tuba (sammo hung) is a bachelor who plays tuba in the police band: he doesnt want for much, just a quiet life and a nice girl. cheung (jacky cheung), tuba's flat-mate, has just finished his police training and can't wait to hit the streets, however, he is assigned to inter-office document delivery. so cheung, wanting a more active role in the police, gets tuba involved in an extortion case, utilising the fact that he doesn't look like a cop.

unfortunately, the pay-off goes wrong and, super-cop, rambo chow (david chiang) is seriously wounded and dies in tuba's arms. tuba promises to avenge chow, but soon forgets as he attempts to lead a quite life and woo of joanne (joey wong), the manager of his local supermarket. things seem to be looking up for tuba, but the spirit of rambo chow has other plans...

as it was sammo's fifty-sixth birthday yesterday, i thought i'd dip into his back-catalogue for my evening's entertainment. it didn't take long to decide on 'where's officer tuba?'. it is one of my favourite sammo films and an example of hong kong action / comedy at it's best. sammo is, simply, great as tuba; he's funny, totally sympathetic and kicks arse when required.

the film, itself, manages to mix an extortion case and tuba's romance seamlessly; blending comedy, action and ghostly antics in a way that only hong kong can. there's plenty of laughs, with tuba bumbling his way though life, and equally good fight sequences to boot.

as well as sammo, jacky cheung makes a strong feature film debut and is ideally suited for the role of an over zealous, young, cop. david chiang seems to be having a lot of fun, as the ghost of rambo chow, and joey wang is as super-cute as she always is. there's also a lot of nice little cameos scattered throughout.

great stuff...