RUN TIGER RUN
1985, John Woo

Before he was directing some of the most awesome bloody and bullet-y actioners ever to come out of anywhere, and long before he went to the USA and made some pretty good actioners followed by some forgettable ones, aaaand even longer before he went back to Hong Kong and contributed his entry into the current crop of lousy “Yay China!” historical-nationalism-by-numbers epics, John Woo was making comedies.

Some such comedies by John Woo were Plain Jane to the Rescue, To Hell with the Devil, Laughing Times and From Riches to Rags. I intend to write a full article about John Woo’s comedy period in the future but for today I want to focus on a single John Woo comedy called, Run Tiger Run.

The story is your fairly standard mistaken-identity schtick, involving a rich kid, named Babe Steak, getting mixed up with a poor kid from the streets. In this case the rich kid’s greedy uncle is trying to murder him to get his inheritance that has been handed to him from his recently deceased grandfather, Grandpa Steak. Grandpa Steak is played by popular Hong Kong director Tsui Hark (AKA the guy who made that rubbish prequel to A Better Tomorrow) dressed up as an old man. As with most Tsui Hark characters, when he pops up in various films made by his mates, he is all slapstick and silly faces. But thankfully, as noted before, his character dies.

After Grandpa’s death, Babe Steak’s lookalike, Benny Shit, shows up on the scene and more slapstick ensues. With Benny Shit, comes his dad (friend, uncle, some guy?), Teddy Shit. Teddy Shit sees uses this whole lookalike situation as an attempt to get some money, or at least get laid, then he gets embroiled in the whole thing and evil uncle decides to try and kill him too, most notably by trying to get a woman called Mortal Lips to seduce him. Apparently she kills men with her lips. Did I mention this was a kid’s movie?

Run Tiger Run would make for a great kid’s film if not for the inappropriate language, weirdly sexual bits and occasional moments of child abuse. By child abuse I mean scenes such as one involving Babe Steak’s nanny spanking him repeatedly while yelling “kick your ass!” over and over. The coarse language may be attributed to the subtitle track on the version I watched. Maybe.

But yeah I was surprised by Run Tiger Run, after reading all the hateful reviews I was curious to see this and I have to admit I was entertained. Hong Kong comedy is not necessarily for everyone and doesn’t really translate in the west. Well, it often translates as obnoxious and childish, but not necessarily as funny. But Run Tiger Run, I enjoyed. There are some really great looking sets and stunts. And while it is far from Woo’s finest moment, it is also a long way from his worst. It looks good and is enjoyable from start to finish. The finale is complete chaos and caps off a frenetic, childish, assault on the senses quite nicely. Below is the trailer for Run Tiger Run. Enjoy, kids.