My Life's On The Line (1978: Wong Chung-gwong)

[Killer Meteor]

My Life's on the Line (1978)

The problem with the kung fu comedy craze is that it often meant dramatic films felt forced to compromise, inserting goofy scenes alongside the drama. A case in point is My Life's on the Line, which top bills Leung Kar-yan and Dean Shek. One would think from the poster (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Life%2 ... heLine.jpg) that this is some sort of buddy comedy starring the two, but in fact the main character is played by third-billed Wang Lee-pang, who I thought I'd never seen in anything before, but it turns out he was a mainstay of the Jackie Chan/Lo Wei films, where he looked far more scruffy.
Wang isn't much of a leading man, clearly being a graduate of the Jimmy Wang Yu school of never changing one's expression. He does have some nifty tae-kwon-do skills, but it doesn't feel like they are showcased that much. Given that the character goes through a fair amount of emotional strife, it's a pity Leung wasn't cast in the part, as he is a much more versatile actor (but maybe they only had him for a day).
Wang plays an assassin known as "Minute Fong", owning to his defeating of his opponents in 60 seconds, which he times with a pocket watch. And as a fighting character, he gets a heck of an introduction, battling an opponent by a lake, with a glorious rainbow in the background.
Although Fong kills "those who deserve it" (murderers, thieves), he doesn't work for the law. Instead, he seems to be hired by an organisation, led by Leung (who bizarrely seems to be posing as his second-in-command), who are removing their competition. Fong is clearly getting tired of all this killing and wants to settle down in a normal life. The organisation doesn't seem to have planned for pensions or voluntary redundancy, so they give him a final job which is clearly morally ambiguous. And to make sure he does it, they've hired a pair of assassins to monitor him.
The first third of the film is very grim and dark…well almost. Fong abandons his harlot girlfriend to the mercy of her two owners…who talk in unison. It's more disturbing then funny, given that they are otherwise rather convincingly nasty bullies. Things get worse, MUCH worse, when Fong goes on his final mission, which involves him interacting with an annoying fat kid who ruins the middle section of the film more than a hundred Dean Sheks.
Speaking of which, Shek turns up in one scene as a spoiled rich, port-wine stained wacko who chases girls. And he's actually fairly funny here.
The final third is thankfully dark, dark, dark so we get to see some decent tragedy and very aggressive fighting rewarding the patient viewer. Leung's two thugs are quite repulsive characters, which makes their villainy effective and their defeat gratifying. Funnily enough, Leung is too likable to really prove an effective counter to the sullen "hero" (who gets people killed via abandoning them to their fates TWICE) so the final battle's resolution is appropriately ambiguous (and cartoon blood running down the screen is always cool!)

Soundtrack notes: The main title theme is from a re-recording of Max Steiner's score to the original 1933 King Kong, the love theme is "Anya's Theme" from the soundtrack album to The Spy Who Loved Me (it's not in the film itself), and one scene of Leung conspiratorially plotting is the destruction of the Death Star music from Star Wars!

DVD: An early release from Eastern Heroes in 2001 (back when a "budget" DVD was £12.99!), this isn't too badly affected by the 4:3 cropping, but it's very fuzzy and blurry in places. Towards the end, a lot of shots begin in darkness then brighten to match the rest of the transfer. The source may be cut as an abrupt edit suggests a love scene may have been removed. The extras are a random clip from an unidentified Wang Li-pang film, an interview with Leung Kar-yan, a cheesy new promo trailer that shows how much better the ones at HKL were, and some text bios.