POINT OF NO RETURN is another fine movie from director Ringo Lam, this time teaming up with comedy star Sammo Hung. The comedy is toned down here for a serious story in which Hung witnesses a brutal murder by a criminal gang and thereafter finds himself hunted by their boss, an on-fire Tommy Wong. It's a fine film that's packed full of set-piece action and doesn't shy away from hard-hitting violence either; I can remember few movies where our hero gets this badly injured or where brutality is meted out with abandon to unfortunate women. Teresa Mo is exceptional again in support, the bad guys are truly villainous, and there's a brief but stand-out bout with henchman Billy Chow. A good mix of brawling fights, explosions and car chases round out the running time, leaving this a highly entertaining and combustible thriller that never pauses for a second.

When looking at Hong Kong titles from 1991, the main titles that appeared at the top in the various list were Riki-Oh and John Woo's Heroic Bloodshed Caper, Once A Thief. Recently catching his spectacular Full Contact (1992) I was excited to stumble on a rarely mentioned Ringo Lam title,which led to me going for a viewing.

View on the film:

Touching down when fellow Heroic Bloodshed auteur John Woo was altering the set-up of the sub-genre with Once a Thief, and this film itself being part of one-two punch Lam delivered in 1991 with Prison on Fire 2 also coming out, director Ringo Lam & cinematographer Ardy Lam interestingly follow Woo's path by blending the hard-nose action with a zany comedy vehicle for star Sammo Hung. Bouncing Hung/Fat Goose into trouble,Lam neatly blends the slap-stick with the thump of his action scenes,by having Goose jump around frantically trying to knock the baddies out. Surrounding heroes Goose and Pitt with a biker gang in a scene lit by bikers carrying Molotov cocktail, Lam cuts the laughs down in the second half by returning to his visual theme of heroes coming out of vast flames, an exploding bus and gun/knife fights which lead the victims with wounds washed in the rain.

Writing this and Prison on Fire 2 for Lam, Yin Nam is joined by Jan-Wing Chow and Candy Cheung in attempting to loop Heroic Bloodshed with broad comedy. When facing a thug threatening to kill him, the writers do well using the frantic comedy to express the high anxiety of Goose. Whilst it hits the right notes establishing Goose, (a running on high energy Sammo Hung)the writers allow the slap-stick to overstay it's welcome when setting up the team of Goose and Pitt, with almost all their first exchanges being flat one-liners. Shoving the jokes aside as the threat comes into focus, the writers take an excellent, harsh cut to the themes of the sub-genre by making the gangsters have deep roots in the police, and some social commentary being given to people trafficking,as Goose and Pitt touch and go to face heroic bloodshed.

When mentioned the name of Ringo Lam, many viewers and fans remembered him for delivering such genre classics such as CITY ON FIRE and PRISON ON FIRE (both released in 1987). But his 1991 feature called TOUCH AND GO (aka POINT OF NO RETURN) is almost non-existent in (everybody's) mind. No doubt this movie arrived with such little fanfare but it's also interesting to check out for -- notably because of an odd team-up between Ringo Lam and Sammo Hung.

Sammo Hung plays Fat Goose, a naive but lovable loser who is unfortunate enough to witness a cop being killed one night by a bunch of killers in the back alley while working late at his restaurant. The killers notice him and try to stop him, but Fat Goose apparently knows martial arts to overcome and finally made his escape. Instead of calling the police, he vows to keep quiet until the arrival of the dead cop's partner Pitt (Vincent Wan) forces him to become an eyewitness.

When one of the killers nicknamed "God of Hell' (Tommy Wong) tries to kill Fat Goose, Pitt manages to arrest him in an eventual car chase and takes him back to the police station. Even though Fat Goose finally testify against the "God of Hell", the police is unable to hold him any charges and forced to let him go with the help of a highly-influential lawyer named Kam Tse Ping (Lam Chung). Fat Goose is frightened and knows that "God of Hell" will find him and kill him at all cost. However, even without the official police protection, Pitt remains responsible of Fat Goose's safety. As the investigation goes further, the cop who is being killed earlier has something to do with a sex trafficking involving a number of high-ranking VIPs.

The good news is, there are a few numbers of Lam's gritty trademarks here. The action are brutal, intense and violent. Earlier in the movie, there is a well-staged car chase scene worth mentioning for. And there is Noel Quinlan's mesmerizing jazz soundtrack that echoes the one heard in CITY OF FIRE.

But the bad news is, TOUCH AND GO feels strangely uneven. This is heavily due to the involvement of Sammo Hung playing the lead here. Apparently mixing a gritty crime drama with an overdose of slapstick comedy doesn't really gel well one after another. While there are still a few amusing moments worthy of chuckles, the comedy elements feel largely awkward.

Still, the overall movie remains fairly entertaining enough as a decent time-killer. As a lovable loser, Sammo Hung is certainly feels at ease playing the kind of role he always known for. He is likable enough, even though die-hard fans of his movie will be disappointed by the lack of his trademark martial-art performance here. As a relentless cop Pitt, Vincent Wan plays his role reasonably well. As both villains, Tommy Wong and Lam Chung are typically good playing despicable roles.