Review | Undercover Punch and Gun film review: Philip Ng, Andy On in laughably bad action thriller

Slapdash, amateurish and redeemed only by some moderately successful action scenes, this story of drug dealers and cops should never have seen the light of day

Philip Ng plays an undercover policeman who takes over as drug gang leader when his predecessor is killed, Andy On a drug dealer and Vanness Wu an informant

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Philip Ng (rear) in a still from Undercover Punch and Gun (category IIB; Cantonese, Mandarin), also starring Andy On and Vanness Wu. Lui Koon-nam and Frankie Tam direct.

Published: 7:16pm, 19 Sep 2019Updated: 2:17pm, 3 Oct 2019

1/5 stars

Movies are meant to be make-believe, we know, but it’s hard to accept that a story this awful could find its way to production and a cinematic release. Scripted by co-directors Lui Koon-nam and Frankie Tam Kwong-yuen, alongside five other writers, Undercover Punch and Gun plays like an amateur filmmaker’s valiant but misguided attempt to realise a much grander vision.

The slapdash action thriller has been talked up as a passion project to reunite a trio of real-life buddies – Philip Ng Wan-lung, Andy On Chi-kit and Vanness Wu Jian-hao – from the 2003 movie Star Runner, and in that regard it has achieved its aim. But Ng and On, as two of Hong Kong’s top action actors, should know a film this laughably bad will hurt their chances of ever reaching superstar status.

Ng plays King, a policeman so into his undercover mission that he is dating the gang boss’ daughter, Dawnie (Aka Chio Wai-shan). After a scrapyard drug deal goes awry and his boss (Lam Suet) is killed, King is made leader of the syndicate. Just as he’s coming to terms with his new role, King is threatened by a drug dealer, human trafficker and general baddie named Ha (On) to surrender his gang’s go-to meth cook.

With the help of informant and fellow gang member Tiger (Wu), King soon tracks down the mysterious chemist (an especially playful Susan Shaw Yin-yin) working for his former boss. But when this backfires and Dawnie is abducted, King, Tiger and Eva (Joyce Feng Wenjuan) – an unrelated former special forces member who also has a score to settle with Ha – decide to make their way to Ha’s freighter on the high seas “somewhere in the Pacific”.