Rock n' Roll Cop is mainly about "1997" fear in Hong Kong and reflects the society's view toward China and the Chinese at that point in time. This film is very successful in getting its point across by the end of the film.
I am very fortunate (or not depending on how you look at things) to watch Ocean Shores Laserdisc as it is the longest version available yet but the English subtitles have disappeared from the screen more than several times. The subtitles were so-so with occasional translation errors but that does not make the movie unwatchable at all.
Anyway back to the movie. I guess the film is named Rock n' Roll Cop mainly to the leather jacket wearing, guitar playing Antony Wong complete with long hair and the goatie. Wong's character represents the modern and hip Hong Kong Society against the formal suit wearing Chinese cops with their ties and white socks.
The story begins with a murder complete with unnecessary violence which I won't spoil at a rainy night in China. The murderers are real psychopaths and they commit another crime in Hong Kong and Antony Wong is sent to investigate in China in cooperation with Chinese police officers.
What happens afterwards is mainly about the cultural clash between HK cop and Chinese cops. It is obvious that these to are not seeing eye to eye. The Chinese even call him "Honkie"!!! But the best scene in the movie has to be the one that Hsing-kuo Wu plays a song with Pipa (a Chinese music instrument) and Antony Wong plays along with his guitar. That is what I call symbolism!!!
At certain points of the movie it got me really confused as I could not figure out who is from HK who is from China and I found some of the violence very very unnecessary. There was no explanation to why they are doing all this. There are also some subplots that made me wonder if they had contributed to the overall story at all (despite the very good looking singer girl).
After the first hour mark the real action begins and everything finally becomes clear. The shootouts are really fantastic with several martial arts scenes and daring stunts are all there. Any fan of Hong Kong actioner will find a lot to like during the last half an hour of the movie.
Rock n' Roll Cop is great HK actioner with a strong message at the end despite Hong Kong is way past it 1997 takeover
