If ever one feature could summarize the work of Wong Jing, then “Future Cops” needs to be at the top of the list. Clearly copyright rules never got it in the way of making money and so why worry about getting the rights to the “Streetfighter 2” game when you can just stick them all in a script, change the names and then hope no-one pays enough attention to sue. That clearly isn't exploitative enough so why not set the majority of the movie in a high school, throw in some trademark pop culture references that immediately tell you when it was made, add a little bit of tastelessness, humour that even Benny Hill would struggle to find sophisticated and of course feature Chingmy Yau in some form. There was recently a skit on Saturday Night Live about a film critic watching movies whist on LSD. After watching this who needs it!
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Somewhere in the future, the evil Bison (Ken Lo) is captured and he sends his minions Kent (Ekin Cheng), Thai King (Billy Chow) and Toyata (William Yuen ) back in time to assassinate the Judge that sentenced him. In response, Ti Man (Andy Lau), Broomhead (Jacky Cheung) and Sing (Simon Yam) follow them in an effort to get there first and protect the younger version of the judge despite not knowing who he is. They encounter Chan (Dicky Cheung) a student that has been kept back several years and he agrees to aid them after learning his school is where their quarry is. His sister Chun May (Chingmy Yau) gets closer to Ti Man but a series of mishaps only leads to more chaos and confrontation.
When Wong Jing is working on these productions, the one thing you don't expect is serious, dramatic performances. Instead the tone is pitched somewhere in the realms of pantomime. Simon Yam is probably the worst offender here. I'm not sure which nationality he is supposed to be playing (I know where the character in the game originated) but am sure it would not go down well in the local audience. But then this is Hong Kong and casual racism and sexism are frequently used for humorous purposes. Take for example when two of the fighters duel and their powers, as they flow by, cause all the girls' skirts to be raised. Jacky Cheung's hair has more gravitas than his character and Andy Lau dressed as Super Mario in one scene tells you all you need to know about where his performance is pitched. When Richard Ng turns up in green face paint as the reworked character of Blanka and moves around like a pinball then there is no point trying to apply the usual law of film reviewing!
The wirework is spectacular and really does capture the spirit of the computer game. The aerial gymnastics and effects look at times incredible and the maestro of the wire work Ching Siu-tung certainly earns his fee. The opening scenes set in the future are probably the best part of the whole piece, with lasers, hovering vehicles and frantic action. After this, the pace slows down to become more comical and allow for various set ups. A word of warning here. Your enjoyment of these is very much going to depend on your comic tastes. Wong Jing comedy is broad, and by broad I mean subtlety doesn't exist anywhere. For me it can be quite grating. Don't get me wrong, there are some scenes that are generally amusing, you just have to accept that not all the jokes will land. His tendency to use pop culture references also means that, over time, these can get lost in translation or make no sense.
What this film certainly isn't is boring! For years' critics would talk about comic book style in cinema. This is exactly that. The bright primary colours, over the top performances and visuals create a look that would only ever be seen in a Hong Kong film. The pacing is relentless which means scenes either never quite develop or are moved on swiftly, never allowing anything to fall flat for too long. It's also commercial cinema in its purist form. In fact, I'd go as far to say it's the perfect distillation of the Wong Jing methodology. When focused, he could be a superb filmmaker (“God of Gamblers”, The Last Blood”), but all too often the finished product would be thrown together quickly to make a quick buck. Making him more a Hong Kong Roger Corman in comparison to say Tsui Hark's reputation as a Spielberg of the East. “Future Cops” does what it sets out to do, entertain for 90 minutes and then normally pass from memory. The difference this time is that the final product is so insane that it actually succeeds in spite of itself. It's so outlandish and full of chutzpah at its recreation of the video game characters that you are just amazed that they thought they could get away with it….and they did.
Is “Future Cops” any good from a critical standpoint? Not really. Is it an entertaining piece of commercial hokum? Absolutely. If good taste can pass you by and can ignore some relatively offensive material, then you will really enjoy this. You won't come out of it thinking it was the greatest movie ever made, far from it. What you will do is be amazed at both the imagination and insanity of the whole piece. You'll either hate every second or love it to pieces.
