IN THE LINE OF DUTY V: MIDDLE MAN (1990) is a lesser entry in the renowned series of policewomen-guns-and-kung fu films of 1985-90. It's got only one major fighting star (Cynthia Khan), not the two or three that the other films had (most notably YES MADAM, aka IN THE LINE OF DUTY 2, which starred a young Michelle Yeoh and Cynthia Rothrock) and the villains aren't terribly formidable. The plot is even less consequential than those in the earlier films and has to do with someone stealing U.S. military secrets and selling them to foreign buyers. The male lead is David (David Wu), a Chinese-American serviceman who gets implicated in the plot. He turns for help to his cousin, Inspector Yang (Cynthia Khan) of the Hong Kong Police. The CIA is involved at various points. For some reason the action shifts to Korea late in the film where a Hong Kong crime boss involved in the plot, "Godfather" (Lo Lieh), is residing.
There are lots of Caucasians in the film including blonde Australian fighting femme Kim Maree Penn, who works for the bad guys and fights Cynthia in the film's final battle in a room filled with cases made of easily breakable glass. In the Cantonese-language version, viewed for this review, lots of English is spoken, although David, ostensibly an American soldier, rarely speaks it. Amazingly, Cynthia and David encounter enough Cantonese speakers in Korea to find their way around the place.
The good news is there are lots of fights in all kinds of interesting urban spaces and locations and Cynthia gets to engage in a lot of stunt-filled action--from kung fu to shootouts to foot chases to leaps onto speeding vehicles and from rooftop to rooftop. There's never a dull moment for her and she delivers the goods. Still, the fight choreography is never as inspired as in the four earlier IN THE LINE OF DUTY films (which had directors like Corey Yuen and Yuen Wo Ping). And there's a lack of recognizable villains. The one fighting villain familiar to HK fans is Billy Chow, who has one major house-wrecking fight with Cynthia. Kung fu vet Lo Lieh is also on hand but plays an old man and hardly fights. Another action film with Cynthia Khan, QUEEN'S HIGH (1991), is sometimes misidentified as IN THE LINE OF DUTY 5.
