Mad Mission : 1 & 2

Here’s a huge blast from my past. Mad Mission (or Ace Go Places as it was known in Hong Kong) is a series of action-comedy movies that are parodies of the James Bond film series. The series began in 1982, with the first two films directed by Eric Tsang. Although a total of 5 movies were made with the same main cast and a further 6th with a new set of actors, it’s the first two that we shall be talking about here in this post. These are the two that I remember from my childhood in Kuwait and which my friends and I loved a lot;  so much that we would try and reenact some of the scenes with dialogues (which are dubbed in English).

The first movie was called Aces Go Places or Mad Mission or Mad Mission 1: Diamondfinger (in the US) came out in 1982 directed by Eric Tsang, and starring Samuel Hui, Karl Maka & Sylvia Chang. A suave, smooth burglar Sam known as ‘King Kong’  steals a set of illegally purchased diamonds during a transaction being done in a large skyscraper – in a daring caper followed by ride his bike through the building stairways and taking it inside an elevator. However his associate was killed before he could divulge where he stashed the diamonds. The diamonds are also being tracked by a European criminal known as ‘White Gloves’, hired by the Chinese mafia who had setup the sale of the diamonds. Caught by the cops Sam tries to make up for his thieving ways by teaming up with an Cody Jack (called Albert ‘Baldy’ Au but named for famous tv detective Kojak), a bumbling police detective from the United States. Both work together to try to find the hiding place. Sam’s associate had left clues by having coordinates tattooed on the butts of two girls he had dated.

The two heroes are supervised by Superintendent Nancy Ho (called Hot Tongue in the English version), who has a temper. What follows is a mad & hilarious chase to find the two girls and get their rear ends photographed in order to get the full coordinates. The two heroes almost get killed by the father of one of the girls and his men. The walrus-like Don wants Sammy dead…or rapidly approaching rigor mortis. As Kodyjack and Hot Tongue befriend our five-finger discounter (hoping to trick him into revealing the whereabouts of the cut carbons), their lives all become endangered as elaborate plots and ambushes meet their every move. After one dangerous event when both of the guys gets hurt, they avoid getting in trouble with Hot Tongue by pretending that Cody Jack has the hots for her. On hearing this, the tomboyish Hot Tongue turns all weak-kneed and goes ga ga for the bald detective and they have a double date dinner with Hot Tongue’s sister joining them. As they finally find the diamonds and are able to fight off the villains.

In the sequel Mad Mission 2 or Aces Go Places 2 which came out in 1983 sees the return of our friends Sam, Cody Jack & Hot Tongue. The Hong Kong Mafia hire Black Glove also known as Filthy Harry (a Clint Eastwood lookalike dressed in a combination of Dirty Harry & The Man With No Name) to retrieve the diamonds from Sam & Cody Jack. Sam is attacked in his apartment by a huge robot and he fights it off by smashing his tv onto it’s head. He jumps out to the pool and takes off in his awesome bike chased by goons on bikes as well as in cars. And guess what – his bike turns into a water bike as soon as it hits the sea! However, a local gang lord who also wants the diamonds sends his rather cute & pretty employee Juliet (Sue Wang) to his new place, pretending to be running away from goons. Sam fights them off easily and falls for the pretty girl. She tricks him into helping her robbing a bank and he just manages to escape from chasing cops and heads straight to the wedding of Cody Jack & Hot Tongue. Later he asks the newly married couple of help against the gang lord – Cody Jack & Sam try to crash their office but in typical Cody Jack fashion he bumbles and they barely make it out with the help of Juliet.

However she double crosses them again, leading them to her ‘uncle’ who is in charge of a large bank/ jewellery vault and she robs them leaving Sam & Cody Jack in the lurch again. Sam & Cody Jack run from the chasing cops (not once did Cody think of flashing his badge at them) and though Sam escapes, Cody lands in the police station. Later our 3 heroes are given the go ahead to try and capture the mafia goons with support from the Hong Kong police. After a funny incident in which Cody finds Sam a date, Juliet reconciles with Sam and promises to be truthful with him. Sam makes Cody pretend that the girl is Cody’s date instead, which is seen & overheard by Big Wang and the snitch calls Hot Tongue, who proceeds to hit Cody with a baseball bat and the detective literally lands his face in a bowl of soup. Later Sam & Juliet attempt to get the warring couple back together at a Valentine’s day party in a club. When Hot Tongue is propositioned by a man in the club, a huge fight ensues with Sam, Cody Jack & Hot Tongue beating off a bunch of guys.

Later they set out on their mission; Cody Jack & Sam meet with the ganglord who sets bombs with timers on each of them and tells them to meet up with Filthy Harry in an enclosed barge. Inside the barge they are attacked by a huge robot –  but this time Sam is prepared. He has his “magic box” which contains a set of smaller robots armed with missiles and lasers and they destroy the larger robot. After the come out they find that the ganglord has been captured and is killed by drowning. The duo then ride off to meet with Hot Tongue who awaits them in a special car fitted with gadgets and missiles and fight off Filthy Harry’s men and destroy them. Later Sam finds that the bomb strapped to him is defective and he removes it easily but Cody Jack is almost out of time. A deranged man claiming to be the FBI cuts the straps and it explodes, saving Cody Jack.

Silly, lots of fun, fast action kung-fu, gadgets & cool stuff and funny. Give it a watch. I give both movies an 8 outta 10!