Two of Hong Kong's best are ready to meet the Philippine's deadliest.
Deadly Target (not to be confused with the Gary Daniels action movie of the same name which came around the same time) is a 1994 action movie and Buddy Cop film co-produced between Hong Kong and the Philippines, directed by Godfrey Ho, starring Yukari Oshima, Sharon Yeung, and Edu "Eddie" Manzano.
Philippine action-icon Manzano plays Eddie, the best officer of Manila's police force. When investigating a Hong Kong gunrunning gang who had infiltrated Manila, he ends up stumbling into two off-duty Hong Kong supercops, Cynthia (Oshima) and Anna (Sharon) who just happens to be enjoying their holiday in the city. Reluctantly forced by their superiors to work together, all three of them eventually learns to form a close bond with each other, just in time for an epic final shootout against the combined weapons smuggling ring from the Hong Kong triads and Philippine mob.
Some scenes that stands out includes Oshima and Sharon beating up a bunch of hooligans with a volleyball, the three main characters dressed up as clowns for some reason, a character Disguised in Drag farting in someone's face, and Edu Manzano's protagonist escaping from a booby-trapped container suspended a hundred feet in mid air using a ridiculous method that would make audiences go, "How Is That Even Possible?" note
It's actually way more fun than it sounds. For real.
Deadly Target contains the following tropes:
- Abandoned Warehouse: The final shootout (some 15 minutes long) takes place in one where Wong and his triads are making a deal with the local crime syndicate, before being busted by the SWAT team led by Eddie, Cynthia and Anna.
- Action Girl: Cynthia Lee (Oshima) and Anna Yeung (Sharon).
- Action Prologue: The movie literally begins with a massive bang with a shootout between the Philipino police and a horde of gunrunners, with the credits being superimposed over the gunfight before Eddie shows up and start killing mooks left and right.
- Adorably Precocious Child: Eddie's little daughter, who spends much of the movie pinning for her father, and finally rejoicing when he gets to see her on her birthday and hugging her father. While he's disguised as a clown, no less...
- Big Brother Bully: In the final shootout, Big Bad Ben Hung doesn't hesitate to use his younger sister and Dark Action Girl partner as bait for Eddie to gun down so that he can take a shot at Eddie. She cursed him in her dying breath for being a terrible brother.
- Boyish Short Hair: Both Cynthia and Anna have this fashion.
- Busman's Holiday: Cynthia and Anna, right smack in the middle of their holiday in Manila, ends up receiving a call from their superior that they are assigned to trace the Hong Kong-based gunrunner, Wong, which had escaped into Manila as well. Which ultimately leads to both ladies meeting Eddie.
- Car Cushion: During one of their fights which leads to a tall balcony, Cynthia took a short cut by jumping all the way down where she lands on a car's hood. Without a scratch.
- Contortionist: Both female leads are shown practicing yoga and capable of twisting their limbs and doing the splits, which turns out to be a Chekhov's Skill which they use to take on Ben's professional Elite Mook fighters in the end.
- Cowboy Cop: Eddie, who doesn't play by the rules, pulls his gun on everything he sees, repeatedly takes names without batting an eye, isn't afraid to rough up his alleged new partners Cynthia and Anna, and is easily the best officer in the Philipine police force.
- Deadly Delivery: One of Ben's attempts to assasinate Eddie have a henchman of his posing as a delivery boy sending a series of parcels to Eddie's house, before grabbing a concealed sword inside the longest parcel and trying to slice up Eddie with it. Eddie managed to kill off the hired killer, and quickly threw one of the parcels out when realizing it hides a Time Bomb.
- Died in Your Arms Tonight: Dik Hung, in Eddie's arms, from being shot by Ben. Resulting in Eddie furiously pumping several more rounds through Ben in rage.
- Disguised in Drag: Dik Hung, during the scene where he bails Eddie out from Ben's mooks, disguises himself as a hooker to lure the guards out. Before beating the snot out of Ben's guards, even knocking one of them out by kicking his high heels through the air into his face.
- Fartillery: Played for laughs, after a fight scene where Dik Hung knocks out a bunch of mooks, the last mook tries getting back on his feet... only for Dik Hung to fart in his face. Said mook quickly goes back to unconsciousness.
- Hero Stole My Bike: Eddie had to steal a car from some unfortunate sod to pursue the Dark Action Girl after she tried to assasinate him. He ends up crashing the vehicle out of an exploding container crate.
- I Have a Family: Eddie, as badass and macho a supercop he is, does have an estranged daughter. Which his mother-in-law forbids him from visiting, due to blaming Eddie over the death of his wife from an assasination attempt meant for him. He's finally granted the right to be with his daughter by the end of the movie.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: For all three leads, but especially supercop Eddie, who can plug shots into mooks while free-falling through the air with a pistol on one hand (the other grabbing on a chain)
- Innocently Insensitive: During the dinner scene, when Anna and Cynthia had to bunk in Eddie's house. Warming up to the ladies, Eddie decides to compliment their cooking.Eddie: "That's a marvellous meal, you ladies sure can cook! It's almost as good as my wife's cooking!"Cynthia: "You have a wife?"Anna: "Pfft, that's funny. What kind of woman would fall for a brute like you anyways? I bet she's probably..."Eddie: (interrupts, solemnly) "My wife is dead."
- Knee-capping: In the aftermath of the docks massacre, Ben subdues the three rival mob bosses by shooting them all in their kneecaps. Before executing them by ordering his men to place exploding gas tanks right next to the crippled bosses, and then shooting the tanks from a distance, blowing them into flaming chunks while alive.
- Leap and Fire: Happens in every shootout.
- Left Stuck After Attack: An Elite Mook tries to perform a swinging kick on Cynthia, only to land his foot into the side windows of a parked car. Unable to pull out in time, he ends up having Cynthia pummel him immediately afterwards.
- More Dakka: In the warehouse climax, Eddie managed to get his hands on a belt-fed heavy machine gun, which allows him to mow down hordes and hordes of mooks, adding several more to his at-that-point already impressive kill-tally.
- Outside Ride: In the opening shootout, Eddie clings onto the back of the gunrunners' fleeing container truck as it drives off, firing away at mooks inside before he lets go. And as he hits the road, he fires a few more shots, resulting in the truck and its explosive contents going KABOOM.
- Papa Wolf: Harm Eddie's little daughter at your own risk. He will stop at nothing for the safety of his little girl, and will absolutely massacre his way through your mooks to get back at you.
- Precision Crash: In the final fight, Cynthia sends a swinging metal frame to collide into a Mook Lieutenant, which sends said mook flying... into a fusebox. For an epic High-Voltage Death scene.
- Redshirt Army: The SWAT team during the final battle against the gunrunners. They killed plenty of mooks, but several of them dies in the process as well, and against named villains like Ben or Wong they died pretty easily too.
- Sad Clown: Invoked in the birthday reunion scene when Eddie, Cynthia and Anna made a surprise visit to Eddie's daughter on her birthday... while dressed as clowns. As the father and daughter embraced each other for the first time in ages, Anna and Cynthia begins getting emotional while still in their clown makeups.
- Two Girls and a Guy: Cynthia, Anna, and Eddie.
- With a Friend and a Stranger: Anna and Cynthia are besties, while Eddie is the random cop they happen to stumble across while on vacation in Manila. Although they later warmed up to him and by the end of the movie considers him a close friend as well.
- Undercover Cop Reveal: Dik Hung, who is introduced as a henchman working for Ben and the gunrunners, reveals that he's actually Eddie's partner in the scene where he busts Eddie out of captivity from Ben's thugs.
- Unwilling Suspension: Eddie, after being captured alive, where he's hoisted by his wrists while being guarded by Wong's thugs. Until Dik Hung arrives to bail him out.
- Vigilante Execution: The final battle originally ends with Eddie arresting Ben and handcuffing him on a set of railings. But Ben managed to pick up a pistol from a dead SWAT officer nearby, and tries shooting Eddie In the Back, only succeeding in shooting Eddie's partner and friend Dik Hung. Eddie, in a rage, decides to just pump Ben with lead right on the spot.
- Walking Swimsuit Scene: On Cynthia and Anna. Naturally they wear these while beating the crap out of a bunch of hooligans at a beach. With a volleyball.
- When You Coming Home, Dad?: A question frequently asked by Eddie's daughter, oblivious to the fact that her grandmother had explicitly forbid Eddie to visit, blaming Eddie for the mother's death. Eddie eventually did visit his daughter, with Cynthia and Anna in tow... all dressed as clowns.Eddie: (in clown get-up) "Hey there, little girl. Why so gloomy? Would you like to make a wish? Maybe I can fulfill it for you..."Eddie's daughter: (unable to recognize her father through all that clown make-up) "I just want my daddy to come home..."Eddie: (removing his clown wig) "Well, your wish is now granted."
- Workout Fanservice: Cynthia and Anna in yoga pants. With a close-up on Cynthia's thighs. Aw yeah.
