Cynthia Khan Steps In and Takes Over in “In the Line of Duty”

In 1985, Michelle Yeoh rose quickly to stardom, along with American actress Cynthia Rothrock, in the Hong Kong action film, Yes, Madam! Yeoh’s equally successful follow-up, Royal Warriors (1986), was released in other territories as In the Line of Duty, while Yes, Madam! was, interestingly enough, given a sequel title, In the Line of Duty 2. D & B Films retained the title to continue as a series, but by 1988, Yeoh had retired to marry producer Dickson Poon (the “D” in D & B).

Looking for a new leading lady, D & B Films chose Cynthia Khan. Born Yang Li-Ching in Taiwan, the actress’ stage name is an amalgamation of Cynthia Rothrock and Michelle Khan (Yeoh’s screen credit before her retirement). Like other female action stars, she’d previously trained in dance. Though Khan was taking over the lead, she was not portraying the same character as Yeoh, who played two different characters in Yes, Madam! and Royal Warriors.

The plot to 1988’s In the Line of Duty III is similar to Royal Warriors: vengeance-minded Japanese criminals (Stuart Ong and Michiko Nishiwaki) are targeting Madam Yeung (Khan) and others, while a Japanese cop (Hiroshi Fujioka) is looking for retribution against the villains. Both movies have an additional villain who enters the plot midway through, action scenes set in night clubs, and end in warehouses with the female protagonist fighting alone and various tools as weapons. Khan even looks like Michelle Yeoh, in similar Don Johnson-inspired outfits and matching boyish haircut. Fortunately, the series progressed, and by the sixth film (before Yeoh’s return to cinema screens), Khan’s hair is considerably longer and she’s taken to wearing short skirts or shorts and knee-high boots.

Though setting up Khan as a replacement for Yeoh, In the Line of Duty III does establish Khan’s character as a strong woman. A man at the beginning mocks Madam Yeung when she tries to write him a ticket. Though he degrades police officers in general, the implication is that he’s questioning her authority as a female. When a robber runs past, Yeung chases him, but her knee-length skirt (part of her police uniform) is so constricted that she tears it along the side. This allows her to run faster and, more importantly, use her legs freely against the criminal. It’s almost as if Yeung is freeing herself from the limitations that some may associate with working women. But it’s also the woman utilizing unconventional methods to capture the robber: she is unable to retrieve a pistol from another officer (a male cop who proves to be a hindrance), due to the lanyard tied to the weapon, and so an unarmed woman must stop an armed criminal.

In the Line of Duty III was an entertaining action film and a grand introduction to Khan’s female cop protagonist. In her subsequent film, In the Line of Duty IV (1989), a man, Luk (Yuen Yat-Choh), is sought by criminals for having photographic evidence of a CIA operative’s involvement in selling drugs, unaware that Luk lost the film almost immediately. Madam Yeung teams up with another officer (Donnie Yen) to protect Luk, also marked for death simply for being a witness. Michael Wong, who starred in Royal Warriors with Yeoh (he’s playing a different character), co-stars as a CIA agent.

Generally considered the favorite of Khan’s In the Line of Duty films, the fourth entry, in addition to allowing Khan to break away from Yeoh’s cinematic persona, was directed by famed Hong Kong filmmaker Yuen Woo-Ping and featured an early performance from future superstar Donnie Yen. Though he’s only known in the U.S. for choreography (the Wachowski Bros.’ The Matrix in 1999, Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill movies in 2003-04, etc.), Yuen was a successful director in Hong Kong, directing and choreographing such stars as Jackie Chan (in his first legitimate hit), Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh. Yen has been popular for a number of years, for films including Once Upon a Time in China II (1992) and Iron Monkey (1993/directed by Yuen), but his productivity in the last several years has been amazing, appearing in a host of award-winning films. He has also proven himself a competent action director, earning a Hong Kong Film Award for Best Action Choreography for The Twins Effect (Vampire Effect in the U.S.) in 2004, SPL: Sha Po Lang (Kill Zone in the U.S.) in 2006, and Flash Point (also a Taiwan Golden Horse Film Award) in 2008. (Yuen won in said category for the years in between, 2005 and 2007.)

Next in the series was In the Line of Duty V: Middle Man (1990). In this film, Madam Yeung’s cousin, David (David Wu), is on leave from the Navy. When David’s criminal friend, Alan, is killed from a botched drug deal, his ties to the selling of U.S. intel convinces the CIA that David is equally guilty of espionage. Yeung must keep her cousin out of prison, as well as protect David from men who believe he possesses an incriminating diary that belonged to Alan. Though not as good as its predecessor, Middle Man is an admirable film and yet another showcase for Khan’s talents.

Cynthia Khan, along with actresses such as Moon Lee and Yukari Oshima, is known for frequently appearing in films of the “Girls with Guns” subgenre. However, the In the Line of Duty films focus on hand-to-hand combat. Many of the times, Khan’s character (as well as other police officers) is outgunned, armed with a police-issued revolver while dodging bullets from automatic weapons. Ultimately the villains run out of bullets, and it comes down to physical prowess, of which Madam Yeung is more than capable.

Two more sequels followed, both released in 1991 (though the latter film was apparently produced in 1990). Despite neither movie utilizing the In the Line of Duty title, Khan is reprising her character in each film. In Forbidden Arsenal, Khan and her team halt a transaction of illegal arms, ensnaring two of the men (Waise Lee and Do Siu-Chun) in the process. Both men, however, claim to be police officers -- one from Taiwan, the other from mainland China -- working in Hong Kong. The men are not authorized to work the case, which doesn’t stop them from attempting to do exactly that. Yeung spends much of the time babysitting the two, who occasionally come across as oafish: one has a penchant for perusing adult magazines, while another learns the hard way that tin cans should not be heated in a microwave. This not only expresses Yeung’s superiority over the two as a woman, but also as a Hong Kong cop. A unique quality of this film is the first (and only) sign of romantic interest for Madam Yeung. It seems out of place, but at least her potential suitor earns it (e.g., he has a long wait until the closing credits).

Sea Wolves begins with Vietnam refugees attacked at sea, murdered for their valuables. John (Simon Yam), part of the thieving, murderous crew (and brother to the ship’s captain), recognizes a refugee, Gary (Gary Chow, who was also in Forbidden Arsenal), and saves him from a similar fate. Gary is injured and subsequently develops amnesia. Once the ship reaches the shores of Hong Kong, he escapes, and John does what he can to keep his brothers in crime from killing his friend. Unfortunately, Khan is a supporting player in this entry, as there are stretches of time without Madam Yeung, while most of her scenes act as reminders of an ongoing investigation. On its own, Sea Wolves is an adequate action thriller, but as In the Line of Duty 7, it’s a disappointing conclusion to the series. Philip Kwok of Chang Cheh’s Venoms was the martial arts director of the sixth and seventh films (co-credited in Forbidden Arsenal). He also had roles in both films.

Though they are loosely connected -- the common denominators being Khan’s Madam Yeung and D & B Films as producers -- these films are generally considered the In the Line of Duty series. Various alternate titles, however, cause a great deal of confusion. Khan plays a vengeful bride sporting an uzi in Queen’s High (1991), which has also been called In the Line of Duty 5: In the Beginning. In the Line of Duty IV was released on UK DVD as In the Line of Duty, while Middle Man is sometimes known as In the Line of Duty 2. The series entries additionally have varying Yes Madam titles, with Khan appearing in the unrelated films, Yes Madam (1995), Yes Madam 5 (1996) -- she does play a cop named Yeung -- and A Serious Shock! Yes Madam! (1993/aka Death Triangle) with Moon Lee and Yukari Oshima.

Attempting to link the seven In the Line of Duty movies (or even just the five starring Cynthia Khan) with anything concerning a plot is irrelevant. Audiences were just happy to see a familiar face, and Kahn made the series her own before the credits of her first film even rolled. Loyalty in action films lies with the protagonist. So as the storyline falls by the wayside, viewers will focus all their love and energy on the character who’s still standing at the end. One of the most vital ingredients to any film’s success is the star, and Cynthia Khan was one of the brightest.

Step Aside, Jackie Chan! Make Way for Michelle Yeoh

When I think of strong female characters, my mind tends to wander to the cinema of Hong Kong. Perhaps I’m taking the concept of “strength” too literally, but I often consider the many popular Hong Kong actresses whose cinematic physical prowess is unquestioned: Brigitte Lin, Sharla Cheung Man, and Moon Lee. One of the most recognizable actresses, particularly to Western audiences, to come from Hong Kong movies is Michelle Yeoh.

After winning the Miss Malaysia beauty pageant in 1983, Yeoh appeared in a television commercial with Hong Kong’s top star, Jackie Chan, and made her screen debut in The Owl vs. Bumbo (1984). She starred in her first leading role in 1985, as a police inspector in Corey Yuen’s Yes, Madam!, opposite Cynthina Rothrock (an American-born martial artist/actress who first achieved fame in Hong Kong before U.S. audiences took notice). Yeoh was an instant star, appearing the subsequent year in Royal Warriors (her first two films were also known, respectively (and interestingly), as In the Line of Duty 2 and In the Line of Duty, both in a series which continued without Yeoh). In 1987, Yeoh starred in Magnificent Warriors and in a non-action role in Easy Money. By the following year, Yeoh married producer Dickson Poon, co-founder of D & B Films (which had produced all of her movies), and officially retired from the film industry.

While a woman can demonstrate her strength in many other ways than simple physicality, an actress in the Hong Kong cinema has fewer options. Films in Hong Kong are made as quickly and cheaply as possible, almost like an assembly line. Consequently, the filmmakers allow most movies to be defined by a broad genre, and action has long been one of the most successful film genres in that region. For an actress to stand out among so many men, she generally has to punch and kick her way through her male co-stars.

Yeoh’s early films display her talent in both drama and action. But it is interesting to view her against the men whom she’s essentially replacing. In Yes, Madam!, both she and fellow star Rothrock have boyish haircuts and dress in attire that, for the most part, does not differ much from the male villains or officers. Royal Warriors takes a similar approach. Although early in the movie Yeoh is engaged in combat with a pink bow in her hair and wearing a skirt and tights, she dresses down as the narrative progresses. By the end, in an action scene fueled by vengeance (an intense and memorable sequence in which Yeoh fights a man wielding a chainsaw), any femininity suggested by womanly apparel is completely lacking. By Magnificent Warriors, although Yeoh’s hair is longer, and she is as charming as ever, she is, for all intents and purposes, playing a role that could easily have been written for a male. None of this is meant to insinuate that Yeoh resembles a man in these films (many supporting characters acknowledge her beauty), but it seems that, in order to contend with the males, she must disregard her own gender.

Three years after her marriage to Poon, Yeoh divorced the producer and came out of retirement to co-star with Jackie Chan in 1992’s Police Story III: Supercop (Chan’s first film of the series, Police Story, was released the same year as Yeoh’s breakout role in Yes, Madam!). In Police Story III, Chan reprises his character, Chen Chia-chu, who is sent on a mission to bring down a drug lord, Chaibat (Kenneth Tsang). With the direction and aid of Interpol director Yang (Yeoh), Chen goes undercover and teams up with Panther (Yuen Wah), hoping the criminal will lead them to Chaibat.

Director Stanley Tong, who’d previously worked as a stuntman (and prides himself on testing stunts in his films before asking his actors to perform them), had worked with Yeoh during her time with D & B Films. He offers a much different and more rewarding character for the actress in Police Story III. Yang’s introduction in the film has her in full uniform. She stands upright and walks almost in a march. Such a mechanical demeanor seems to make Yeoh’s character genderless. However, she reappears later in the film, posing as Chen’s sister, dressed like a young girl and her previously unseen hair in braided pigtails. Chen is dumbfounded (though it’s mostly due to the fact that he’s confusing the details of his undercover assignment), but much of the audience in 1992 was sure to have likewise been in awe. With Yeoh’s first film in five years, Tong reminds the audience that the actress is not only a female action star but is also incredibly gorgeous.

From the beginning, Yang is clearly shown as a strong character. While discussing the mission with Chen, Yang easily recites the history of the man’s undercover profile, and, to prove a point, runs through Chen’s own biography faster than he can. As Chen prepares for the assignment, he seems uncomfortable having pictures taken for ID cards, and though he mocks having to memorize his character’s historical data, he predictably forgets most of it and needs help simply locating the village in which he was supposed to have been raised. With Yang displaying her intelligence and leadership abilities and even proving adept with a firearm during Chen and Panther’s “escape” from prison, one would guess that the only point of expertise that Chen has over Yang would be combat. This, however, is quickly refuted when Panther is recognized by cops at a restaurant, and he and Chen are arrested. From a small crowd, Yang flies into the air and, in a single move, knocks two officers to the ground. Rather than simply equal Chen’s skills, she unintentionally outdoes him by throwing chopsticks (two of them thrown as weapons, preventing a cop from retrieving his weapon), which Chen follows up by clumsily (and hysterically) tossing a handful of chopsticks.

While Yeoh’s first films presented the audience with a beautiful woman skilled at fighting, Tong initially shows her in Police Story III as a competent female, and only then does he reveal her physical allure. The pigtails eventually become long, jet black hair, a radiant contradiction -- in one highly explosive action scene -- to Yeoh behind a bulletproof vest. Later in the film, Yeoh wears a jumpsuit with her long legs bare (which plays well when Chen’s girlfriend, May (Maggie Cheung), not realizing that her boyfriend’s undercover, assumes that Chen and Yang are lovers). In the film’s final sequence, Yeoh is dressed as a Muslim woman, complete with a head covering (hijab) and ankle-length baggy pants. But when the action starts, the hijab falls off and unveils her long hair, and hidden slits in the pants expose her bare legs once again. (In Hong Kong cinema, long hair is typically a confirmation of a woman’s sexuality. In some films, a woman can merely hide her hair and be mistaken for a male, like Yeoh herself in 1994’s Wing Chun.) Though the constant cues of Yeoh’s comeliness may seem exploitative, they contrarily are reminders of the simple fact that she is a woman. She need not deny her femininity to compete with the men. She can be a beautiful woman and still kick her male co-stars in the face.

Yeoh not only showcases her strength through her character, Yang, but also manages to steal the spotlight from Hong Kong’s most bankable star. Her acting chops are undeniable, but Yeoh additionally matches two of Chan’s most discernible traits: comedy and stunts. This is not a statement meant to be derogatory to Chan, who is terrific in Police Story III. But Chan’s trademark comedy is complimented by Yeoh’s wry retorts. For instance, Chen playfully squeezing Yang’s cheeks when she’s introduced to Panther and his crew as his sister (an act which he wouldn’t dare do with Yang in uniform) is countered by Yang punching him in the chest. And while Chan performs impressive stunt work in the film, Yeoh also does her own stunts, including hanging onto a speeding van, falling off said van and landing on a trailing sports car, and, her pièce de résistance, riding a motorcycle onto a moving train (she first had to learn to ride a motorcycle).

Yeoh had no formal martial arts training. She did, however, study ballet at the Royal Academy of Dance in England before an injury forced her to shift her studies to drama. In addition to being trained in fight choreography, Yeoh also had to learn her lines phonetically. The actress, who was born in Ipok in Perak, Malaysia, spoke Malay and English, but not Cantonese, the Chinese dialect most often spoken in Hong Kong before 1997 (although it’s still frequently spoken even after the country’s reunification with China). Yeoh repeated the process during the filming of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), which was filmed in the mainland China dialect of Mandarin.

Yeoh continued playing strong female characters in her films, like the Police Story III spin-off, 1993’s Project S (aka Once a Cop; Supercop 2), The Tai Chi Master (1993) with Jet Li, and Wing Chun. In Silver Hawk (2004), Yeoh is the whole package: a wealthy, resourceful and self-reliant woman who vanquishes bad guys as a comic book heroine, and all while stylishly adorned in various costumes.

Yeoh was virutally unknown in the U.S. but quickly rose to stardom upon re-release of Police Story III in American theaters in 1996 (titled simply Supercop), following the success of Chan’s Rumble in the Bronx (also directed by Tong) earlier in the year. In 1997, Yeoh made her U.S. debut as a Bond Girl opposite Pierce Brosnan in Tomorrow Never Dies (her Police Story III co-star, Tsang, had a small role in a later Bond film with Brosnan, 2002’s Die Another Day). Yeoh was nominated for several awards, including a BAFTA, for her performance in Ang Lee’s popular Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, also starring Chow Yun-Fat. More recently, Yeoh has received acclaim for her part in Reign of Assassins (2010), co-directed by John Woo.

Bond Is Forever: “Tomorrow Never Dies”

A British ship is deliberately sent off course into Chinese territory and sunk by a drill punching a hole in its side. Media mogul Elliot Carver (Jonathan Pryce), having initiated the scheme, hopes that sparking a war between the UK and China will result in such political upheaval in the latter country that he will be granted exclusive broadcast rights. When Carver’s company, the Carver Media Group Network, runs stories with particulars on the attack, MI6 agent James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) is assigned a new mission. He recovers a recently appropriated GPS encoder, while China sends its own agent, Wai Lin (Michelle Yeoh), to investigate Carver as well. The two work together to stop the megalomaniac and to prevent misguided retaliation from either side.

While GoldenEye (1995) was a financial success, it was not a wholly satisfactory film, and Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) is a notable improvement. The dashing and winsome Brosnan could play a role like 007 in his sleep, but he seems to have more fun with Tomorrow Never Dies, and he’s helped by a more engaging storyline and much more exhilarating action sequences. Judi Dench makes a welcome return as MI6 head M, and the always dependable Desmond Llewelyn is his typically charming self (and has one of his best lines in this film, spoken to Bond after the spy flauntingly masters a new gadget: “Grow up, 007!”). Bond’s gadgets include a heavily fortified car, a BMW 750, which can be controlled by a phone (resulting in an exciting chase, as Bond drives his car by remote, safe in the backseat from bullets and rockets). The phone also comes with a fingerprint scanner and an electric shock that can be emitted as a security measure. To be fair, China supplies its own agent with gadgets as well. Wai Lin has an earring with which she can pick locks and a grappling line that she can fire from a metal bracelet.


Tomorrow Never Dies, however, does has its share of more languid points. While the film’s satire of the media is cleverly implied throughout, the suggestive dialogue is anything but subtle. It gives the impression that the studio and/or writers did not believe audiences were intelligent enough to comprehend dialogue indirectly referring to Bond’s sexual escapades. Carver, as portrayed by Pryce, is one of the least interesting Bond villains, and the fact that his power will be obtained by his control of the media (he explicitly states that words are his weapons) makes him seem less menacing than perhaps he was meant to be (one of his henchmen, Mr. Stamper, played by Götz Otto, proves far more dangerous to Bond and Lin). Likewise, Carver is too blatant and too literal, a bad guy stripped of any personality. He’s like a villainous salad without the salad dressing. In a rather tasteless scene, Carver fervently mocks Lin’s fighting style, an act which borders on racism and which squanders any redeeming qualities he might have had as a villain.

One of the strongest elements of Tomorrow Never Dies is Brosnan’s co-star, Hong Kong actress Michelle Yeoh. At the time of the film’s release, U.S. interest in the Hong Kong cinema was soaring, bolstered by Jackie Chan’s Rumble in the Bronx playing on American soil in January 1996. That summer, Dimension Films released Chan’s 1992 Police Story III: Supercop (titled simply Supercop), which had been Yeoh’s comeback film after fives years of cinematic absence. Yeoh was immensely popular when she retired in 1987 (to marry film producer Dickson Poon), but one could hardly tell that she’d been away from the big screen for all those years, as she became a huge star once again (and managed to steal the film from Hong Kong’s most famous and most bankable actor). Yeoh embodies the essence of the Bond films: savvy, proficient, honorable, and, as it happens, astonishingly beautiful. Wai Lin is much more active than most Bond ladies, making her an exceptional and endearing character. Yeoh is my personal favorite of all the female counterparts to Bond, and did I mention that she was astonishingly beautiful?

Yeoh is not the sole representation of Hong Kong films in Tomorrow Never Dies. A Hong Kong cinematic influence is prevalent in parts of the film. Some of the hand-to-hand combat, particularly with Yeoh, displays an obvious Hong Kong flair, but one can also see traces of director John Woo (who had just achieved American success with Broken Arrow, released the previous year, and Face/Off, released mere months before the premiere of Tomorrow Never Dies). At one point, Bond slides on a dolly as a means of escape (and to dodge gunfire), and both he and Lin, during a lengthy action scene, employ a gun in each hand. These are two distinguished components of Woo’s movies, as, for instance, Hong Kong star Chow Yun-Fat slid with his back against a stairway railing while firing two guns in Hard-Boiled (1992).

This was the first Bond film for composer David Arnold. John Barry, the composer for well over half of the 007 movies (including the first, 1962’s Dr. No), reportedly recommended Arnold to producer Barbara Broccoli. Arnold has been the composer for every Bond film since Tomorrow Never Dies. He also wrote a potential theme song for said film, titled “Surrender” and performed by k.d. lang. It was one of a number of songs considered for the opening song. Unfortunately, the studio opted for the rather bland title song performed by Sheryl Crow, but Arnold’s song did play over the closing credits.

Bond has his well known Walthar PPK for a good deal of the film, but he eventually picks up a Walthar P99, which he takes from Wai’s personal archive. The P99 became 007’s gun of choice until the most recent Bond entry, Quantum of Solace (2008), when Bond reverted back to the PPK. Likewise, actor Brosnan was armed with the P99 in movie posters for Tomorrow Never Dies and subsequent Bond films.The title of the film allegedly came about by a mistake. A suggested title, Tomorrow Never Lies (referencing the name of Carver’s newspaper, Tomorrow), was sent to the studio. Apparently, the title was misread and was so well received that it was retained. Look for an early appearance by Gerard Butler, who has a small role as a crew member aboard the British ship at the film’s beginning. Butler would go on to star in A-productions such as Zack Snyder’s adaptation of the Frank Miller grahpic novel, 300 (2007) and, more recently, The Bounty Hunter (2010) with Jennifer Aniston.

This was the first 007 film produced and released without Albert “Cubby” Broccoli, who had died less than a year after the release of GoldenEye. Tomorrow Never Dies was dedicated to the producer.

In spite of its flaws, Tomorrow Never Dies is one of the more noteworthy films in the 007 series. But I will admit that Michelle Yeoh is the main reason that I can watch the film repeatedly. During a chase with Bond and Lin on a motorcycle, the two agents are handcuffed together, and Lin must continually climb around and onto her British counterpart. It’s breathtaking in terms of action but also provocative. When she first sits on Bond’s lap (so that she can see behind them), Lin tells 007, “Don’t get any ideas.” But, of course, by the time she speaks the line, it’s too late.

Any thoughts on Brosnan’s sophomore effort as James Bond?

Bond Is Forever will return next month with Moonraker (1979).