Blu-ray Review: THE DOUBLE CROSSERS

 by Anthony King

Who knew revenge could be so... boring?

A movie so aptly titled doesn't dare hide behind its name. To double cross means to go back on one's word, to betray, to swindle. “From the director of King Boxer... starring... the legendary Sammo Hung.” While the action in The Double Crossers (1976) is fun, it's not as packed as one would hope for a Hong Kong action film from the 1970s, nor does it star Sammo Hung (he's cast as “Thug” on the call sheet). I was ultimately disappointed in this release from Eureka.

The Double Crossers stars South Korean actor Shin Il-ryong as Detective Lung on a quest to discover who murdered his father and avenge his death. The film wastes no time – sometimes to its detriment – in getting to the story. It opens in Singapore with two men breaking into Lung's father's place and killing him, immediately followed by Lung standing over the chalk outline of his father as we listen to a narration explaining what his father was up to. Lung follows the men who murdered his father down an alley and watches them get beat up by a man who turns out to be Lung's father's former partner. Are you keeping up? Because I could barely follow what happened. The partner, Chang, explains that violent criminal and businessman, Wang, is responsible for Lung's father's death. Lung resigns from the police force in order to partner with Chang to travel all over Southeast Asia, setting up business deals, developing relationships with countless suspicious characters, drilling for oil, getting involved with sex workers in Hong Kong, and getting in the occasional fight. We're finally led to Bali, then back to Hong Kong in an ending that seemed to drag on forever.

Because Shin starred in the Bruce Leung vehicle The Dragon Lives Again (1977), and because The Double Crossers was filmed a couple years after Bruce Lee's death, this could be considered a Brucesploitation film. The difference between this movie and cheaper, more exploitative, and sometimes worse Brucesploitation movies is that The Double Crossers spends far too much time with Lung and his hooker (ahem, sex worker) girlfriend. We don't come to East Asian exploitation movies for romance, unless we're watching Pinky films from Japan (and with those it's not romance, it's sex). The Double Crossers doesn't even show nudity (unless it happened briefly, but since I was bored out of my skull most of the time I could've easily missed it).

When it comes to exploitation fare of the 1970s, we don't come in search of plot. What story there is needs to be dictionary paper thin and fluttering in the wind. We come for the violence, the breasts, the car chases, the rubber monsters, the fight choreography, despicable baddies, and the breasts. In The Double Crossers, Lung simply wants to kill the man responsible for the death of his father. When he teams up with Chang, Lung (and the viewer) falls victim to another double cross: a convoluted setup involving tapping previously tapped oil pipelines to lure Wang out of the country. By the time we get to the first meeting of good vs. evil, I had lost all interest. Like Lung in the film, I was getting fed up with Chang's shit. Just get to the killing! It all seemed like nonsense to pad out the story, and it very could have been. Golden Harvest could very well have looked at a log line and said, “Yes! Go! Make!” without a script to shoot, because that's what The Double Crossers felt like.

Eureka's Blu-ray release comes with two cuts of the film, both of which solve none of these problems. Both cuts are 1080p HD presentations from brand new 2K scans, the first being the original Hong Kong theatrical cut, the second an English language export cut. With the Hong Kong cut we get an excellent commentary from East Asian film historian Frank Djeng, whose commentaries never disappoint. The export cut comes with a commentary by Hong Kong cinema historians Mike Leeder and Arne Venema, both of whom add great and entertaining insight to a film that desperately needs... something. If I ever revisit this film for the (gulp) fourth time, I'll do it again with either one of these commentaries. I hate to be so rough on a film, especially for a Blu-ray review. But The Double Crossers is essentially boring and forgettable, and only for those on a deep dive through Hong Kong cinema.

Bonus features
Limited edition O-Card slipcase featuring new artwork by Darren Wheeling
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 East 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
Reversible sleeve featuring original poster artwork
Trailer
A limited edition collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by James Oliver
Blu-ray release date: July 23, 2024
99 minutes / 97 minutes / 1976
2.39:1 (1080p)
LPCM Audio (Mandarin, English)
Subtitles: English (SDH)
Region: A