Movie	Extras
Audio	Video

This is another one of those Hong Kong movies that will probably be butchered by Miramax.  Nonetheless, I was lucky enough to be able to buy this DVD (which was actually a gift for someone else).  A few things about the DVD.  It’s completely written in Chinese and the movie is dubbed in Mandarin.  There are no extras, unless you count chapter search as an extra.  Another thing: I have no idea what the title has to do with the movie.  There were no tigers or cages in this movie, and I doubt the symbolism ran very deep.  If I thought about it for some length of time, I might figure it out, but I suppose the original ‘Tiger Cage’ had more connection between the title and the movie (see here for the review, with no explanation for the title) .  ‘Tiger Cage 2’ was just a movie that happened to be a sequel regardless of any connection with the first one.

Movie
The subtitles are kind of bad, and the plot is already complex enough, so I couldn’t really tell you what happens in this movie until I see it again (after seeing it again, I’m still clueless).  Here’s what I got: something about American money being smuggled into Hong Kong, laundered, then brought back to the US as legal currency; Donnie Yen and Rosamund Kwan fight throughout the movie for various stupid reasons; and Mrs. Kwan’s lawyer boyfriend may or may not be an evil counterfeiter.  The US bad guys sends one of its goons to Hong Kong for some reason, maybe to get the money, I'm not sure, and somehow the Italian mafia seems to be involved.  That’s as much as I can say.  I could not expand on the plot in further detail because the rest of the plot is explained in very badly translated subtitles at which you have to guess the meaning, or consisted of Donnie Yen fighting.

It’s pretty obvious that I spend an obnoxious amount of money for this DVD so I could see Donnie Yen fight.  He definitely does that here (and in ‘Heroes Among Heroes’, here and in ‘Iron Monkey’, here, and in ‘Drunken Tai Chi’, here, also.  Incidentally, Yuen Woo-Ping directed those three movies as well as this one.))  The fighting is slower to start than, say, ‘In The Line of Duty 4’ (review here), but once it gets started, it doesn’t disappoint.  After about the half-way point of the movie, the story starts to take a back seat to the fighting.  Donnie seems to take a beating in this movie more than in some of his other movies.  (Maybe he saw Yuen Woo-Ping tormenting his brother in ‘In the Line of Duty 4’ and said ‘Hey, that looks like fun, I want to be a human pin cushion next time!’  Maybe not.)  He does his fair share of beating up other people, though.  The swordfight between him and John Salvitti is spectacular.  Yuen Woo-Ping shows that he’s a master of action in this movie.  Donnie’s fight with Michael Woods isn’t as great as in ‘In the Line of Duty 4’ but it’s still very nice to watch.  Those two dudes (Salvitti and Woods) get pummelled a few times by Mr. Yen in a few movies.  It’s funny to watch how Mr. Yen will dispatch them in every new adventure.  Also, Liu Kang from ‘Mortal Kombat’ is in here; Robin Shou plays the probably-bad guy.  He and Yen have one awesome fight.  These two guys know how to fight, and, of course, Mr. Yuen knows how to use people who know how to fight.  So the results are tremendous.

Rosamund Kwan, of the ‘Once Upon a Time in China’ movies fame, is also in this movie.  The chemistry between her and Yen is great.  Kwan is this whiny girl who screams when someone jumps in front of her, and Yen is this pissed off ex-cop who wants her to retract a statement she made about him, and the interaction between the two is just great.  Yen wants what he wants, and Kwan always gets in the way and detracts everybody from their simple goal.  In fact, everybody in this movie gets in trouble because of her.  I don’t know why that is, but it makes for some pretty groovy fights.  She’s cute in this movie, which also didn’t hurt.  I actually wish these two would have done more movies together.

Our old friend Lo Lieh (RIP, see ‘5 Fingers of Death’) also finds himself in this movie as Uncle Chiu.  I think he’s the head of the counterfeit organization, but I’m not too sure.  He’s not there a lot, but when he’s there... he’s... on screen...  Umm...  Cynthia Khan (credited as Cmythia Kham) also has a special appearance in this movie.  She’s only in 2 scenes, one of which is a nifty shoot-out sequence.  It’s too bad she didn’t have a starring role here, because I really like her.  I mentioned John Salvitti and Michael Woods before.  Who are they?  It doesn’t matter, they’re just two guys who get beaten up by Donnie Yen in a bunch of films.

Audio
Okay, for a Hong Kong release I don’t really understand why this movie is only in Mandarin, and not in Cantonese.  Oh, well.  The sound is good for the most part.  Sometimes the punch or kick effects chime in about a quarter second before the actual punch or kick.  That’s only in one or two scenes, though.  Apart from the Mandarin dubbing, the sound is nice considering it’s in mono.  A funny thing about the score is that it’s pretty much the exact same score as in ‘In the Line of Duty 4’.  I guess the two movies are so much the same that they decided to use the same music.

Video
1.85 letterbox.  As expected, it’s not anamorphic.  That’s okay, I didn’t think it was.  The movie has some specks throughout the running time, but it’s not too bad as to distract from the movie.  The colors are nice enough, but they lack definition and vividness.  It’s a Hong Kong release, what do you want.  I’m satisfied with what I expected.

put up sometime in October 2002