Gun N Rose is a 1992 Hong Kong Heroic Bloodshed film starring Alan Tang, Andy Lau, and Simon Yam, their second collaboration after Return Engagement.
Alan Lung (Alan Tang) is the adopted son of Taiwanese triad leader Lung Yat-fu. Highly favored by Lung, Alan is appointed as Lung's successor, prompting the hatred of his biological sons Simon and Bowie. Simon (Simon Yam), especially, who ends up usurping his father's position and then arranging for Alan's assassination. With the help of local punk and wannabe gangster Andy (Andy Lau), Alan decides to get even with Simon.
Alan pretty much reprises his Hitman with a Heart archetype as previously seen in Flaming Brothers and Return Engagement here, but given that Alan is the Executive Producer of this movie, its evident most of this film is a Vanity Project for Alan, especially how he simply rampaged through wave after wave of mooks Rambo-style and hogging 70% of the film all to himself. Put it simply; Andy Lau, Leon Lai and Simon Yam's collective character development still pales compared to Alan Tang's, and in a Body-Count Competition in the film's various shootouts (if the audience have the time and curiosity to tally-up) Andy, Simon and Leon's combined scores would still be less than Alan's (by approximately 30 points!). Its ridiculously over-the-top and needs to be seen to be believed.
Has nothing to do with the band Guns N' Roses.
This film contains examples of:
- An Arm and a Leg: During Alan's flashback, Alan's father uses a paper-cutter to relive a man of his arm from the wrist.
- Badass Biker: Andy kicks a ton of ass while on his motorcycle, complete with sweet leather jacket and Cool Shades.
- Bludgeoned to Death: In Alan’s childhood flashback, Alan’s father kills a man by smashing a sledgehammer on his skull. (A Gory Discretion Shot occurs, but there’s a burst of High-Pressure Blood for that delightful gore these types of movies are known for).
- Concealment Equals Cover: A really awful example. During the office shootout, Alan hides behind a plastic divider that is barely an inch thick as he reloads his pistols, and the plastic obstruction ends up absorbing maybe 40 bullets leaving Alan unharmed.
- Deliberately Monochrome: Alan’s Troubled Backstory Flashback as a child is painted like this to depict the setting in the late 50s/early 60s.
- The Dragon: Leon, the henchman and personal hitman of Simon. Although he had a change of heart towards his allegiance in the end, but averts the Heel–Face Turn trope and turning the final battle into a three-way confrontation between Leon, Alan and Andy, and Simon.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: Leon, despite being a prominent character in the movie with plenty of screentime, dies rather abruptly in the final shootout when a bunch of mooks suddenly get the drop on him and just gun him down on the spot. He gets roughly as much fanfare as any faceless goon.
- Ensemble Cast
- Groin Attack: Part of the Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique used by Alan while interrogating a mobster in a toilet.
- Guns Akimbo: Plenty, considering the genre of the film. Mostly from Alan.
- I Kiss Your Foot: A punk leader in one scene is ordering an underling to lick his toes to prove his allegiance. After coating his foot with hot chili oil.
- Invincible Hero: Alan, taken up to eleven. Unlike his previous Heroic Bloodshed role in Return Engagement, now he literally, at no point in the movie, gets hurt or ends up in any kind of trouble!
- Leap and Fire: Alan and Leon does this repeatedly.
- Machete Mayhem: Andy gets to whoop several rival punks’ asses with a machete in one scene.
- Mexican Standoff: One occurs early in the movie between Alan, Simon and Bowie.
- "Mission: Impossible" Cable Drop: Leon’s preferred method of appearing is to drop in from ceilings or balconies on a metal wire, firing away with his machine-gun on his way down, and he does so more than once in the film notably during the climax.
- Klingon Promotion: Simon executes his own father to take over the triad syndicate.
- One-Man Army: Alan’s Establishing Character Moment that marks him as an unstoppable killing machine had him forcefully entering a rival triad’s office, pistols in hand, and shooting up the entire place killing 30-odd mooks in under two minutes.
- Taking You with Me: The final, one-on-one confrontation between Simon and Alan had the two of them stuck in a gondola, where Simon suddenly reveals he had a time bomb attached to his chest and is ready to detonate it. Alan jumps and escapes, grabbing on to Leon’s leftover Escape Rope as Simon blew himself up though.
- Unnecessary Combat Roll: Alan and Andy do this a lot, especially Alan in that office shootout scene.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Simon early on in the film orders one of his underlings who harassed a nurse to be brutally beaten, while checking on the nurse to see if she's alright.
- Widowed at the Wedding: Lung’s wife is shot in a shootout that occurs in his wedding, where she gets a bullet In the Back while still in a wedding dress. Subverted that she doesn’t die in the wedding, but eventually dies some time later.
