Queen’s High sometimes absurdly goes by the title In the Line of Duty: The Beginning, even though it is one of the few films in which Cynthia Khan doesn’t play a cop. One of only five – mostly little-known – films directed by unsung action director Chris Lee Kin Sang (who choreographed the first-rate fights in films such as In the Line of Duty 3 or Ringo Lam’s masterpiece Burning Paradise), it is the simple story of a woman (Khan) whose father – a prominent mobster – is assassinated by a rival gang. Not long after, her family is targeted on her own wedding day, resulting in the death of her husband (Cha Chuen Yee) and her brother (Simon Yam). Thus she has no choice but to take over the family business, and bloody revenge is on the agenda. Queen’s High takes its sweet time getting started, with a good thirty minutes of uninvolving mafia talks – which is probably why the film starts with a narrative prolepsis of the tragic wedding. Yet this talky first third ensures that, by the time all hell breaks loose, we’re well-acquainted with the characters, which don’t have much depth but are played by a likable ensemble, including a particularly dashing Simon Yam. Then comes the wedding day attack, a shocking and riveting set piece that only occasionally dips into silliness, and ups the film’s intensity by quite a few notches. From then on, the steady stream of retribution makes for a rather gripping watch: Chris Lee directs with style, favoring Peckinpah slow-motion, capturing the statuesque and charismatic Cynthia Khan like an angry empress, and orchestrating gorgeously brutal fights in which one can witness the birth of Nick Li Chung Chi’s trademark fluid yet gritty, almost cyclical ballet of kicks. The warehouse finale is one of the best in an era when warehouse finales were as common as sky beam finales have been in 2010s Hollywood blockbusters. ***