With a pretty good first movie from 1991 and a less adequately so sequel from 1992, I must admit that I was not particularly thrilled about this third movie in the "Fight Back to School" series from 1993. But with it being a movie that I haven't already seen, and a Hong Kong movie nonetheless, of course I sat down to watch it.
I will say, first and foremost, that "Fight Back to School III" (aka "To hok wai lung III: Lung gwoh gai nin") felt too much like a movie that they shouldn't have made in the franchise, because it just deviated too much from the first two movies. I mean the word "School" is part of the title, but it was not in the movie; officer Star Chow (played by Stephen Chow) wasn't undercover at a school in this movie. So the title felt off.
As for the storyline in "Fight Back to School III", well it was adequate. But the whole no-undercover-action-at-the-school just took away so much enjoyment from the movie, and it made it feel like I was just watching a random Hong Kong comedy from the early 1990s.
What does work out well enough for "Fight Back to School III" from writer and director Jing Wong was the comedy elements to the movie. There was a good amount of funny moments, which I definitely enjoyed, and they sort of made it up for the movie's lack of coherency to the previous two movies.
And it should also be said that the movie having Hong Kong star names as Anita Mui and Anthony Chau-Sang Wong on the cast list definitely spruced up the movie quite a bit. Anita Mui brought her usual charms and Anthony Chau-Sang Wong brought his usual gruffy personality.
"Fight Back to School III" would have fared better if it was a stand-alone movie not associated with the franchise, because the title sort of brought a certain expectation to the movie, and when writer and director Jing Wong failed to deliver on that, it was just a swing and a miss.
While the movie is enjoyable, it has its shortcomings, and my rating of "Fight Back to School III" lands on a mediocre five out of ten stars.
