Overview: Perhaps even God can’t save the Queen in Golden Harvest’s A Queen’s Ransom (also known as International Assassin), an explosive action-thriller starring George Lazenby (The Man from Hong Kong), Angela Mao (Lady Whirlwind) and the legendary Jimmy Wang Yu (The One-Armed Swordsman).

As Queen Elizabeth II arrives in Hong Kong for a state visit, a band of skilled mercenaries plan her assassination. Contracted by an Irish Republican (Lazenby), the international group of hired killers includes a Japanese explosives expert (Chang Pei-shan), a Thai boxer (Bolo Yeung), a Filipino sniper (Peter Chan Lung) and a veteran of the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam (Wang Yu).

As the conspirators move to carry out their plot, two police officials (Ko Chun-Hsiung and Charles Heung) work with a young socialite (Tanny Tien Ni) in a race against time to save the Monarch’s head - while also trying to manage a crisis that has brought a huge number of refugees to Hong Kong, including a young Cambodian princess (Mao).

Blu-ray Verdict: Long before Jackie Chan took on the IRA in the fantastic action thriller, The Foreigner, his previous workplace had already tackled such a subject with Jimmy Wang Yu, Charles Heung and Angela Mao Ying in the lead.

Golden Harvest was still quite a young studio at the time of this release, with big boss Raymond Chow wanting to reach out to a bigger, more international audience. And what better way to do so than having James Bond himself, George Lazenby, play a Northern Irish republican out to kill the Queen on a visit to Hong Kong in 1975 (an interesting move considering Northern Ireland was at the height of the troubles then!).

Starting with an explanation of the refugee situation in Hong Kong, and on the Queen’s visit, the film moves along at a snails pace like a 60’s spy drama with little excitement but for a quick skirmish between Wang Yu and the great Bolo Yeung, who are on the same side but just don’t like each other.

It takes just over another 20 minutes for the next one, with Wang Yu facing off against a gang of sword wielding guys before getting shot into the water, leaving Bolo to continue with the action.

While the story may be complex, and yet well acted, the film does fail to grip its audience quick enough. But if there is one thing A Queen’s Ransom impresses on, it’s the cast involved (including Queen Elizabeth herself). While it may be long-drawn and slow in comparison to other Wang Yu/Mao Ying team ups, the film still entertains with its veritable who’s-who of Hong Kong faces, as well as (when it gets round to it) the action scenes!

The action is handled by Yasuhiro Shikamura, a veteran of the Hong Kong film industry having worked with Wang Yu on a number of projects, and other hits such as A Killers Romance, God Of Gamblers, Killer Constable, and Jackie Chan’s Magnificent Bodyguards, and while it has its moments here both in martial arts and gun-play, and a great finale, there is certainly nothing spectacular going on.

So, in closing, A Queen’s Ransom is a slow burner, sure, but fairly ambitious for its time, which makes the film an interesting watch; especially now it has been remastered and is out on crystalline Blu-ray now. [M.M.]

Special Features:
1080p HD presentation on Blu-ray of the original Hong Kong theatrical cut from a brand new 2K restoration
1080p HD presentation on Blu-ray of the original English language export cut from a brand new 2K restoration
Original Mandarin and optional classic English dub (Hong Kong theatrical cut)
Classic English dub (Export version)
Optional English subtitles, newly translated for this release
Brand new audio commentary on the Hong Kong theatrical version by Asian film expert Frank Djeng (NY Asian Film Festival)
Brand new audio commentary on the export version by action cinema experts Mike Leeder and Arne Venema
Brand new documentary featurette by martial artist and actor Michael Worth
Reversible sleeve featuring original poster artwork
Trailers

www.eurekavideo.co.uk