The Double-Crossers is the latest Hong Kong action movie from Eureka Entertainment to receive the Blu-ray treatment, offering fans of the genre the chance to discover this lesser known film.
The movie begins with the brutal murder of the father of police officer Lung (Shin Il-ryong), who's found stabbed to death in his shop. Unsure of why anyone would want to kill his father, Lung is shocked when he finds a cassette tape left for him, one in which his father explains why someone would come to kill him. It turns out his father used to be a major criminal before Lung was born, that he and two of his partners were into some very questionable things. Having left his life of crime behind to be a husband and father, he's sure that one of his old partners would one day come for him.
Angered by the news, Lung swears to get revenge against the man who ordered his fathers murder. Lung publicly resigns from the force, but secretly goes undercover as a cop turned criminal, and set out to Hong Kong to take down Wang (Chao Hsiung), his father's former partner and head of a criminal empire. With the help of a smuggler named Chang (Chan Sing), and a young woman that Lung begins to fall for, a plan is formed to bring Wang down for good.
At the time of The Double-Crossers release, 1976, Bruce Lee was a huge cinematic draw, and everyone was trying to cash in on martial arts movies, and was trying to find the next Bruce Lee. It's not too hard to see how The Double-Crossers fits into the 'Bruce-spolitation' mould. Despite this, the film has it's own identity, and very shortly into the movie you begin to forget about the time in which it was made and simply start to enjoy it for what it is; largely due to the film just being a lot of fun.
One of the things that the film has going for it is that it moves at a pretty fast pace, and goes through a number of different plots that could in itself be their own movies. For example, there's a point early in the movie where Lung and Chang rob an armoured car filled with cash from Wang's men, posing as cops to do so, in order to disrupt his operations and get the cash they need to enact their further plans. This could easily have been the main focus of the film, a heist movie where getting the cash was the end goal to bringing Wang down. Instead, it was the warm-up act, the things to get you into the rest of the story, and to showcase our protagonists as competent. The film moves on quickly, but it doesn't feel rushed, none of the plots in The Double-Crossers does. Instead, the film feels well packed, with a number of different plots and characters that all get their chance to shine.
The cast does a great job throughout too, and Shin Il-ryong proves to be very charming in the lead role. He often comes across as quite cold and intense, trying to keep to himself whilst on his quest for revenge, but as the film progresses you see him opening up to more and more people, letting his guard down and finding moments of happiness despite everything that's happening to him. Come the end he's even laughing and joking. I can't help but feel that it's rare to see a revenge movie where the lead isn't just depressed or angry the whole time, and as such Shin Il-ryong absolutely stands out to me here.
The new Blu-ray release features both two versions of the movie (the original Hong Kong release version, and the English language export cut) and brand new audio commentaries for both. Frank Djeng provides the commentary on the Hong Kong version of the film, and anyone who's familiar with the Eureka releases will know to expect the usual insightful and jam packed commentary from Djeng. The other commentary covers the export version, and features mainstays Arne Venema and Mike Leeder, who take on a more relaxed, conversational approach to things. Unfortunately, other than the commentary tracks the release is fairly light, and only offers a trailer to go along with things.
Despite not having many extra features, this new release absolutely offers a lot for fans, with two versions of the movie and two in depth commentary tracks there's a lot here for fans of Hong Kong cinema to sink their teeth into. Whether you're a fan of The Double-Crossers, or this is your first time with the movie, this new release is a great experience.
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