In the Line of Duty VII: Sea Wolves (1991)

In the Line of Duty VII follows adorable ass-kicker Inspector Yeung (Cynthia Khan) as she fights drug smuggling operations in Hong Kong. She and her cute partner interrupt a deal at the shipyard with bullets and punches.

Wait, actually… Sea Wolves is about conflicted John (Simon Yam) wanting to leave the criminal operation run by his brother. They are using the brother’s ship to smuggle drugs, and their crew have a horrific side gig of murdering and robbing any refugees they encounter on the high seas. In one crop of refugees, John recognizes his old friend from Vietnam, beefcake Gary (Gary Chow).

John tries to help Gary survive the slaughter, but Gary’s sister is gutshot by John’s brother. Gary gets injured and thrown below deck by John to hide him. Gary wakes up with amnesia, and John tells Gary he is wanted for murder to make sure he stays hidden. Once the ship reaches Hong Kong, port inspectors find Gary and he panics and escapes.

Hold on… In the Line of Duty 7: Sea Wolves is about Yelia (Yuk-Hing Wong) and her relationships. She had a bad break up with a shitty boyfriend who was stealing from her. Luckily she has the kind of good friend in Inspector Cheung that will rough up and arrest her ex, but still give Yelia real talk that she was the one who was dumped.

Then Yelia encounters beautiful himbo Gary (“He looks just like Stallone!” she squeals), with an empty head and a pocket full of money. Taking full advantage of the situation, she brings him on a shopping spree and then home to her bed (over which she in fact has a framed picture of Stallone!). The next day Inspector Cheung shows up at her apartment, having recognized fugitive Gary as Yelia's new man. Gary bails before the cops see him, and Yelia doesn’t tell the cops shit, even after they haul her down to the station. Gary is blamed when the smuggler crew rob and murder their drug connection. Eventually John finds Gary and they hide out in Yelia’s apartment.

When Yelia returns home and sees a bloodied Gary and stranger in her home, she decides it is time to call the cops. Cute partner and other cops show up at the same time as the smugglers, and Yelia gets brutally stabbed with a huge Rambo-ass knife (a cruel and ironic fate for the noted Stallone-lover). Yelia valiantly grabs a gun and tries to fight, but then she is shot dead, just so Gary can remember his sister being murdered in the same way. The movie operates on Flintstones amnesia rules, so another blow to the head had started to shake Gary’s memories loose, and this sent them rushing back. Cute partner also gets shot and is rushed to the hospital. She lives just long enough to tell Inspector Cheung that the smugglers were responsible for all the dead criminals and cops.

Gary, John, and Inspector Cheung all end up back on the ship fighting the smugglers. Eventually they are down to the last guy, who begs Inspector Cheung to arrest him. Cheung points out she can’t because they are in international waters. She turns a blind eye as John and Gary painfully murder him. Gary punches John (well deserved, but not enough), then embraces him in a bro arm grab. We get our inevitable freeze frame ending of the friends embracing and smiling with the bloody corpse of the man they killed still strung up behind them. 

Weirdly structured plots and clashing tones abound in Hong Kong action flicks, but in this one they really affected my enjoyment. The biggest problem is John and the inciting incident. The killing and robbing of refugees is really fucking dark, and John standing around looking slightly disapproving while his crew mates murder innocents is nowhere near enough to make him likable or compellingly conflicted. Especially since John is a refugee from Vietnam also! It plays like before Gary showed up, John was just tired of criminal activity and not really into it, as opposed to the huge moral conflict it should be. Gary, the character who SHOULD be motivated to action and have us rooting for him, spends 75% of the movie with amnesia running and just reacting on instinct to each situation. That is pretty amusing for a while, especially as he experiences random bouts of himbo Hulkamania (raging out and throwing heavy objects, ragdolling dudes, breaking out of handcuffs).

Focusing on them leads to my other biggest problem with the movie, Cynthia Khan is missing for large chunks of it (including a number of the action scenes). Considering there is also not a huge amount of action overall, this might be the least amount of screen time kicking ass for a leading lady in any of the In the Line of Duty movies (although I have not seen parts V and VI yet). The action that is here remains pretty solid, but there weren’t any standout sequences or stunts for me.

As everything was wrapping up, it became obvious that the movie was not going to acknowledge or deal with John’s complicity in horrific crimes. Still, I was surprised by just HOW easy he got off, with a single punch from Gary and then they are bros again. I watched this with my wife and nephew, and we all said some form of “And now he goes to jail, right?” as the credits rolled. John could have at least had to sacrifice himself heroically or something, especially considering how casually the movie killed off cute partner and Yelia.

RIP Yelia, you were a down-ass bitch and the most (only?) likable character in the movie.

*note: when going through the movie again for screenshots I noticed there is end text that was not translated on my version before the credits and freeze frame, so maybe that explains John goes to jail or something.