A Queen's Ransom was offered 2 shows at HK Film Archive's Golden Harvest Cinema Matrix festival at Spring 2013. While the film is about average with other GH films, one thing outstanding is that it contains plenty of footages actually shot during Queen Elizabeth II's visit of Hong Kong at May 1975, including the arrival and departure of British Airways at Kai Tak Airport, official reception at Town Hall at Central, parades at Tsuen Wan and Nathan Road, dragon boat race at Aberdeen and the floating restaurant. These footages now become historical documents and are more interesting than the plot itself. Actually, HK film-makers adore Her Majesty too, so there is a plot twist at final 15 minutes that will keep the Queen unharmed. Unfortunately, the film does not have a chance of digital restoration, and the prints shown contains several traces, especially "straight lines" during the last 5-10 minutes. Where else to find a feature film that Queen Elizabeth II actually stars? (except documentary films) Quite interesting to see if Her Majesty know the existence of this film.
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Long before Jackie Chan took on the IRA in the fantastic action thriller, The Foreigner, his previous workplace had already tackled such a subject with Jimmy Wang Yu, Charles Heung and Angela Mao Ying in the lead. Golden Harvest was still quite a young studio at the time of this release, with big boss Raymond Chow wanting to reach out to a bigger, more international audience. And what better way to do so than having James Bond himself, George Lazenby, play a Northern Irish republican out to kill the Queen on a visit to Hong Kong in 1975...
An interesting move considering Northern Ireland was at the height of the troubles then!
Starting with an explanation of the refugee situation in Hong Kong, and on the Queen's visit, the film moves along at a snails pace like a 60's spy drama with little excitement but for a quick skirmish between Wang Yu and the great Bolo Yeung, who are on the same side but just don't like each other. It takes just over another 20 minutes for the next one, with Wang Yu facing off against a gang of sword wielding guys before getting shot into the water, leaving Bolo to continue with the action.
While the story may be complex, and well acted, the film does fail to grip its audience quick enough. But if there is one thing A Queen's Ransom impresses on, its the cast involved (including Queen Elizabeth herself). While it may be long-drawn and slow in comparison to other Wang Yu/Mao Ying team ups, the film still entertains with its who's-who of Hong Kong faces, as well as (when it gets round to it) the action scenes!
The action is handled by Yasuhiro Shikamura, a veteran of the Hong Kong film industry having worked with Wang Yu on a number of projects, and other hits such as A Killers Romance, God Of Gamblers, Killer Constable, and Jackie Chan's Magnificent Bodyguards, and while it has its moments here both in martial arts and gun-play, and a great finale, there is certainly nothing spectacular going on.
Overall: Its a slow burner, but fairly ambitious for its time, which makes A Queens Ransom an interesting watch at least once... -
ckormos117 February 2020It starts with the helpful explanation of the refugee situation in Hong Kong. The queen is coming. The cops have a tip something big is about to happen.
Jimmy Wang Yu does the greatest stunt ever. He dives underwater to great depth without scuba gear, retrieves a crate, and chugs two cans of bee underwater. Unfortunately, none of this is actually shown.
The first fight is Jimmy versus Bolo and Bolo loses, as usual. What a sport!
Instead of action, the movie starts with spy business that is neither intriguing or even interesting. Every scene with Tanny could have been cut, should have been cut. The final fight is good but it was too little and too late. -
A motley assortment of international terrorists plan to assassinate the Queen of England during her visit to Hong Kong. While this outlandish story probably sounded good on paper, it unfortunately loses a little something in its flawed execution: Shan-Hsi Ting's direction runs hot and cold throughout, with a rather sluggish pace and a crippling dearth of any real decent action in the first forty-five minutes. Fortunately, things kick into gear in the second half thanks to lots of fierce shoot-outs, startling outbursts of savage violence, and, naturally, several rough'n'ready kung-fu fights. The bad guys are a colorful bunch: George Lazenby as ruthless ringleader George, Yu Wang as cocky championship swimmer Jimmy, Judith Brown as the sultry'n'sunny Black Rose (her nude and sex scenes are sizzling hot!), and Bolo Yeung as hot-tempered brute Ram. Alas, Angela Mao isn't given much to do as a sweet Cambodian princess, but at least she gets to beat a few guys up and looks beautiful as ever. Ni Tien adds a good deal of spark as ditsy, yet helpful prostitute Jenny. Ting's blithely loopy script comes through with a neat twist in the last fifteen minutes. However, a nasty rape seems jarringly out of place. Ching-Chu Chen's lively marital score hits the funky chilling spot. A pretty fun flick.
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A Queen's Ransom (1976) was a strange film that came out of Golden Harvest. This would be one of the first attempts by Rayomnd Chow to make international films. A QUEEN'S RANSOM features some of the company's brightest stars (Jimmy Wang Yu Angela Mao, Dean Shek, Sammo Hung, Bolo Yeung) and a big international star (George Lazenby).
A group of international terrorists are trying to ransom the Hong Kong and English government. They won't kill the Queen if they receive a huge amount of ransom money. An exiled South Asian Princess (Angela Mao) is also thrown into the mix. She befriends a local kid (Dean Shek). The terrorists (George Lazenby, Jimmy Yu, Sammo Hung and Bolo Yeung) are under the watchful eye of the local H.K.P.D. What will happen next? Can the police stop these terrorists? Will the Queen be safe? Can the lonely Princess find true love? Is this movie filled with a lot of Kung-Fu and ultra violence? How rare is this movie? To find the answers to these questions you'll have to track down a copy of this impossible to find action film from Golden Harvest.
A wild and entertaining film that aims to please (and it does). Will they ever re-release this movie on D.V.D.?
Highly recommended.