Blind Cop 2

First things first; there are, of course, blind people working in police departments. Why shouldn’t there be? There are many different kinds of police work and many adjustments that can be made. The officer referred to in this title, however, is a beat cop – with the emphasis on beat.

“You can’t just go around killing people, Blind Cop,” says the chief in what one imagines is one in a long history of office talkings-to.

“They’re not people, Chief. They’re criminals,” comes the reply.

It’s hard to make exploitation cinema that really hits the mark today, when people are much more alert to the real struggles of minorities to achieve fair representation. Is Blind Cop 2 a film which invites us to laugh at the idea of a blind person doing exciting things? Well, yes, but not in the way you might think. It’s very much alert to the way that blind people actually live day to day, neatly weaving it in as background detail, and it’s equally alert to the anti-inclusion backlash out there, with characters who complain that it’s unfair that our hero gets extra attention just because he’s blind. It also plays with the myth of blind people having special powers by combining it with other action hero origin myths and taking it to ridiculous extremes. It’s very much laughing with rather than at - unless you happen to be a certain kind of macho meathead man, in which case you may feel seen.

This more sophisticated approach is betokened at the outset, with a lovely rotated opening shot of an alley which is far more stylish than one expects from this kind of fare. As we watch, a distant figure steps out into it and begins shadow boxing. Director Alec Bonk knows the language of tough guy action films perfectly, and star George Fearing has the physique to make it work. We get a proper introduction when his boot slams down onto the pavement, extinguishing a cigarette dropped by a member of what one might call the Turquoise Hood Gang. The audio tells us that they’re robbing a nearby store, but they’re about to regret it. That, and having ever been born.

Naturally, Blind Cop’s immolate first and ask questions later approach isn’t something he can get away with forever, and it’s not long until he finds himself drinking still more heavily than usual in a local dive bar, having handed in his badge and his gun. There to save him from his largely self-induced misery is wide-eyed blond twentysomething Schmidty (Isaac McKinnon), an orphan who idolises him and dreams of becoming a cop himself someday. It’s a troubled relationship, however, as Blind Cop (who never goes by any other name) is wary of letting himself get close to anyone. He has a tragic backstory linked to a precious photograph which he likes to run his fingers across. That tragedy is about to get worse.

Perhaps inspired by the likes of Hot Fuzz, Bonk takes the latent homoeroticism of the genre and puts it all upfront, unabashed, also serving up a bondage scene of sorts and having our hero spend quite a bit of time running around in his underwear (on the mean streets of the city as well as when training in ‘Nam). The one thing we know he will never take off is his sunglasses. This more explicit approach should not be taken as betokening any gentleness, however. Though he is confronted about the morality of his methods, his right wing ethic of dog eat dog vigilante violence remains in place. It’s in the scenes where he sells it to the naïve and trusting Schmidty that the film will really send a chill through you.

Striking the right balance of discomfiting black humour and straight out nonsensical fun isn’t easy to pull off, and Bonk sometimes spends a little too long at a time on one or the other, but for the most part this works very well. Nicely composed action sequences and clever framing add to the experience. Bonk often puts us in Blind Cop’s shoes by obliging us to work out what’s going on from sound alone before we see it directly. In the process, he reminds us how easy it is to follow the average action film without looking, because we’re all so familiar with how they play out.

Blind Cop 2 recently screened at Fantaspoa 2024, but it definitely has what it takes to sustain a proper cinema release. If you’re hesitant to see it without watching the ‘first’ Blind Cop, you should be aware that Bonk is just finishing production on that now.