患难真情

　　功夫小子随师父回日本老家，使得武术进入更深的境界；解决了老师父一段几十年的恩怨；在暴风雨中抢救小孩；发展了一段异国恋情。「小子难缠」原班人马再度合作，比前集更富戏剧性、更感人。全剧的铺叙与发展随著台风的酝酿、来袭，处理得惊心动魄，高潮迭起将武术真义与大无畏精神表现得淋漓尽至！

　　在胡金铨的年表中，《忠烈图》似乎恰成分水岭，此后他对影片中武打场面的经营渐渐递减，开始强调更多形而上的思维。本片描述明朝一群忠义侠士，抵御倭寇入侵的故事，最精彩处在于胡导大量以「棋盘」布阵的创意，藉以比喻敌我双方的对峙。除了徐枫、白鹰等班底，片中还能看到洪金宝、元彪、元华这些后来的武打明星的年轻模样。

　　Having witnessed his junkie father killed Russell Stevens grows up to become a policeman and make a difference. When he is offered an undercover job by Gerald Carver he accepts and begins to build a relationship with David Jason in order to get to the main dealers. However as he is forced to deal drugs and kill to keep his cover he finds the lines between cop and criminal being lost – is he a cop pretending to be a dealer or a dealer pretending to be a cop?
　　Larry (as he was then) Fishburne's first lead role was a typically dark vehicle. The story is the usual one of cop losing himself when undercover, however it manages to be more than that for most of the time. Co-written by Tolkin, who wrote The Player, this naturally has a nice cynical edge to it when it looks at the US's hypocritical approach to drug control and the political links between the street hustlers and the political high rollers who court respectability. The story does eventually settle into a traditional setting but even then it works well as a thriller.
　　The multi-talented Bill Duke directs well with a gritty feel and a few nice touches. However several things are a bit iffy. For most of the film Fishburne's narration/voice over is a bit like a cross between Apocalypse Now and Blade Runner – it comes across as a little too dark and heavy and also explains things like we can't figure it out ourselves. However once you get into the film it's not as big a deal. My main problem lies with the characters.
　　Fishburne is excellent, a real model of underlying anger and violence, Goldblum is good but perhaps a little OTT on the yuppie/violence thing, but there's good support from Smith and Spin City's beautiful (and often underused – but not here) Victoria Dillard. However the two main white characters (Goldblum and Smith) are both smeared with racist insinuations – Smith appears to insult his black officers and doesn't care about the junkies, while Goldblum is fascinated about all things black and talks about them as wild beautiful beasts and loves having sex with "black'. These things aren't a major problem, but with basically only two white characters in it, it's a little worrying that both are given that edge.
　　However these are minor complaints that get lost with a good thriller. Fishburne excels and Duke delivers a story that is a good thriller but also has a jaded, subversive edge.

　　五年前，苏灿全家被杀，苏灿侥幸逃脱，从此隐姓埋名沦为乞丐。五年后，等他带着徒儿再次回到广州之日，广州发生了天翻地覆的变化。烟馆满街，民不聊生，新上任的总督钟懿和广州知府徐友谅面和心不合，父亲曾经的好友赵海已成为当地第一首富，青梅竹马的赵倩也变成了留洋归来的美女。总督上任途中曾遇到刺客，苏乞儿误打误撞卷入其中，遭到广州知府的通缉捉拿。苏乞儿一面应对官府的围追堵截，一面暗中调查杀害全家的凶手，无意间，却发现了洋人的一个惊天秘密。而此时，苏乞儿与赵倩的感情也在日渐复苏。面对家仇、国恨，曾经的青梅竹马，苏乞儿该何去何从？