BANANA COP

Leong Po-Chick was born in London in 1939. After attending the London Film School, he graduated from Exeter with a B.A. in Philosophy. He worked for the B.B.C. and set up a film unit in Hong Kong. His first feature was “Jumping Ash,” a cops and robbers action flick. BANANA COP is Po-Chick's 7th movie, a comic Chinese version of “48 Hours,” transferred to London. As a ery put-down of Chinese assimilation within Caucasian cultures, the “banana” in the title refers to someone who is “yellow on the outside and white on the inside.” Edward (Lam Tse Cheung) is a British-born Chinese cop investigating the murder of the owners of a gambling club in London's Chinatown. He induces FM (Teddy Robin), a Hong Kong jail convict (who was a friend of the victims) to come to London to aid in the search for the killer. Amid verbal and visual gags, the pair are on a wild Chinatown trail from a strip-tease club to a punk disco before their final confrontation with the killer. BANANA COP affords us a rare glimpse of Chinese humor in this comedy caper – an unusual genre in the export of Hong Kong cinema to this country. -USA Premiere-