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In the Line of Duty 4: Standard Edition
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray A - America - 88 Films Review written by and copyright: Eric Cotenas (29th July 2024). |
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The Film
 In Seattle working with the local police on a drug sting, Hong Kong Serious Crimes Unit cop Madam Yeung (Cynthia Khan again) narrowly evades having her cover blown by landing in the arms of Chinese immigrant dock worker Luk Wan-Ting (Dreadnaught's Simon Yuen) who is trying to make an honest living in the states in spite of the propensity of his buddy Ming (Infernal Affairs II's Liu Kai-Chi) for getting into trouble with loan sharks. Unfortunately, Madam Yeung is recognized by the Hong Kong drug dealer (Iron Monkey's Sunny Yuen) who manages to get away. Things get worse for Luk when Yeung's dying partner tries to pass to him the negative of a photograph he shot of a rogue CIA agent who shot him during a drug bust. American Captain Donnie Yen (Ip Man's Donnie Yen) is ready to throw the book at Luk in spite of Yeung attesting to his character; however, Luk escapes when he is attacked by a corrupt cop (Operation Condor's Dan Mintz) trying to get the negative from him. After Ming is killed by assassins trailing Luk, he only manages to escape being apprehended by Yen through the intervention of Yeung. Yen's superior takes him off the case and appoints Captain Michael Wong (Michael Wong again) who, nevertheless, keeps Yen and Yeung on his team as they head to Hong Kong to apprehend Luk. In Hong Kong, however, Luk, Yeung, Yen, and Wong become entangled in a web of intrigue involving Hong Kong drug dealers, secret American paramilitary organizations, corrupt cops, and Luk's hapless mother (One-Armed Swordsman's Lisa Chiao Chiao). A big step up from the tonally-jarring and monotonous In the Line of Duty III, In the Line of Duty IV: Witness – helmed by seasoned action choreographer/director Yuen Wo-Ping (Drunken Master) is narratively-incoherent but consistently thrilling with the string of action set-pieces making up for the lack of clarity in the plot mechanics. Characterization is so thin that one only really cares for Luk and his mother because they are the only truly innocent characters while Yeung is rather ineffectual in arguing her beliefs to American or Hong Kong colleagues, Yen the character so narrow-minded that fans of Yen the actor may be disappointed if expecting the film as a vehicle for him, and Wong in one of a string of smarmy characters who are either a villian or just a bureaucratic obstacle for the heroes. The martial arts action is divided between Khan, Yen, and Yuen – brother of director Wo-Ping and actor Sunny – and this leads to more dynamic staging than the drawn-out singular fight scenes in the previous film, with a climactic showdown in the American embassy in which camera and audience eyes dart back and forth between three different fights that usually intersect painfully. While the previous film was co-directed by cinematographer Arthur Wong (Armour of God), the photography here by Yuen regular Ma Koon-Wah (The Magnificent Butcher) and Au Gaam-Hung (Top Squad) is functional and director Yuen avoids the "heroic bloodshed" slow motion digressions of the previous film, coming across as "lean and mean" even though the film is ten minutes longer. Along with the Yes, Madam and Royal Warriors, the third and fourth film form part of a quartet, but five more films with Khan followed in the nineties with the banner (but only three of them came from original producer D & B Films Co. Ltd.). 
Video
Although an English export version was prepared, In the Line of Duty IV: Witness was unreleased in the US and the UK and was accessible in English-friendly form only as a cropped Hong Kong laserdisc with burnt-in English and Chinese subtitles. A Hong Kong DVD in 1998 sported a letterboxed transfer with optional English subtitles and was directly ported stateside by Tai Seng featuring a non-anamorphic transfer. This was subsequently upgraded in 2003 by Twentieth Century Fox in an anamorphic transfer of the Hong Kong version which also turned up in the U.K. as part of the Hong Kong Legends line. Presumably the 2011 Hong Kong Blu-ray was an upscale of the Fortune Star master, but Eureka's British Blu-ray – released concurrently with their edition of In the Line of Duty III – came from a new 2K restoration. 88 Films' 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 widescreen Blu-ray also includes the same 2K restorations of both the Hong Kong version (95:24) and the English export version (95:38) with the only difference consisting of a brief pre-credits sequence in which Yen's superior assigns Yeung as his partner. The film has a less-considered color scheme than the previous film, and it is hard to tell if the grading or just ugly environments are responsible for some dull-looking colors since blues and greens tend to be well-saturated and blacks are deep while skin tones are mostly pale but lean towards pink in some of the dark interiors. The grading of these newer Hong Kong remasters has always been a subject of debate, but it gets the job done for the casual viewer. 
Audio
The Hong Kong version In the Line of Duty IV is viewable with either Cantonese or English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono tracks and optional English subtitles – an optional English subtitle track is enabled with the English track for onscreen Chinese text – while the export version only includes the English Dolby Digital 2.0 track and no subtitles. Both tracks are dubbed, but the Cantonese track is preferable if only because the performances sound more impassioned. Apart from the more emotive moments, the line readings are a bit stilted on the English dub. 
Extras
Like the U.K. release, 88 Films' disc of In the Line of Duty IV ports over the audio commentary by Hong Kong expert Stefan Hammond and lead actor Michael Wong recorded in 2001 – in which the actor recalls coming to Hong Kong via Cinema City but being signed with D&B for Royal Warriors, not speaking Cantonese at the time, training with Mintz and Woods, not looking forward to his fight scene with Yen, and the various periods of his acting career in which he was typecast as good guys, villains, and then good guys again – while there is also newly-recorded audio commentary by Asian film experts Frank Djeng and Michael Worth in which they discuss mixing Seattle and Vancouver locations and some anonymous Hong Kong streets for the first act – bringing in Yen from Wo-Ping Yuen's earlier Tiger Cage – a number of the Western fighters trained with Yen's mother – Wong playing a different Michael Wong from the character who died in Royal Warriors, the attempt to make Simon Yuen into a leading man (this would be his last onscreen role), the themes of immigration and emigration that cropped up in Hong Kong cinema nearing the 1997 handover, and the film's balance of tone compared to the previous film. Ported from the older DVD is an archival interview with actor Donnie Yen (20:29) in which he opines that Hong Kong action cinema is more dangerous than Hollywood action because they are always trying to top themselves, discusses the progression of action genres in Hong Kong from martial arts to action comedy to heroic bloodshed, Yuen Wo-Ping working in Hong Kong and Hollywood, and developing his own fighting style to compete with the more elaborate competition from Sammo Hung's productions of the period. The disc closes with the Hong Kong theatrical trailer (4:26) and an English theatrical trailer (5:30). 
Overall
In the Line of Duty IV: Witness is narratively-incoherent but consistently thrilling with the string of action set-pieces making up for the lack of clarity in the plot mechanics.
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