Cowardly cop Tuba (Sammo Hung) is content to play in the police orchestra for a living and leave the real police work to others. Unfortunately, his unconventional looks and manner make him an ideal candidate for an undercover mission headed by “Rambo” Chow (David Chiang) to bring down an extortion ring. Chow is promptly killed in action, but not before harassing a promise out of Tuba that he will avenge his death and bring the gang to justice. Tuba reneges on the promise, which makes Chow’s mischievous spirit manifest itself to Tuba, and the ghost (which only Tuba can see or hear) makes a thorough nuisance of itself until he and his over-ambitious rookie roommate Cheung (Jacky Cheung) swing into action. Tuba also tries to woo supermarket manager Joanne (Joey Wong), who thinks he’s a pervert, and whose parents think he’s a deranged idiot.

WHERE'S OFFICER TUBA? is Hong Kong Cinema’s best-kept secret. Generally overlooked by Sammo’s fans in favour of more obviously action-packed fare like EASTERN CONDORS or PEDICAB DRIVER, it’s also overlooked by comedy fans put off by the thought of watching a “kung fu” movie. It is a comedy first and foremost, and despite the inclusion of some awesome action stars from both the 70’s and 80’s (Sammo Hung, Hwang Jang Lee, David Chiang, Yuen Wah and Chang Yi all in the same movie?!) it’s the humour that wins the day.

The film’s greatest strength is the excellent script from the late Barry Wong, who certainly could knock together something simple but enjoyable. Here, he comes up something that packs more into its 92-minute running time than you can credit on first viewing, and the humour is very well written. Take the pier scene, for example: Sammo is picked to meet the extortionists and drop off their ransom money. There follows a string of gags that all hit their target as Sammo deadpans through misunderstandings and knowing references to espionage thrillers. And this is all before any of the ghostly shenanigans kick off.

It’s surprising that the main event – David Chiang appearing only to Sammo and ruining his life by manipulating his actions and making him look like an idiot – doesn’t really start until about an hour into the movie, but when it does, it’s hilarious. Sammo refuses to help the ghost of Chow seek revenge, so he runs amok when Sammo visits his prospective parents-in-law. It’s a scene that should write itself, and it does to a large degree, but even on the umpteenth viewing I still find myself laughing out loud at it.

The climax, where Sammo and Jacky Cheung (in his first movie appearance, I believe) take down the bad guys (this time with the help of Chow’s spirit) is as good as any action movie from the 80’s, and the inclusion of Hwang Jang Lee means there’s some mean legwork on display. But there’s not enough of it to really make this a contender as an action movie, and it’s the laughs that are the most memorable.

There are a surprising amount of puns and Cantonese wordplay in this film which obviously don’t translate, but even a passing knowledge of the dialect will be enough for you to get a couple of the more childish jokes. I wish someone would do a proper release of this film with remastered subtitles as, if memory serves, the subtitles on the Universe DVD are identical to the original VHS “Chinese and English” release and are particularly poor. Along with the usual spelling mistakes, typos and grammatical problems, there are some strange translations - such as when two characters talk about someone being “successfully raped”, which is just plain odd. It also helps to have some knowledge of Chinese superstitions, as on first viewing I thought the ending was very Deus Ex Machina, only to find a particular method for dispelling ghosts is all part of Chinese folklore.

WHERE'S OFFICER TUBA? was remade in 1990 as LOOK OUT, OFFICER with Stephen Chow, which seems a mouth-watering prospect but sadly it didn’t realise its potential. And it has to be mentioned that WHERE'S OFFICER TUBA? at times bears an uncanny resemblance to Wu Ma’s THE DEAD AND THE DEADLY, which also starred Hung as a man possessed by the spirit of a dead man only he can see. But for my money, WHERE'S OFFICER TUBA? is by far the funniest and most enjoyable of Hong Kong’s “invisible man” comedies.