Danger Has Two Faces is a 1985 Hong Kong action film released by Shaw Brothers; one of the non historical period-piece movies released by the studios, starring Leung Kar-Yan.
Jin Zhi-Jiang is a mob hitman with affiliations in the local Hong Kong police, notably his close friend in the force, Inspector Bobby. But when corruption in the police force puts both men in danger, they must work together to uncover a traitor and take down a deadly conspiracy.
Contains Examples of:
- Behind a Stick: Hilariously done in the final shootout; being pursued by mooks, Zhi-jiang, Bobby, and Zhi-jiang’s son stood on each other’s shoulders while hiding behind a tall tree.
- Boom, Headshot!: More than one mook dies in this manner. Usually it's relatively bloodless or Pretty Little Headshots, but subverted when a mook in the final scene gets his face graphically blown out and the camera lingers on the gigantic red hole on his face.
- Briefcase Blaster: The Briefcase Full of Money Superintendent Lau carries in the final scene turns out to contain an MP5 machine gun, that he used in an attempt to kill Zhi-jiang and Bobby.
- Bulletproof Vest: Used by Bobby to fake his death when Zhi-jiang is forced to execute him as proof of allegiance. Later the vest comes in handy during the subsequent shootout.
- Combat Pragmatist: Bobby, when getting the snot beaten out of him by a kung fu-fighting Elite Mook, gets knocked to the floor... and simply picks up the mook's discarded pistol, shooting the mook who is about to execute a running kick at him. Said mook actually had time to exclaim, "You bastard, that's my pistol..." before dying.
- Cool Shades: Zhi-jiang wears badass sunglasses during several of his hits, as seen on the above poster.
- Cover Innocent Eyes and Ears: When Zhi-jiang performs a painful-looking self-surgery to remove the harpoon lodged through his shoulder, his partner Bobby helpfully covers his son's eyes.
- Dirty Cop: Bobby's superior and the police Superintendent, Lau turns out to be a mob informant and the actual Big Bad of the film.
- Hand Cannon: Zhi-jiang's preferred weapon appears to be a sort of large-bore Desert Eagle. Him being a professional assassin, he's not affected by the knockback usually associated with these types of weapons.
- Harpoon Gun: In the final shootout, a few mooks hiding in a river tries to ambush Jin Zhi Jiang and Bobby Zhou using harpoons. One of them actually managed to impale Zhi-jiang, but he survives.
- Heroic Bloodshed: A rather subdued example, but still contains the usual elements of brotherhood, triads, a Hitman with a Heart protagonist, and the like.
- Improbable Infant Survival: Played straight with Zhi-jiang's son, who gets kidnapped by Lau's henchmen to intimidate Zhi-jiang. Zhi-jiang managed to gun down the mook holding his son without hurting him, and the boy simply runs through the cross-fire of the following shootout without getting a scratch. By the end of the film where all the bad guys are dead, the boy is alive and looking all sorts of cheerful despite witnessing his father killing several people.
- The Lancer: Zhi-jiang's liege and contact in the police, Inspector Bobby. He gets to kick quite some ass alongside Zhi-jiang in the finale.
- Late to the Realization: Sergeant Sam Liang, who realized Superintendent Lau is a traitor... four seconds before Lau shoots him in the head.
- Lock-and-Load Montage: The film's opening credits are plastered over Zhi-jiang assembling his trusty Desert Eagle while prepping himself for a hit.
- Mook Chivalry: Played straight in the final shootout; while Zhi-jiang takes on lesser mooks, an Elite Mook challenges Bobby, and when Bobby's gun is out of bullets but he managed to knock the mook's pistol out of his grasp, the mook responds with "You want to fight like a man? Sure!" and decide to take on Bobby using Good Old Fisticuffs instead of, say, retrieving his pistol just nearby. It comes back to bite him in the ass at the end.
- No Range Like Point-Blank Range: Superintendent Lau reveals himself to be a traitor by shooting Sergeant Sam in the back of his head from an inch away.
- Papa Wolf: DO NOT harm Zhi-jiang's young son if you value your life.
- Pretty Little Headshots: Most of the extras who gets shot in their heads had their craniums intact, with holes that a pencil can just fit into in their heads. Especially ridiculous in one scene where Zhi-jiang shoots a mook twice, and said mook had two coin-sized holes in his cranium without even collapsing after his death. Subverted in the forest shootout however.
- Professional Killer: Jin Zhi-jiang is an expert hitman and assassin.
- R-Rated Opening: The film opens with Zhi-jiang walking through a subway with a soothing song playing in the background, right before he guns down a mob boss and four bodyguards, without batting an eye.
- Shoot the Fuel Tank: One of the underwater mooks gets blown to Ludicrous Gibs after Zhi-jiang shoots the oxygen tank on his back.
- Stuff Blowing Up: The final shootout leads from a forest all the way to the docks just outside, which has stacks and stacks of oil drums. Goes without saying that what can ignite and explode, does explode at the end of the scene.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: The fate of Superintendent Lau, the main villain; having his lower body crushed under his overturned car, which is on fire... with twenty fuel drums less than a meter away from him. His fate is as explosive as it sounds. Not Enough to Bury would be a massive Understatement.
- We Have to Get the Bullet Out!: Played straight in one scene when Zhi-jiang digs a bullet out of his forearm, a rather graphic and bloody scene. There's also a variant when he had to rip out a harpoon impaled through his shoulder.
