| Shadow Cop | |||||||||||||||
| Native Name: |
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| Director: | Albert Lai | ||||||||||||||
| Producer: | Cheung Po-wing Cheung Wai-shing | ||||||||||||||
| Screenplay: | Ella Chan | ||||||||||||||
| Starring: | Waise Lee Carina Lau | ||||||||||||||
| Music: | Johnny Yeung | ||||||||||||||
| Cinematography: | Stephen Poon | ||||||||||||||
| Editing: | Cheng Keung | ||||||||||||||
| Studio: | New Treasurer Film | ||||||||||||||
| Distributor: | Newport Entertainment | ||||||||||||||
| Runtime: | 91 minutes | ||||||||||||||
| Country: | Hong Kong | ||||||||||||||
| Language: | Cantonese | ||||||||||||||
| Gross: | HK$1,060,863 | ||||||||||||||
Shadow Cop is a 1993 Hong Kong action comedy film directed by Albert Lai and starring Waise Lee and Carina Lau.[1] Lee plays a cop who becomes a ghost after being killed in a car wreck and eventually discovers the truth behind his death.
While posing undercover in a drug bust operation in Volvo Club, Anti-Narcotic Unit Sergeant Chiu Kai-hung (Waise Lee) gets drunk to keep his cover. After his superior officer and godfather, Officer Fong (Kenneth Tsang) leads his squad to arrest the drug dealers and collapses on the streets and ends up on the same taxi as a drunk hostess, Witty (Carina Lau), who works in the same nightclub. The taxi drivers carries the two, who have passed out, into Kai-hung's home and bedroom. When they wake up, Witty thinks they had sex and demands HK$2000 from Kai-hung despite knowing he is a cop and takes his television and VCR. In another operation to bust drug lord, Master Tai (Chen Kuan-tai), Kai-hung encounters Witty again, who accidentally blows Kai-hung's cover, and Tai's gang chases and shoots the two before Fong brings his squad to arrest Tai. Witty injures her leg from jumping off a high platform and Kai-hung takes care of her. Some time later, Kai-hung and Witty have become a couple and are co-habiting.
Kai-hung takes part in another operation with his new partner Mang Sam (Ben Lam) to arrest drug dealer Maddie, (Shing Fui-On) at the Containers Terminal, but Maddie's gang shoots at the two. Sam fights Maddie's henchmen while Kai-hung takes the engages in a car chase with Maddie to catch him, but Kai-hung's car was hit by a truck. Kai-hung comes out but his colleagues ignore him, only to see them carry his body out of his car and realizes he has died and became a ghost. When Witty finds out Kai-hung died at the hospital, she breaks down and admits her love for him as his spirit watches behind her. Witty is then harassed by Maddie to give back HK$10 million (prepared by the government for the bust) that Kai-hung snatched from him and she reports it Kai-hung's colleagues, so Sam and Fat (Chung Fat) were assigned to protect her. At the police station, Kai-hung meets another ghost, Ko (David Wu), who was killed by his cheating wife and lover, who teaches Kai-hung to use supernatural powers and informs him in 49 days, he must find a body to reincarnate or he will cease to exist.
Witty and Sam later encounter Maddie and the latter manages to arrest him. However, Fat later finds a suspicious $200 bill in the register of the police station canteen where his wife works. The police accountant announces the HK$10 million has vanished without suspicion but Fat tells Sam what he found and Fat was later pushed into a fire while burning offerings for Kai-hung. Witty is horrified after witnessing it and Sam tries to molest her while comforting her. The next day, Kai-hung follows Sam and discovers the latter the behind his and Fat's death, and Fong was also conspiring with Sam for the HK$10 million.
Kai-hung, who have been trying to get attention, realizes she can talk to Witty's friend, Eva (Angile Leung), who is a spirit channeller and tells her to report to the police, but Sam and Fong stops her. Kai-hung instructs Eva to take the HK$10 million from Sam's locker in a bowling alley and mail it to his own home to give it Witty. Witty then witnesses Sam pushing Fong off the building after a deal gone wrong and once she receives the money, she gives it up to in order to have Sam arrested and avenge Kai-hung who is touched by Witty's action before it was time for him to reincarnate. Some time later, while helping a blind man cross the street, Witty encounters a man who looks exactly like Kai-hung and is thrilled to joy before kissing.
The film grossed HK$1,060,863 at the Hong Kong box office during its theatrical run from 8 to 13 January 1993.
In his book, The Hong Kong Filmography, 1977–1997: A Reference Guide to 1,100 Films Produced by British Hong Kong Studios, John Charles gave the film a s score of 4/10 and states the film's change to supernatural theme midway keeps the film interesting but criticizes the film's attempt at humor.[2]