Of the three labels currently releasing newly restored titles from the Golden Princess film library, Imprint Asia continues to be tops when it comes to physical presentation.
Their 4K and Blu-ray releases are terrific on the inside, too, but the extra care given to the box sets, outer artwork, and accompanying hardcover books is just a step above. The latest such release from them is a double feature of Lau Kar-leung's Tiger on the Beat and Tiger on the Beat II.
Drug trafficking is a dangerous business, and that's even before the cops get ahold of you. When one such criminal loses his life to other dirty dealers, two tough detectives are assigned to the case. Francis Li (Chow Yun-fat) is a veteran of the force who plays it his way while still keeping his nose relatively clean, and Michael Cho (Conan Lee) is a young buck who wants to both do right and pound some skulls. They clash early on, but it's not long before they learn to work together, respect each other, and kill a whole bunch of baddies.
Tiger on the Beat is one hell of a fun Hong Kong romp that marries both killer action and humorous banter into something pretty special. There's also an epic chainsaw duel at the end guaranteed to leave you smiling, cheering, and wincing throughout.
Chow is his usual charming self while Lee gets the slightly tougher role of studious, increasingly frustrated upstart. Both pair well together across the board, and that goes as much for the action as for the comedy. The elder statesman delivers most of his violence at the end of a gun while Lee unleashes some terrific martial arts fight skills, and both leave a pretty high body count. There's also that ridiculous chainsaw fight... did I mention that? It's ridiculously epic.
The film's tone is a bit wobbly, by intention, but it might be enough to turn some folks off. There are violent deaths and jokes, sometimes in the same scene, and then there's also some rough treatment of a female witness -- by our hero cops! You can see what they're doing and why, but it's overly mean, and it only feels more aggressively uncool when she turns around and falls for Chow's character despite the beating. Still, that chainsaw duel is coming, and it's a doozy!
Tiger on the Beat II sees cast and crew return with the notable exception of Chow, whose career was hotter than ever thanks to a little film called The Killer. Lee returns alongside some other familiar faces, but there's no story/character connection to the first film.
Instead, Lee plays a young man named Buffalo who's visiting family and gets caught up in some violent conspiracies alongside veteran cop Lam Yik-lim (Danny Lee). It's never as fun as the first, and the action is also a few steps down when it comes to the memorable nature of its fights and stunts.
To be fair, one big issue here is that Conan Lee had a serious injury after s stunt went wrong, and in addition to affecting his career going forward, it also left a lot of the action here necessitating stunt doubles in his place. That affects the visual quality of what we see, and it just works to lessen the film's impact. There are a handful of fights, particularly at the end, that entertain, but it's a letdown more often than not.
Imprint's double feature box set features some vibrant, cool cover artwork on the outside and a hardcover book -- loaded with photographs and two essays by Paul Bramhall and Steve Kopian -- and a steel book housing the four discs. Each film is available on both 4K UHD and Blu-ray.
Regarding the special features, Imprint does it right by including their featurettes on the Blu-rays only. The 4K UHD discs each hold just the movie and a commentary track -- the always thorough Frank Djeng tackles both, and he's joined by F.J. DeSanto for the first film -- meaning the disc's space can be fully utilized to ensure the best possible picture. The results are evident, as both films look stunningly good for late 80s Hong Kong features, with detail, depth, and color all feeling nearly brand new again.
Special features for both films are mostly ported over from the Shout's release (as are the new transfers), but Imprint adds two extras of their own to the first film. We get an interview with actor/stuntman Bill Lui and one with critic James Mudge, and Imprint adds an interview with the great Gordon Liu -- the guy wielding the other chainsaw -- and producer Wellington Fung. The sequel gets an interview with Mudge and one with actor/martial arts director Ridley Tsui.