A Queen’s Ransom

Summary

“I see you’re a kung-fu fighter too!”

I was thrilled to see that the UK-based film distributor Eureka Entertainment was partnering with MVD Entertainment to bring their film slate to American audiences. I have purchased my fair share of their output over the years to watch on my region free player, but it will be nice to be able to travel with their films without any worries moving forward. If you have not been acquainted with the label, they have a pretty diverse range of genres they focus on. They are best known for their martial arts releases and their Masters of Cinema series. I have been a fan of the label for years and was happy to see that their first four Region A releases reflected their diverse output. They have released Black Mask starring Jet Li, the silent film The Cat and the Canary, a collection of Japanese films starring Ken Takakura, and the Hong Kong political thriller via martial arts picture A Queen’s Ransom. A Queen’s Ransom was a Golden Harvest Studios production which came on the heels of the successful British film The Day of the Jackal which was based on a very popular novel of the same name by Frederick Forsyth. In that film, an intelligent and deadly hitman plans to assassinate French President Charles de Gaulle. The book and the film are both very well done, and remain classics of the political thriller genre. Golden Harvest wanted to create their own political thriller in Hong Kong, but as one might guess the film also mixes in some martial arts and exploitative elements. 

The filmmakers had learned from The Day of the Jackal that actual footage from a dignitary’s visit could bring lots of production value to their picture, so the choice to focus on a visit from Queen Elisabeth II to Hong Kong made good sense. To bring some star power to the film, aside from the stacked cast of Asian talents which included Jimmy Wang Yu, Angela Mao, Bolo Yeung, and Dean Shek amongst others, the producers also enlisted the talents of one-time James Bond George Lazenby. Lazenby had appeared in The Man from Hong Kong a year before with Jimmy Wang Yu, so this was Golden Harvest’s second attempt to make an international splash by including the actor. I watched the film the other night. The film has a lot going on, so I will try my best to describe it below.

After the end of the Indo-China War in May of 1975, a flood of refugees fled to Hong Kong. Most left behind everything, but some managed to transport their wealth with them. They were easy targets for the city’s criminals. Meanwhile, the police readied for the visit of Queen Elizabeth II. Criminals realized it was time to take action. As the film begins, Police officer Wang Yung meets with his chief. The chief needs him to meet with a call girl named Jenny (Helen Poon.) She might have some information about a possible assassination attempt on the Queen. Jenny explains that she had brought home a Filipino the night before but he had gotten too inebriated to copulate. Looking in his wallet she found a photo of the Queen along with diagrams. The drunken man bragged to her about his sharpshooting proficiency in a drunken rant. George (George Lazenby) arrives at the airport with his girlfriend Black Rose (Judith Brown.) They meet up with Ram (Bolo Yeung) who takes them to their hideout. Apparently the IRA have a plan to kill the Queen by hiring an Indo-Chinese hit squad which includes a guerilla war expert, an American mercenary, a Red Army boxing champion, a sharp shooting champion, a diving champion, and an explosives expert. George had hired all these men to do his bidding. Meanwhile, a group of refugees have smuggled in gold and rented a secluded place in the hills with the Queen of Cambodia (Angela Mao.) When the sharpshooter and Jimmy come to Jenny’s apartment, they offer her $5000 to seduce an Englishman and retrieve the architectural drawings to a tunnel. They plan to explode the tunnel as Queen Elizabeth rides through it. The film continues along this path as the plot thickens and the characters overlap in surprising ways.

A Queen’s Ransom is an interesting curio from the golden age of Hong Kong action films. Directed by Shan-Hsi Ting, the film benefits from cinematography from Ching-Chu Chen whom had worked as cinematographer on both The Big Boss and Fist of Fury. I really enjoyed the way that the film was shot, including lots of very well lensed shots of the pageantry surrounding Queen Elizabeth’s visit to the country. Those shots were obviously stolen by the film crew for their picture, but they look great. I also admired their ingenuity for how those shots were integrated into the picture. I like the idea that Queen Elizabeth II played herself in the film, despite having no idea that she was appearing in the film. Hong Kong films tend to benefit from the extraordinary cityscapes of Hong Kong, and A Queen’s Ransom is certainly a good example of this. 

The film’s script by Shan-Hsi Ting comes together eventually in the final acts, but as a whole I think it tried to do a little too much. While some of the ideas are pretty solid, the film seems to stick two hours of a plot into just over an hour and a half of celluloid. Without trying too hard to follow the plot, which won’t fully come together until the final third anyway, I think many will find the film interesting based simply on some of its exploitative aspects or unintentionally funny moments. For example, for some reason, every picture showing wall calendars in the backgrounds of the film feature women in states of undress. It’s weird and pretty hilarious. There is a truly wacky sex scene with George Lazenby that is as over the top as it is long and uncomfortable for the audience. You won’t be able to forget the scene once you have seen it, no matter how badly you may want to have that memory erased. One of the biggest laughs for me in the film revolves around a long range camera gun that would definitely stick out to anyone who has eyeballs. I laughed every time it showed up onscreen.

As I said already, the script tries to do a little too much. The script does not feel as focused as one might hope and it felt to me as if it jumped around too frequently. The editing of the picture did not help the script because it is a little too abrupt in its transitions. For fans of Golden Harvest films, it will also feel a bit underwhelming to have so few moments of martial arts action given the pedigree of all the stars involved. I mean – the film is packed with some of the best Kong Kong film stars of that time including Angela Mao, Jimmy Wang Yu, Bolo Yeung, Chun-Hsiang Ko, Ni Tien, Lung Chan, and more. The film has moments of hand to hand combat, but has much more gun violence (especially in the finale.) So, this film is a curio that will mainly appeal to those of us that are curious what a Golden Harvest political thriller would look like. Overall, it is far from a perfect film, but I was still interested in it enough to see it through. As a collector of this type of thing, I was happy to check it out.

Video:

In my opinion, the transfer of A Queen’s Ransom looked pretty fantastic. It is worth pointing out that a transfer can really only look as good as the source material, and in the case of A Queen’s Ransom, the source material is very competently shot. Cinematographer Ching-Chu Chen used wide angle and occasionally fisheye lens to fill the screen. Ching-Chu Chen is probably best known for his work with Bruce Lee on The Big Boss and Fists of Fury, Grain is very well resolved. The grain is honestly only apparent in the nighttime sequences, and a good amount of the film takes place in the daytime. Colors pop while still respecting the original color timing of the film, a 4K scan would have probably revealed a bit more detail, but I was very pleased overall with how this transfer turned out. Note: Some reviews I have read were not as impressed as I was, but that is the subjective nature of reviewing titles. 

Audio

Eureka have provided LPCM 2.0 Mono tracks in either English or Mandarin. I watched the film in English, and thought the mix sounded pretty good. Given its a mono track, range is limited, but fans of the picture should be pleased. One aspect of the track I found interesting – there is a musical que stolen from Pink Floyd’s “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” that appears a couple times. I am hoping some other viewers hear the same thing. I love that song and was happy to hear it appropriated.

Supplements:

• Hong Kong Theatrical Version and Export Version are accessible from the Main Menu. They both receive new commentaries.
• Furious George: Training with Michael Worth – Hong Kong action film aficionado and martial artist Michael Worth enthusiastically discusses the film.
• Audio Commentary by Frank Djeng and Michael Worth accompanies the Hong Kong Theatrical Version. 
• Audio Commentary by Mike Leeder and Arne Venema accompanies the Export Version. 
• Trailer

Overall Scores:

Video – 4.25/5 

Audio – 4/5

Supplements – 4/5

Overall – 3.75/5

A Queen’s Ransom is sure to be a curiosity for Hong Kong action fans because it is Golden Harvest Studio’s attempt to craft a Frederick Forsyth style political thriller. While I would argue the final product fails to stick the landing due to a convoluted plot line and abrupt editing, the film still has merit. Film collectors who love Hong Kong cinema from Golden Harvest will find the film extremely interesting to see how they tried their best to adapt to the stylings of The Day of the Jackal. The cinematography by Ching Chu-Chen is fantastic and I was mightily impressed by the stolen shots of the festivities regarding Queen Elisabeth II’s arrival in Hong Kong. The film is best enjoyed for those reasons and to see the ways in which exploitative elements premade the picture, including an excruciatingly long sex scene starring former James Bond George Lazenby. Collectors will be excited that Eureka Films has brought the film to Blu-ray so they can round out their collection of George Lazenby related Hong Kong action films. Eureka has provided good looking transfers with solid audio for both cuts of the film. The supplemental features are enjoyable as well.