Cast:

Leung Kar Yan

Chu Chiang

Carrol Gordon

Bei Cheung

Cheung Ming Man

Baak Wan Kam

Director:

Chang Kuo Ming

Score:  

DANGER HAS TWO FACES

AKA:  Danger Has 2 Faces

Year: 1985    Reviewer: Scott Napier

As my first review I kind of got off to a bad/good start because there is hardly any information available about this fantastic movie.  However, 'Danger Has Two Faces' does represent a new style in the action-side for a Shaw Brothers film with a dark and violent plot although this is excusable due to a limited range of genres within the film.

Leung Kar Yan is ex-cop Jin, relegated to becoming a normal innocent citizen and pet store owner with his son Fai whilst the other, an unsuspecting Hitman paid to kill by Hung. Meanwhile, these assassinations have alerted HK police that there are too many cases on board related with murder and robbery in HK so Inspectors Liu (Chu Chiang), Bobby (who happens to be Jin's ex-partner and best friend) and some other officers form a group together to solve these crimes. Bobby suspects that some of his colleagues are thugs and after his wife sees one of them commit suicide, evidence is left by his colleague, pointing out who was responsible for the robbery and other crimes. Jin’s son is kidnapped and kept into custody by Hung and Bobby's colleague until he kills his target Bobby, but will he?

With 'Danger Has Two Faces, I guess Leung Kar Yan wanted a change when starring in his first modern day action movie and he does well in playing a double-type of character. It helps that director Chang also took Shaw Brothers' action film nature a little further, particularly with car/bike stunts for the finale.  When it comes to the plot, I did have to watch 'Danger Has Two Faces' a few times at random to understand the films philosophy as it can be slow and quite dull in places but to structure the scenes a combination of light comedy and strong bloodshed gun-fighting action are required. Overall, it may fail to entertain all viewers but definitely worth a place in your collection!

Distributor:  Celestial (IVL)

Region:  3 (NTSC)

Running Time:  88 mins

Video: 

Presented at the Shaw Brothers logo 2:35:1 but expands to 1:85:1 so it is hard to tell if Celestial cropped the picture but presented in 16:9 anamorphic spotless with well-balanced colours and no bleeding. Sometimes pixilation can be a problem but only if you were being picky.

Audio:

Cantonese or Mandarin soundtracks remixed into 5.1 which I know most 'collectors' would like to see in either the original 2.0/1.0 sound but either way music and dialogue is well-synched with no noticeable hiss.  Removable Traditional Chinese, English, Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Malaysia subtitles.

Extras:  

- Stills from the movie which are usually at a different angle

- Talent files for Leung Kar Yan, Carroll Gordon, Bei Cheung, and Chang Kuo Ming

- Movie poster

- Useless production notes

- Trailers for 'Danger Has Two Faces', 'Secret Service of the Imperial Court', 'Vengeance', 'Kidnap', 'Duel of Fists' and 'The Delinquent'