wishing to marry him.

Cast

as Kit Li - Kit used to work for the police, but left the force after losing his wife and son in a bomb threat he thought he had defused. He later became the personal body guard of Frankie and would even perform stunts for him when Frankie was inebriated. He is an expert martial artist and fights most of the major villains throughout most of the film. *

as Frankie Lone, a famous and popular action movie star famous for doing all of his own stunts. In reality, he is very lazy and lecherous. His character is assumed to be a spoof of

Jackie Chan Fang Shilong (born 7 April 1954), known professionally in English as Jackie Chan and in Chinese as Cheng Long ( zh, c=成龍, j=Sing4 Lung4; "becoming the dragon"), is a Hong Kong actor, filmmaker, martial artist, and stuntman known for ...

and

Bruce Lee Bruce Lee (; born Lee Jun-fan, ; November 27, 1940 – July 20, 1973) was a Hong Kong and American martial artist and actor. He was the founder of Jeet Kune Do, a hybrid martial arts philosophy drawing from different combat disciplines that ...

; he even wears Lee's iconic yellow jump suit from ''

Game of Death ''The Game of Death'' (Chinese: 死亡的遊戲) is an incomplete Hong Kong martial arts film, filmed between August and October 1972, directed, written, produced by and starring Bruce Lee, in his final film project. Lee died during the making ...

''. *

as Helen Vu *

as Joyce, one of the women working at the Hotel Grandeur. She is the reluctant girlfriend of rookie detective Chow Kam. * Yang Chung-hsien as Det. Chow Kam, a rookie policeman *Kelvin Wong as The Doctor *

Valerie Chow Valerie Chow (born 16 December 1970) is a Canadian former actress, fashion publicist, and entrepreneur. She has starred in numerous widely popular films and television series, most memorably in Wong Kar-wai's internationally acclaimed 1994 feat ...

as Fai-fai, the Doctor's partner *

Billy Chow Billy Chow Bei-lei ( zh, 周比利; born August 24, 1958) is a Hong Kong-Canadian martial artist, film actor, and retired professional kickboxer. He was the WKA world Welterweight champion from 1984 to 1986, and retired with a professional recor ...

as Kong, one of the Doctor's henchmen. He is obsessed with Frankie Lone, even to the point of fantasizing about defeating him in a fight. *Ben Lam as Rabbit *

Charlie Cho Charlie Cho Cha-lee (曹查理), a male actor in Hong Kong pornography films, especially during the 1980s. His over-acting approach can be regarded as one of the trademarks of Hong Kong soft porn films. He also worked in mainstream films, such as ...

as Charlie Tso - Frankie Lone's manager. Killed by the Doctor when he is thrown off the balcony of the Hotel Grandeur. * Suki Kwan as Li's Wife *

Wu Ma Fung Wang-yuen (22 September 1942 – 4 February 2014), better known by his stage name Wu Ma, was a Hong Kong actor, director, producer and writer. Wu Ma made his screen debut in 1963, and with over 240 appearances to his name (plus 49 directoria ...

as Frankie Lone's father

Release

''High Risk'' was released in Hong Kong on 13 July 1995.

Reception

The film grossed a modest HK $11,403,790 in Hong Kong, where it was released as 鼠胆龍威 (''High Risk'', ''Rat's bravery and Dragon's might''), which parodies the title of ''

'' (虎膽龍威 ''Tiger's bravery and Dragon's might'') in Hong Kong.

References

External links