“On the Run” Now Available from 88 Films!
CID special operations police officer Hsiang Ming is going through a separation with his wife, who also works for the CID in the narcotics division. As the two attempt to work out an amiable agreement with their young daughter before she moves to the U.S., his wife is brutally slain by a female assassin, a hired gun employed by corrupt cops involved in a large drug smuggling operation. One of those cops is her new boyfriend, a high ranking CID officer. Accused of murder, Ming is on the run with his youngest daughter and even tracks down his wife’s murderer, Miss Pai. Extenuating circumstances leaves Ming at the mercy of Pai who didn’t know her target was a cop and has immense sympathy for Ming and his daughter, a problem she’s directly responsible for. Outnumbered, outgunned, and friends quickly diminishing. Ming has no other option but to accept the deadeye Pai’s help and the two quickly form a bond that goes beyond just surviving insidious corruption.
In 1988, Bo Ho Film Company and Golden Harvest Productions released the Alfred Cheung-directed, Hong Kong heroic bloodshed flick “On The Run,” penned by Cheung alongside cowriter Keith Wong (“Her Fatal Ways” trilogy). “Mong ming yuen yeung,” aka “Fleeing Couple,” is the literal title which also included another alternate title, “Hong Kong Connection – On The Run,” in more broad English titles. The fast-paced, action-packed fight or flight thriller told a narrative of ingrained corruption within the ranks of the law, bonded unlikely heroes with conflicting professionals and a sore point connection, and really pushed the exodus, or export, of emigration at the time because of the seedlings of British rule coming to an end with a handover of Hong Kong back to the Republic of China, an act that eventually took a decade to complete. Anhtony Chan, Leonard Ho, and Sammo Kam-Bo Hung produced the film with Paragon Films and Mobile Film Production as associated studios.
“Picture of a Hymph” and “The Peacock King” martial arts action star Biao Yuen is a sorely underrated action star from the 1980s, overshadowed greatly by the versatile Jackie Chan and the quickly rising through the heroic bloodshed ranks Chow Yun-Fat. Though immensely popular in Hong Kong for his contribution to the acrobatic style of fighting and palpable stunt work, Yuen should be a household name in the States with select films that carried over. The only problem was Yuen was never really a part of those niche works unlike the aforementioned stars and amongst others, but Yuen never stopped working, starring in a co-principal production as Hsiang Ming, a CID officer whose special operations department is being phased out, mirror his own life as he is being phased out amicably by his emigrating wife (Idy Chan, “The Siamese Twins”) and child (Chan Cheuk-yan, “Bless This House”). As Ming, going through a separation is already difficult enough and Yuen’s able to show the meek and reserved desperation that initially stunts him as a husband but breaks through that limitation when she’s shot in the head and he must step up to be the protective father for his young daughter. The father -daughter aspect is a narrative opposite that strays from the typical damsel in distress device. Instead, Patrica Ha (“Flaming Brothers”) embodies the strong protector as the assassin Miss Pa. Quiet natured and a crack shot, we’re introduced to Ha’s unique solitude of naked contemplation and, later, her retro appearance of a woman plucked from the 1960s with the flick up hairstyle. Ha’s portray adds a lot to Pai’s mysterious past and her cold nature but her character’s arc travels across a sympathetic bridge when Miss Pai’s target ends up being an law officer with a cute family being hunted by money greedy and morally corrupted officials in Lu played by Charlin Chin (“The Imp”) and his entourage of varied goonies (Lo Lieh, “The Untold Story III”) – Wah Yuen, “Mr. Vampire” and Phillip Ko, “Cannibal Curse”) who are so individualized they are worth more than just the general and broad charactered henchmen that tend to be forgettable. Bowie Lam, Kam Kong Chow, Peter Pau, Lap Sal Lam, Yung Kwan, Cheuk Yan Chan, Shek-Yin Yau, Kwai-Bo Chun and Heung-Kam Lee costar.
Cheung’s “On the Run” is not only fast-paced, hard-boiled, and well-executed, the story is also dark and unforgiving. No one is safe from the ingrained corruption even when lives are already upended through a natural course of hardships between sentient people making conscious choices that best suites them, such as Ming and his wife’s separation involving a small child. Good guys are bad, bad guys are good, “On the Run” doesn’t define and cement the roles of the players as cops turn out to be corrupted drug smugglers and ruthless killers and an assassin for hire becomes a life savior for a father and his daughter with immense sympathy. Each one of them are looking to escape one way or another: Ming’s wife wants to move to America, Miss Pai wants to go back to Thailand, Lu’s looking to get away with murder and money, and Ming is open to explore the possibility of either moving to American before all the chaos ensued or flee to Thailand with his wife’s assassin in attempt to not only be out of the reach of Lu and his men as a witness to their treachery and victimizing transgressions but also to escape from his accusations of murder as well as be with his new found affection for his wife’s killer. This speaks to the current Hong Kong climate of the looming power change and the state of affairs that drive denizens to abscond an unwanted change in rule with Lu and his men likely representing Chinese corruption of a communism power. The film’s neo-noir veneer capitalizes suspense and danger around every corner and the level of trust certainly wavers in a directional wind that gives a scent of deceit. “On the Run” is not gun-fu nor is it straight up martial arts; instead, the conflict basis is strictly melee and projectile based without the heavily influenced martial arts action of Hong Kong historical cinema, grounding “On the Run” with more realism in it’s darkest, grittiest narrative that makes the Andrew Cheung thriller more intense.
88 Films releases “On the Run” onto a new Blu-ray home video that’s AVC encoded with Full HD 1080p high-definition resolution on a BD50 capacity disc. The new 2K transfer from the original film elements has no qualms about it with a clean picture quality underneath it’s naturally healthy grain and diffused color palate that’s designs around shadows, neon lighting, and low-key lighting. The negative spaces are often pleasantly inky without any decoding blotches or issues to divide into a couple of shades of black. Skin and fabric textures are nicely highlighted with full perspective of the grime that builds up on the characters put through the violent wringer. Patrica Ha is stunning with her character’s introductory getup much to the thanks of the transfer’s refined detail from her retro hairdo to the equally attributed outfit ensemble that’s plain, but she wears plain in a cool, sexy fashion. The film is presented in a widescreen 1.85:1 aspect ratio. The uncompressed Cantonese LPCM mono track funnels right, left, and center audio through a singular speaker so there’s an unfortunate lack of spatial direction, but this cleanly presented ADR track still offers strong, robust audio in its action and in its unobstructed dialogue albeit some low buzzing interference from the studio recording. This strength of quality also extends to the action that has powerful measure despite being held in a crowded, single audio design. The new remastered, optional English subtitles are of the UK lexicon with 88 Films being a UK label. Special features include an audio commentary by Kenneth Brorsson and Phil Gillion from their Podcast on Fire Network, a second audio commentary with Asian cinema expert Frank Djeng and F.J. DeSanto, an interview with director Alfred Cheung Running Away, an interview with David West Predicting the Future, an alternate ending that cuts shaves off scenes on the tail end, and the Hong Kong trailer of the feature. Graphic artist Sean Langmore continues to supply 88 Films with tremendously detailed slipcover and primary sleeve art compositions of characters and memorable moments meshed into a single image. The reversible sleeve inside the green Blu-ray Amaray case houses the original Hong Kong poster art, which is more simplistic and not as busy as Langmore’s. The region A/B encoded Blu-ray is not rated and has a runtime of 89 minutes.
Last Rites: Hong Kong heroic bloodshed and noir is defined by many filmic entries but “On the Run” has paradoxical attractiveness about it that separates it from the rest as it treads a gloomy disposition and an expat dream.
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