Rev Officer Tuba

Where's Officer Tuba? (1986)

Director: Philip Chan & Ricky Lau

Cast:

Plot: Police Officer “Tuba” (Sammo Hung) is a timid man who would rather play in the police band than get involved in any real police work. The precincts most decorated officer, Sergeant Chiang (David Chiang), decides to use Tuba in an undercover operation that goes disastrously wrong when Chiang is killed. He makes Tuba promise to get the criminals to avenge him before he dies, and Tuba reluctantly agrees but doesn‘t really intend to keep his promise. Later, teamed with an enthusiastic rookie cop (Jacky Cheung), Tuba has conveniently forgotten his promise, until the ghost of Sergeant Chiang comes back to haunt him. Interfering in his work and his private life, especially his budding romance with the pretty Joanne (Joey Wong) so that everyone starts to think that Tuba is going crazy. With Tuba the only person who can see or hear the ghost, he finds he has to listen and for once in his life and be brave, or he could be tormented by his unwanted spiritual visitor for the rest of his life.

Review: During the late seventies and through the eighties Sammo Hung and his team made a succession of consistently entertaining action comedies. Most on a very low budget but all with a high level of quality. These were either directed or produced by Sammo, and “Where’s Officer Tuba?” was no exception. Produced by Sammo Hung and written by regular scribe Barry Wong, the directing honours on this occasion were shared by Philip Chan and Ricky Lau. Admittedly not the most action packed of movies, the emphasis here is on character and comedy with Sammo giving another memorable comic performance as the shy and extremely timid police officer who seems afraid to get involved in any real police work, instead happy to help people cross roads and play in the precincts band, thus the nickname of “Tuba“. He is manipulated by his friends into being alibis for their marital deceptions, while he has disastrous blind dates trying to find some romance, until one day he meets an attractive young woman and plucks up the courage to ask her out. Tuba as a character develops nicely during the course of the film, going from painfully timid with self doubt to becoming filled with confidence and eventually saving the day and winning the woman, giving us many hilarious moments along the way.

Jacky Cheung in his first major role plays Tuba’s new partner. I can forgive some of his less than funny facial expressions as his obvious inexperience is pretty evident during some of his comedy moments. He does however convince when it comes to the action scenes. Although doubled for the more athletic moments (Almost definitely by Yuen Wah.) he does carry himself well in the fight scenes, looking every bit the tough guy when he needs to be even though he is not a trained martial artist. David Chiang is also a breath of fresh air, firstly playing his role as the no nonsense tough guy while alive, but after his character is gunned down in what turns out to be the most violent moment of the film, he plays his role more for laughs as he torments Tuba to make him avenge his murder. Sharing some of the films funniest moments with Sammo, this is one of my favourite performances from Chiang who is better known for playing it very straight in serious and often violent kung fu action films.

Joey Wong plays Joanne, the love interest in the film, but outside of a few nice moments like when Tuba first plucks up the courage to ask her out, and the scene where she pretends to see the ghost to get Tuba off the hook with her parents she doesn’t have a lot to do, and like quite a few female leads in Hong Kong films from this era she ends up just standing around and looking pretty. One of the comedy highlights for me comes in the middle section of the film when Tuba goes to visit Joanne at her apartment for the first time where he will meet her parents. It turns out that her father, played by Teddy Yip, is in the lift when Chiang as the ghost is making rude noises behind Tuba to cause embarrassment. Unable to see the ghost, Joanne’s father thinks the noises are actually coming from Tuba. This joke of poor first impressions is further enhanced when they meet again at the apartment. Teddy Yip’s comic timing is perfect as the house guest and family go through one embarrassing episode after the other during the meal due to ghost Chiang‘s intervention in things. During this same sequence Tuba inadvertently ends up playing footsie with Joanne‘s mother (Seung Yee). The entire episode comes to an end with Tuba being sent away rather unceremoniously with his budding romance in tatters.

Once again we get a nice selection of cameos to look out for. Stanley Fung is one of Tuba’s friends. Lam Ching Ying and Corey Yuen play two Taoist priests. Fung Lee is an unstable mental patient. John Shum is a photographer and the films co producer Melvin Wong appears as the Chief Of Police. We also have an impressive trio of fighting villains in the form of Chang Yi, Yuen Wah and Hwang Jang Lee for our heroes to deal with. I must confess that the presence of Hwang Jang Lee makes the action something special for me. There is a short bout between David Chaing and Hwang Jang Lee early on, but when Sammo and Lee fight in the finale it is pure class with Hwang Jang Lee very impressive with a wonderful array of spectacular kicks. The wonderful choreography by Sammo Hung has Tuba completely outclassed by his tough opponent until he believes that his ghost friend Chiang has possessed his body giving him supernatural abilities. Jacky Cheung faces off against Chang Yi in the other main fight, throwing everything he has at the man who mercilessly killed Sergeant Chiang, while Yuen Wah, looking strange to me without his usual facial hair, gets disposed of quite easily when he gets knocked out by Cheung.

If you are a Sammo Hung fan just because of his incredible action packed movies this may come as a bit of a disappointment for you, but if like me you appreciate him for his all round talents, especially his versatility as an actor, this is one of his finest comic performances that remains engaging to the point where I personally didn’t even miss the action until I thought about the film afterwards. What action there is manages to impress all the same, and for me just to see Sammo Hung going up against super kicker Hwang Jang Lee is reason enough to wholeheartedly recommend this charming film.

Rating: 4/5

Review by D. M.
Photos by Klara

For bigger photos please click on thumbnails

For more pictures visit the Where's Officer Tuba? Photo Album

"I'd love if the audience remembered me.
Everything about my movies, my characters.
Don't forget me.
I'm happy that you guys don't forget me.
I love you."
(Sammo Hung)