Only cowards use machine-guns. Pistols are for real heroes!
Power Connection is a 1995 Hong Kong-Philippine action film directed by Philip Ko, starring Yukari Oshima, Robert Mak, and Philippine action star Jestani Alarcon in his sole Hong Kong movie.
Ray (Alarcon) is a top cop of Manila's police force, dispatched to Hong Kong on assignment to track down Philippine drug baron Dick. He ends up reuniting with his former girlfriend, Lina, which he found out to be addicted to drugs, as well as his partner, the Hong Kong police lieutenant Heung-lan (Oshima) whom he had worked together before and secretly had feelings for him, and happens to be investigating Dick's syndicate. When Dick ends up fleeing Hong Kong back to the Philippines, Ray is determined to track him down, with Heung-lan tagging along.
Power Connection contains the following tropes:
- Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene: Quite a few, mostly between Ray and his mother and sister, or with his Old Flame Lina. And there's also a scene with Ray suddenly realizing he might have feelings for Heung-lan after witnessing her being hospitalized after barely surviving a boat explosion, where he ends up by her bedside holding her hand.
- Action Girl: Heung-lan, one of many Yukari Oshima roles.
- Actor/Role Confusion: Inverted; Jimmy is a retired police officer who becomes an actor... who specially plays policemen on film. Turns out his method acting as a policeman doesn't sit well with his film directors, who ends up chiding his acting skills and demands for more takes from him.
- Anguished Declaration of Love: Between Ray and Heung-lan, right at the end of the film, when Big Bad Dick is using Heung-lan as a hostage.Heung-lan: "Ray, kill him! Don't worry about me... as long as I'm in your heart... I don't care if I were to die! Kill him!"
- Bad Boss: Dick spends most of the final shootout throwing his mooks towards Ray, Jimmy and Heung-lan, gloating that the three heroes will need an army to take him down while ignoring scores of his mooks getting shot en masse, demands for his henchmen to be used as bait while he tries taking potshots at Ray, and at the end of the movie when Heung-lan and his Mook Lieutenant both ends up crashing over a balcony and landing right in front of him, Dick then raises his gun... and shoots his lieutenant for failing to kill Heung-lan, before grabbing her as a hostage.
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Played straight and averted.
- Heung-lan (the gorgeous Yukari Oshima), despite nearly dying from a boat explosion which is enough to knock her unconscious, shows up later in a hospital room without a single scratch on her face. And Lina, who gets tossed off a balcony, only gets a bit of Blood from the Mouth at her death scene.
- Horrifically averted in the climax: Heung-lan gets the stuffing beaten out of her in a lengthy, brutal fight scene against Dick's number two, with bloody results. The fight ultimately leads to Heung-lan and the Mook Lieutenant going over a balcony and falling for over a hundred meters before crashing through a roof. She looks pretty much the way you'd expect someone to look after a nasty fall - (very realistic looking) scratches and cuts on her face, a deep gash on her forehead, coughing blood from her lips, Blood Is the New Black on her clothing, and limping from a twisted, crippled ankle. Poor Yukari Oshima just can't take a break from getting roughed up in all her films...
- Behind a Stick: Spoofed in the hospital shootout scene, with three people (Ray, Jimmy, and an unfortunate random nurse between them) hiding behind a narrow pillar during a shootout against Philip. Philip is firing away with an Uzi, and all three of them tries aligning themselves to avoid being shot.
- Belated Love Epiphany: Played with; Ray nearly lose Heung-lan when she gets caught in a boat explosion, and realize he might have feelings for her while waiting for her to recover in a hospital, but he's still clinging on to his Old Flame, Lina. But after Lina dies, he ends up with Heung-lan, which he then vows to protect no matter what happens.
- The Big Damn Kiss: The very, very final shot of the movie, which has Ray and Heung-lan, both of them battered but still alive (although barely), ultimately embracing each other with a kiss. Just as Dick's hideout explodes behind them, with a freeze-frame of them still locking lips.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Jimmy, during his resignation from the police force, states his intention of becoming an actor. Ray comments that Jimmy actually sucks at acting. Given that they are part of a film and portrayed by veteran actors Jestoni Alarcon and Robert Mak...
- Cassandra Truth: Drug kingpin Philip's partner attempts to convince Philip that Ray is an undercover cop, only to have Philip exposing how the partner was actually involved in a money laundering scheme filtering Philip's money away. Said partner ends up getting shot by Philip mid-protest.
- Casanova Wannabe: Jimmy, just Jimmy. He flirts with women every chance he gets for no reason whatsoever, even when he logically shouldn't be doing so. Such as to the nurse pushing him on a wheelchair during the hospital scene.Jimmy: "Lady, you're pretty! If I know nurses in this hospital are so hot, I would've just get myself hospitalized sooner."Nurse: "Sir, this isn't a hotel."
- Cooldown Hug: Delivered by Ray to Lina, after she starts having an emotional meltdown when remebering her sister's death.
- Cool Shades: Ray and Jimmy both wears sunglasses in multiple scenes, and they are the leading badass protagonists of the film.
- Cowboy Cop: Ray and Jimmy, the movie's Bash Brothers duo who works on the same police team. They are a pair of loose cannons who shoots first, ask questions later and racks up quite a sizeable body count.
- Cyanide Pill: The mercenary during the arms dealing scene, after receiving a beatdown from Heung-lan and getting captured alive, swallows a capsule in his mouth instead as she tries demanding answers from him. He replies to her with a Dying Smirk, before the capsule takes effect and kills him.
- David vs. Goliath: Whenever Heung-lan gets into fights, the movie would pit her against opponents far larger than her, such as the American arms dealer (played by Mark Houghton) in the harbor fight, the mercenary during the botched arms deal, and Dick's number two, a dangerous Mook Lieutenant with serious military training and in full army gear. She defeats the former two, but for the latter both of them ends up falling through a balcony for over a hundred meters, where they both gets brutally injured to the point of near-death.
- Dead Sidekick: Jimmy in the finale.
- Destination Defenestration: This actually happens to Heung-lan at the end of the movie when she gets flung through a window by Dick's number two, a Mook Lieutenant she has to fight. Although the windows are already slightly opened and unlike most examples, doesn't break as she gets chucked through.
- Disposable Woman: Ultimately, Ray's first girlfriend, Lina, is this, when she gets unceremoniously flung off a balcony and despite Ray's best efforts, still succumbs to her injuries at the end of their escape. She then gets forgotten, with Heung-lan replacing Lina as Ray's Love Interest.
- Drama-Preserving Handicap: Happens twice to Heung-lan. Being played by Yukari Oshima, who dies in 60% of her films, most audiences are pretty much expecting her to bite it both times. She didn't.
- During the boat shootout, Heung-lan gets caught in a boat explosion, but turns out alive, although unconscious in a hospital ward. She survives and spends much of her scenes after waking up recovering, and is put out of action for the rest of the second act.
- The final shootout culminates with Heung-lan fighting Dick's number two, a dangerous Mook Lieutenant who gives her one hell of a fight. Both of them ends up falling off a tall balcony over a hundred meters, and ends up crippled, bruised and covered in injuries, with Heung-lan twisting her knee badly and is unable to stop the Big Bad Dick from using her as a hostage.
- Drugs Are Bad: Dick, the Big Bad of the movie, is a drug baron and the dealer responsible for causing Rick's girlfriend, Lina, to end up through Descent into Addiction by forcing her to inject herself with syringes while she's working under him. Lina ends up Going Cold Turkey when Ray finally reunites with her, but that isn't enough to save her.
- The Dulcinea Effect : Ray notably has this reaction towards Heung-lan, his partner, after Lina's death. Thankfully she does have feelings for him too.
- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Supercop and killing machine Ray, who can kicks all kinds of ass and take names with ease, turns out to actually live with his mother, and is still subservient to her where before his mom he's as meek as a mouse.
- Flipping the Bird: During a standoff scene, a drug baron who realized he just got double-crossed angrily flips both his middle fingers."You betrayed me? Damn you!"(flips both middle fingers)
- Gangland Drive-By:
- Early on in the film, Ray is in the middle of interrogating two suspects when a car full of drug dealers after his life drives past and opens fire. Ray dodges in time, but the two suspects aren't as lucky.
- Later on when Ray and Heung-lan meets Jimmy, who's in the middle of filming a movie, a group of Dick's mooks drives past and tries to off them, but somehow they missed all three of their targets without hitting a single bystander.
- Guns Akimbo: Used by the unnamed mercenary, who ambushed a whole group of weapons dealers with dual pistols and killing every single one of them in under a minute.
- Held Gaze: Between Ray and Lina as they kiss. And at the end of the movie, between Ray and Heung-lan.
- Hellish Copter: During the shootout against Dick and the other drug dealers, Ray and Jimmy has to contend with two helicopters with mooks firing at them from above. Apparently helicopters are a Pinto, considering how Ray destroys one of them by shooting at it thrice using his dinky little pistol.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Jimmy, the Plucky Comic Relief sidekick, decides to allow himself to be shot by Dick in order to pass Ray a dropped pistol, so that Ray can use that to shoot Dick and save Heung-lan. He even lampshades it...Jimmy: "Do it, Ray! Finish the job... one of me is worth two of you! Kill him and make it (the sacrifice he's about to attempt) count!"
- I Shall Taunt You: Dick does this repeatedly to Ray, while using Heung-lan as his hostage.Dick: (grabbing Heung-lan By the Hair) : "I have your woman, Ray! Give up if you value her life! I know you love her! I will kill you, and then kill her, if you don't give up! You bastard, you dared to oppose me? (Licks her face) You and your police girlfriend... damn you! I will make you suffer for this! You will watch her suffer and die, I swear! You shall pay for this, both of you!"(Believe it or not, his "The Reason You Suck" Speech actually lasts for nearly THREE minutes in the movie itself. To the point of being close to an Overly Long Gag... if it counts as a gag.)
- New Old Flame: Ray's old lover, Lina, which he reunites after their separation, only to find out she has Descent into Addiction during the few years they were apart.
- One-Book Author: This is notably the ONLY Hong Kong movie starring Philipine actors Jestoni Alarcon, Karla Estrada, Dick Israel and Flora Gasser, although they do enjoy a much bigger success in their native Philippines.
- Plucky Comic Relief: Jimmy, a prankster and joker. Even in the final shootout, he spends much of his time goofing around, although its more of a case of Obfuscating Stupidity since he's distracting mooks only to quickly and efficiently take them down when its time for him to fight.
- Railing Kill: This is notably how Lina dies after Dick flings her off a balcony. She succumbs to her injuries a few minutes later.
- Retirony: Played with. Ray's partner, Jimmy, mentioned that after quitting the police force, he will change his career to be an actor. He does enjoy moderate success as an actor, before getting dragged back into one last assignment to help Ray and Heung-lan... that ends with him getting shot dead by Dick.
- Road Apples: Jimmy, while fooling about on a film set, ends up landing and plunging his hand into a pile of cow poop. Which he somehow didn't notice until two seconds before he grabs it.
- Shoot the Hostage Taker: The hostage taker being Dick, the Big Bad who's holding the crippled and injured Heung-lan as a Human Shield. A moment of distraction from Jimmy causes Dick to shoot Jimmy instead, just as Jimmy tosses a dropped pistol back to Ray who then pumps Dick fill of lead. But even then....
- Taking You with Me: Dick, despite having the contents of a pistol fired into his gut from point-blank, still have enough residual strength to take out a concealed grenade, which he attempts to use on Ray. He only succeeds in blowing up himself, since Ray does a balcony jump with Heung-lan in his arms in the nick of time.
- Vasquez Always Dies: Inverted, with Heung-lan, played by veteran Vasquez actress Yukari Oshima, actually surviving the movie while the more feminine Lina dies before the third act. Although she does gets roughed up several times during fight scenes and suffers multiple beatdowns and near-death situations, to the point that audiences are pretty much aren't expecting her to outlive the credits.
