First there's City War, and then City Warriors, what's next, City Warzone ? note
City Warriors is a 1988 action movie directed by Lung-Wei Wang (aka Johnny Wang) and starring Dick Wei (reuniting them both ever since Hong Kong Godfather). In typical brutal 80s Hong Kong fashion, the movie is violent, gory, and excessively over-the-top with plenty of red throughout.
Lok Han (Wei) is a former PRC soldier who left China for Hong Kong, under the pretense of joining a tour group, but in actuality he has a secret mission of his own; years ago his sister ran away from home due to eloping with her boyfriend, and is presumed lost forever... until he discovered news about her recently. News about the hidden truth of Hong Kong's dark, seedy, corrupted underbelly...
This film contains the following tropes:
- Accidental Murder: Sai-kit, in the final shootout, ends up shooting his own employer, Senator Chor, when trying to shoot Lok Han. He doesn't flinch upon committing the murder though, and neither will the audience, because one less scumbag in the world is always a good thing.
- Big Brother Instinct: Lok Han, who will stop at nothing to get his sister back home after finding out her fate of being pimped into a whorehouse. He nearly succeeded, but Sai-kit got in the way.
- Boom, Headshot!: The female hijacker gets disposed in this way when Chan puts a bullet through her forehead.
- Cop Killer: Tang Sai-kit, the Professional Killer and murder machine working under Senator Chor's payroll. He killed around 15 people throughout the film, and a dozen of these are police officers assigned to guard the witnesses to have Senator Chor testified in court.
- Cutting the Electronic Leash: A hooker who tries fleeing from the prostitution ring at night managed to make her way into a phone booth, until the Transvestite Old Sister stalks her all the way to the booth, where she gets assaulted while in the middle of informing the police and calling for help. She ends up being stabbed mid-call and gutted while screaming all the way.
- Decoy Protagonist: Superintendent Chan, despite having a few extensive action scenes dedicated to his character in the first act, quickly gets shoved aside after the twenty minute mark, with Lok Han being introduced in the next scene and quickly taking over as the true protagonist.
- Establishing Character Moment: Lok Han is introduced as a loner and The Stoic who doesn't like to talk or even make contact with anyone, and he spends most of his time alone either smoking or away from crowds. But when he goes out of his way to save a little boy who accidentally fell out of a Ferris Wheel (by climbing up the Wheel's sides, no less) and holds onto the boy until the ride has descended to safety at ground level, audiences then knows he's on the side of good.
- Ferris Wheel of Doom: Lok Han's first action scene had him climbing up a Ferris Wheel to save a child who fell out. Althought the wheel isn't faulty or malfunctioning - the kid is just an idiot who snuck aboard all by himself, and then opened the carriage's doors despite being explicitly warned not to beforehand.
- Fish out of Water: Lok Han, a PRC soldier in Hong Kong travelling without a valid passport, with a shady background drawing attention from everyone he passes by.
- Guns Akimbo: The female hijacker uses dual pistols while hijacking a bus, pointing one gun at passengers while firing the other at Superintendent Chan who is trying to climb into the vehicle.
- Hate Sink: The secondary villains of the picture are a prostitution ring who tricks young, desperate woman in need of financial support to join them, and sell their services to wealthy clients who are usually abusive and have no qualms physically and sexually abusing helpless hookers. Any prostitutes who tries to make a getaway are quickly recaptured and delivered a thrashing, and those who knows the true nature of their businesses are summarily hunted down and executed, like the prostitute discovered in a sack early in the film.
- The transvestite sister is a Transgender enforcer, an effeminate creep with violent tendencies who takes delight in beating up prostitutes personally, licking a scared prostitute too afraid to defend herself in her cheek, and orders an abused hooker that attempts a getaway to be tied upon a chair and tortured by having a plastic bag filled with cockroaches wrapped around her face. When not creeping out the audience by flirting with other men, he's (yes, he) also in charge of stalking and murdering prostitutes who tried to leave, and clearly takes delight in gutting hookers slowly and painfully just For the Evulz. If audiences doesn't hate him for being violent and ruthless, they can sure hate him for being creepy and revolting.
- Senator Chor is a Corrupt Politician secretly running the prostitution ring while keeping their shady activities hidden using his power. When Lok Han's sister, forced into prostitution by her husband, escapes the ring, he personally orders his enforcer and The Dragon, Sai-kit to hunt her down, killing several police officers and witnesses. With nobody to testify against him, he then smugly rubs his position of power before the presses saying how he's an honest politician that cares for the people, with rivals who spread false lies about him to tarnish his good reputation.
- Human Shield: In the final shootout, Lok Han forces Senator Chor as a meatshield when Sai-kit starts firing at him, pumping Chor full of lead in the process.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: The transvestite sister's fate. He didn't realize he's been skewered through the back by Mak with a long iron rod until a few moments later, at which point he dies a slow, painful, and well-deserving death.
- Ineffectual Loner: Lok Han, after his heroic deed in the funfair. Other civilians and the police are more than curious to find out more about him and assist him when they find out his reason for coming into Hong Kong is to locate his estranged sister.
- It's Personal with the Dragon: Lok Han's vendetta towards Sai-kit becomes this when Sai-kit, being assigned to silence all witnesses of Senator Chor's crimes, kills his sister as well.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: The Extreme Mêlée Revenge Lok Han dishes out to Sai-kit for killing his sister, resulting in Sai-kit a bloody, crumpled heap sinking in some rotting sewage.
- Little Useless Gun: Superintendent Chan managed to get the drop on the Yakuza leader, by whipping out a pint-sized pistol he kept concealed in his belt buckle. Despite looking like a toy gun for toddlers, it can fire real bullets.
- Neck Snap: Sai-kit the assassin's preferred method of killing. He dispose of a policeman guarding the witnesses by pulling him out of his parked vehicle's window and breaking his neck, and then executes a policewoman by crushing her windpipe using his bare hands.
- Outside Ride: Superintendent Chan, when trying to catch the female hijacker who had escaped onto a double-decker bus, ends up clinging on the back of the vehicle and slowly climbing his way up to the top.
- Peekaboo Corpse: After the Action Prologue ending with the last hijacker arrested at the docks, one police officer who fell in the water unintentionally had a heavy sack caught onto his leg, which other officers assists him in dragging out. Opening the sack, they end up finding the badly decomposed corpse of a prostitute who was murdered and dumped into the bay.
- Properly Paranoid: Lok Han, during the flashback, repeatedly insists for his sister to listen to their parents' concerns for her not to follow her boyfriend to Hong Kong, despite her declaring that they truly loved each other. Turns out Lok Han's worries are justified, because her husband would end up pimping her into a whorehouse and making her a prostitute against her will.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Superintendent Chan, who spends most of his screentime being the Inspector Javert hunting down Lok Han because of Han being an illegal immigrant, but after sustaining a fatal shot from Sai-kit, Chan in his final moments decide to uncuff Lok Han and allow him to pursue Sai-kit and avenge his sister.
- Retirony: Superintendent Chan, again. His Last Words is to confess to Lok Han that he's quitting the force.
- Slashed Throat: Moments before succumbing to his injuries, the Transvestite Old Sister managed to slice up Mak's throat as a last act of vengeance.
- Tattooed Crook: The Yakuza client in the opening scene. The opening credits are superimposed on the massive dragon tattoo covering his entire back.
