Reviewed by: dandan Date: 01/21/2011 Summary: are you big stupid head? after fleeing vietnam, john (simon yam) joins his brother on board his ship, running illicit goods into hong kong. the rest of the ship's crew are under the command of keung (norman chu) and they have a sideline in pirating, targeting vietnamese refugee boats in particular. on one such boat, they come across gary (garry chow) and his sister, who is promptly killed, along with the rest of the crew: gary only being saved, thanks to john throwing him into the sips hold, where he hides, struck with amnesia, until they arrive in hong kong. once in hong kong, gary manages to flee the ship, but soon finds himself wanted by both the pirates and the police, namely inspector yeung (cynthia khan), with john stuck in between his brother and his friend... the seventh film in the 'in the line of duty' series, the fifth for miss khan and the second from cheng siu-keung, who also made the rather disappointing 'forbidden arsenal'. this, despite joy sales attempts to ruin it by providing the lowest common denominator subtitling, is a much better entry in the series. in khan, yam and chu, you have three very, very watchable leads; yam and chu having been favourites of mine for a long time. then you have garry chow, who is almost perfect as the lennie, to simon yam's george. (a little 'of mice and men' reference there...) garry chow is a big, gormless and confused looking piece of meat; perfect for the role of a slightly dazed, unstoppable, amnesiac, revenge machine. yam does a good job as the good brother and friend, torn between how he can do the right thing, protect his friend and not sell his brother out. norman chu is perfectly evil as solid as always. cynthia khan, as ever, shows bundles of energy, tons of enthusiasm and seem to revel in being thrown around and giving as good as she gets. despite a couple of flatter patches, the narrative is an improvement on 'forbidden arsenal', with the climax in particular being an exciting string of action. and, as is demanded from the 'in the line of duty' series, there is plenty of action: there's a good mixture of stunt work and fighting. the standard is pretty high and, when technical levels drop a little, the increase in brutality seems to make up for it. so, despite never reaching the levels achieved in earlier instalments of the series, this is a bit of a return to form. pretty good.

Reviewed by: mrblue Date: 10/15/2009 Better known to westerners as In the Line of Duty 7, Sea Wolves features the return of girls-with-guns favorite Cynthia Khan as the spunky ass-kicking cop Yeung, who this time out is facing some deadly pirates led by Keung (Norman Chu). Simon Yam somehow found time to make this the twelfth production he particpated in 1991, playing a pirate who becomes conflicted after witnessing a massacre -- which nearly includes his friend, Gary (Garry Chow) -- perpeptuated on a group of Vietanmese refugees looking to be rescued by the pirates' boat. And wouldn't you know it: eventually Yueng, John, and Gary team up to take down the pirates before they can escape from Hong Kong. This razor-thin plot makes for some fun, if totally mindless, cinema that fans of "classic" Hong Kong action movies will dig if they're willing to forgive a big side order of cheese. Reviewer Score: 7

Reviewed by: ewaffle Date: 09/09/2007 The seventh entry (and the fifth starring Cynthia Khan) of the “In the Line of Duty” has some terrific action scenes and too many obviously labored attempts to wring laughs from situations that stopped being funny a long time ago. Cynthia Khan is Inspector Yeung, her usual no nonsense police sergeant who needs to stay a step ahead of the criminals she is pursuing and two steps ahead of her bumbling bureaucratic superiors. Wong Yuk-Hang is excellent as Yelia, a hooker with a heart of lead and Yeung’s best friend. There is some real brutality especially the murder at sea of a boatful of refugees from Vietnam in order to steal the money and jewels they are bringing with them to Hong Kong. Garry Chow Ging-Yeung was written and played as a cross between The Incredible Hulk and Spiderman. He was too big, too fast and too indestructible to be taken seriously for even a moment but Gary wasn’t there for comic relief. Nothing could stop him including being hit with a sledgehammer, smashed with a shovel, beaten with a policeman’s baton or dropped 20 feet down a hatch onto a steel floor. Inspector Yeung is a very righteous cop, of course. She is loyal to her friend Yelia, even to the point of dropping in on “Stupidhead” to try to collect money he has taken from her. She doesn’t get it but Stupidhead and his pals make the usual big mistake of macho types when confronted by the Ms. Khan, attacking her with the tools of their trade—they are in the auto repair or perhaps auto stripping business. She barely works up a sweat in countering their amateurish attempts to clobber her with hammers, drills and big hunks of metal. There a few flashes (literally in one case) of brilliant physical comedy. In one Yelia has just been awaked from a deep, post-coital slumber by the paperboy demanding to be paid for the last couple of week’s service. When he persists in his demands and refuses to let her close the door on him she opens the top of her robe telling him that this is his payment, taking advantage of his shock to push him out the door. The bell rings a few seconds later and she stalks to the door and pulls open her robe all the way, saying “Here, you can see the rest of it”, only to find that these callers are Inspector Yeung leading a large group of officers in search of Gary. Embarrassing. Another one happens when John (Simon Yam) and Gary, having been arrested, are being beaten by the cops. John is handcuffed to a wall while the head cop punches him while wearing boxing gloves, the better to hide where and when John had been injured. Gary was hand cuffed to a file cabinet which kept him out of the way for about 90 seconds. He advances on Sergeant Sung, played by with irascible skill by Tai Bo, who pulls his gun but then tries to aim and shoot it while still wearing his boxing gloves. Painful and disastrous. A third is at the very end of the film. After a pitched battle pitting Gary, John and Inspector Leung against the gang of murderous drug smugglers, fights that includes some convincingly brutal hand to hand combat they have finally cornered the ultra-evil Keung, played with real over the top abandon by veteran bad guy Norman Chu. Keung is entangled in a winch with a rope looped around his neck. Gary rotates the drum of the winch while John keeps the pressure steady on the rope, slowly strangling him. Inspector Yeung, after noting that as a member of the Royal Hong Kong Police she is prohibited from arresting anyone in international waters, turns and studies the horizon while John and Gary complete their task. Much credit to action director Phillip Kwok Chun-Fung and to the actors and stuntmen who carried out is choreography. Many of the fights, particularly the last extended battle, took place at very close quarters—in the passageways and on the ladders of a ship—and they looked very convincing. One reason was that there was a lot of physical contact between the combatants. Watching in slow motion it was clear that while many punches were slipped and many kicks didn’t quite land, a lot of them did. It may have been a very rough shoot for some of the principals. Cynthia Khan, as usual, was very fit and athletic with the ability to land kicks from almost any angle to almost any part of her opponent’s body or head. The costume department did a better job than usual with her, dressing her in tight but not clingy slacks with some stretchy fabric and short leather jackets, stylish but still appropriate for a waterfront brawl. A decent enough movie for the legion of Ms. Khan’s fans.

Reviewed by: ksbutterbox Date: 02/01/2004 Summary: Agreed w/ STSH...Good ! Not alot of Cynthia in this movie but still enough of Simon Yam and Norman Chu to make it a semi-classy action film nonetheless. The last reel has some really good stunts from Ms. Khan. Go Cynthia !!

Reviewed by: STSH Date: 02/18/2003 Summary: Good stuff The opening scene is a ripper. Cynthia and another lady cop chasing and kicking the baddies. The following twenty minutes is a bit flat, but bear with it, as the remainder has plenty of action, much of it great fun. The plot is a bit hard to believe, but this isn't uncommon in action films. This Gary Chow seems to have been marked out as the next Conan Lee (and he looks quite similar), and gets plenty of punches in while parading his considerable muscles. Veteran baddie Norman Chu takes some time to gear up to full villany, but he gets there, and it's worth the wait. Apart from the long flat spot after the opening scene, this is a ripper actioner. Recommended. Reviewer Score: 8

Reviewed by: hkcinema Date: 12/08/1999 Action film about modern day pirates and the Hong Kong police whotry to stop them. [Reviewed by Anonymous]