Synopsis: Ray is a Manila cop who travels to Hong Kong on assignment. He searches for his girl friend Lina, and finds her - addicted to drugs. Heung Lan, his ex-partner, is an undercover Hong Kong cop investigating weapons smuggling. She provokes the smugglers by intercepting several shipments in Hong Kong, leading to several good, although brief fights. The drug smuggler kills Lina, and Ray swears vengeance. The head of the gang then returns to the Philippines, and with him, the action shifts back to the Philippines. The lady cop gets more than what she hoped for.

 

Views: Shot between Hong Kong and the Philippines, Power Connection is the typical tale of cops vs drug dealers with our heroes intercepting shipments and deals, while working undercover or just charging into things head first! Directed by the late-great Philip Ko Fei, who also co-stars briefly as an angry bad guy, the film isn't the worst in the world and offers enough fun action scenes to keep fans happy. I've always felt that poor Ko Fei was dealt a bad hand later in life, having already been in the business for 25 years by the time this film came about. Starting his acting career with the Shaw Brothers back in 1970, Ko went onto star in over 250 films throughout his lengthy career before passing in 2017. After spending a good 15 years at Shaw's, he would become even more recognisable to Western fans when he appeared in countless kung fu classics and modern hits like Millionaires Express (1986), Magic Crystal (1986), Eastern Condors (1987), Dragons Forever (1988), Tiger on the Beat (1988) and so much more. While he has been directed for IFD since the early 80s, Philip Ko Fei set out to secure his name as an all-action film director in 1989 with Final Run and Angel's Mission, going onto deliver movie after movie for the next 15 years after that – initially backed by infamous producer/director Godfrey Ho who, incidently, produced and wrote Power Connection. It seemed that Ko would deliver in his new venture with the aforementioned first two, and films like Killer's Romance (1990), The Cyprus Tigers (1990), Fatal Chase (1992) and Hard to Kill (1992), but fans were shocked when he very quickly started to go off the rails with outrageous projects like Ultracop 2000 (1992) and Lethal Panther 2 (1993) among others. Shifting his film productions to the Philippines, Philip Ko Fei would continue to pump out generic and slightly disappointing action flicks in the years that followed – although it's only fair to say that each of them still carried some entertainment value, whether it was intentional or not!

 

Of course, back in 1989, Ko Fei formed a lasting partnership with the lovely and fantastic Yukari Oshima, the Nipponese nutcracker who he first starred alongside in Sammo Hung's Millionaires Express only a few years earlier., and again in Lucky Seven 2 in 1989. So, casting her as a co-star in Final Run and then as the main lead in Angel's Mission, Ko went onto direct and co-star with Yukari in films like Fatal Chase (1992), Hard to Kill (1992), Ultracop 2000 (1992), Lethal Panther 2 (1993), Guardian Angel (1994), Deadly Target (1994), and this – which would be their last together and, honestly, she is absolutely the saving grace of Power Connection. For me, 1995 was when things really started to come to a halt for the femme-fatale genre, where stars like Yukari Oshima, Moon Lee, Cynthia Khan and others, started to see quality projects practically fade from exsistence. With that in mind, Power Connection is probably one of Yukari's last wholly enjoyable pieces; although is never really talked about as much as the other Ko/Oshima projects. She looks great, she fights great, and is worth the price of admission alone. Here, the Osh is backed by a decent Filipino cast, with Jestoni Alacrcon co-starring alongside Yukari as the mullet and moustache wearing cop, we do get to see the likes of Shaw Brothers star Robert Mak and Brit-kicker Mark Houghton pop-up for a bit – each getting their own exciting showdown with our heroine. It was also fun to catch Ko Fei's very own son in the mix, Ko Chun Kit, who had previously made his debut alongside his father and Oshima in the totally insane Ultracop 2000 back in '92. As well as getting in on some action and serving as the assistant director, Jacky Cheung lookalike Chun Kit serves as the comic sidekick of the piece, and was entertaining to watch. Japanese supporting actor, Naganuma Shima, who had starred with Yukari in a number of films leading up to this, appears once again as a throwaway bad guy who also gets to trade blows with her in the grand finale. So yes, although it'll never be on any Hong Kong film fan's top ten list or become a must see movie from this period, Power Connection is still worth a look – if only to see Yukari Oshima kick-ass. Yes, it may have re-edited scenes taken from Lethal Panther (1990) and The Story of the Gun (1991), and is the alternate language version of Once Upon a Time in Manila (1994), but with shoot-outs and fight scenes coming about every few minutes, choreographed by Philip Ko fei and his team, not to mention a decent production value overall, it's definitely a film I'd like to see restored and made available in the near future (which would give me a chance to get rid of this old bootleg VHS from the mid-90s). In fact, a box set featuring all the Philip Ko-directed Yuakri Oshima vehicles would be pretty damn cool!

 

Overall: While hardly original and somewhat of a cut-and-paste movie, Power Connection still entertains and offers some fun action scenes!