Film Review: Fatal Termination (Boston Underground Film Festival)
By: Joseph Perry (Twitter)
Some folks proclaim about movies, “They don’t make ‘em like they used to,” but a more apt saying for 1990 Hong Kong action thriller Fatal Termination would be “They’ll never make ‘em like that again — nor should they!”. Director Andrew (Yeung-Wah) Kam’s feature contains so many instances of flagrant disregard about the safety of its cast members — including a very young girl — that it boggles the mind. It’s a movie that truly must be seen to be believed.
Corrupt customs official Wai Loong (Robin Shou) and illegal arms dealer Ko Mok-Fu (Phillip Ko) have a deal in place to procure some guns for the latter by way of an airline flight. Agent Jimmy Lee (Simon Yam) tries to bust Ko and the foreign baddies involved. Police officer Miu (Kiu-Wai Miu) becomes part of the intrigue — double-crosses, blackmail, and scapegoating abound in this thriller — and after he is killed, his sister Moon (Moon Lee) and her police officer husband John (Ray Lui) become involved, being framed for stealing the weapons. Matters escalate greatly when Yan Yan (Cheuk Yan Chan), the very young daughter of Moon and John, is kidnapped by Ko and his henchmen and taken on a terrifying — for the character; the young actress, judging by the look on her face and what is happening to her; and certainly viewers — car chase, suspended above the road by her hair.
As if that deadly stunt wasn’t enough reason to check out Fatal Termination, there are plenty more jaw-dropping scenes where the lives of cast and crew members seem to be in life-threatening circumstances, for real. The total ignoring of safety measures such as those seen in the film would never fly today.
The characters are black-and-white: either innocent protagonists who you want to see exact revenge, or heartless villains who you can’t wait to see get theirs. Seemingly every character knows kung fu, with the exception of Yan Yan. The grand finale is a wild set piece in a rural area that features plenty of explosions and gunfights with poor aim.
The main cast members should be familiar names to aficionados of classic Hong Kong action movies, and they turn in solid performances here. As for the plot devised by screenwriter Chi-Ming Pang, intrigue is in plentiful supply, but martial arts action, gunplay, explosions, and especially those incredibly irresponsible stunts are the main draws with Fatal Termination, and Kam paces things splendidly. Fans of the heyday of Asian action thrillers should put this one high on their need-to-see lists.
The North American premiere of Fatal Termination’s new restoration screens as part of the 2024 Boston Underground Film Festival, which runs March 20–24. For more information, visit https://bostonunderground.org/.
Joseph Perry writes for the websites Gruesome Magazine (gruesomemagazine.com), The Scariest Things (scariesthings.com), Horror Fuel (horrorfuel.com), B&S About Movies (bandsaboutmovies.com), The Good, the Bad, and the Verdict (gbvreviews.com), and Diabolique Magazine (diaboliquemagazine.com), and film magazines Phantom of the Movies’ VideoScope (videoscopemag.com) and Drive-In Asylum (etsy.com/shop/GroovyDoom).
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