The Last Blood (1991)

SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

If you are familiar to Wong Jing's work than you know what you can expect. Silly stories with over the top comedy. The action in his movies are always secondary. And that is the way to approach a movie like this otherwise you surely get disappointed. Somehow they gave this movie the subtitle "Hard Boiled 2" even when there is no connection to that superior movie. But when you use a title like that it does raise some expectation concerning the action. And let me make it very clear since the other reviews on this site neglected to give a sufficient description of the action. It is nowhere near the level of "Hard Boiled". How could it be? That is nearly impossible since Woo's Hard Boiled is one of the best action movies ever made. Most of the action scenes in "Last Blood" are pretty decent that consists of gun play and some hand to hand combat. But they are short and not that impressive. There is one chase sequence that showed promise. The bad guys follow the main characters into a crowded subway station on their motorcycles. Now here is a setup for bloodshed and mayhem. Sadly the director preferred a less creative solution and ended the scene to quickly with taking out one bad guy and completely ignoring the remaining ones. And throughout the whole movie Andy Lau is goofing off. There is not one scene where he is serious even when a gun is pointed at him. He used to do to this often in his movies those days. But somehow it bothered me big time in this one. This again is proof that you should approach this movie more as a comedy than an action movie.

Watching a Hong-Kong thriller is always a good experience, there's always hope of find a movie that will stick to your memory like did many movies of John Woo or Tsui Hark. The Last Blood is not only a surprising piece of Hong Kong action is also an under seen movie. It is a good time to discover this hidden jewel that could surprise many viewers. Old racks of movie-stores have many unexpected good movies to be found.This movie has a frenetic but clear editing that put it in the same league of classics of John Woo. But anyway, Woo is the master and Wong Jing would be a talented disciple. Jing managed to make The Last Blood is an amazing piece of entertainment with a budget that is far from the standards of Hollywood, something that must be studied by filmmakers who want to shot but don't have the money of a mega-millionaire producer.The level of violence and gore is high, this turn outs to be some of the highlights in the film. The plot is just what one expects from this kind of production. The situations hang between the exaggeration and realism. There's authentic drama (or well focused melodrama), some laughs, interesting characters and enough adrenaline to boost the viewer out of his seat. The relationship between both cops and the common guy who becomes target of the terrorist is handled in a magnificent way. There's space for some reflection in the middle of all the action to focus on important moral matters. All this is quintessential in the good exponents of this genre. Also the characters don't try to be sympathetic to the point of been insufferable. Final notes: Jing tian shi er xiao shi (The Last Blood) was released in the early nineties, a crucial period for HK cinema when it was discovered massively by audiences. This audiences were tired of movies of eighties decadents stars, whose reputations were going down with really lame movies that were mere vehicles for the exploitation of their profiles.

A terrorist group, called The Red Army, want the Daka Lama dead, and they'll do anything to kill him. As he enters the airport in Singapore he is shot down. Also in Singapore is a man and his girlfriend. During the gun battle she is also hit. They are alive but need operations to live. The only problem, they both have a rare blood type. And they need the blood to have the operations, without the operations they will die. To make matters worse only a very few people have this rare blood type in the area. The Police and the woman's boyfriend go looking for the people with the rare blood, hoping to save the Daka Lama and the woman. But the terrorists know this as well and are planning on killing the people with the rare blood type as a way to kill the Daka Lama. The Police must get at least one of the people to the hospital to save the lives of the Lama and the woman. But with the terrorists hell bent on killing the Daka Lama it will be almost impossible to reach the hospital in time. Can they save the day and the lives of two innocent people or will the terrorists get what they want?'Jing Tian Shi er Xiao Shi' is such an action packed movie. It was crazy! But I loved every moment of it. I'm glad I watched it alone because I was constantly screaming at the more tight action parts. If you want an action packed movie, this is it! The stunts are awesome and the movie contains a fantastic car chase. It also throws in some comedy. Though some word of caution for non-regular viewers of Hong Kong action movies: it is rather violent. The film holds a few twists, but most of them you can see coming a mile away. Although this isn't a detractor to the film.I had a great time with this film. The action just kept on coming right up to the crazy finale in a hospital.8/10

Has none of the look, style or panache of Hard Boiled, so don't be rushing to the video store counter with glee if you loved the first one. However, if you appreciate the sort of crazy, unbelievable choreography that John Woo made his name with - this is pretty close. It just won't have the quality of plot, characterisation or even, damn me for saying it, script. Funny subtitles, too.