Ricky Tan's men are a triads group. The gang is led by Hu Li, the personal henchwoman of Ricky Tan. According to Lee, they are the most deadly gang in China.
They are the tertiary antagonists of Rush Hour 2 and are all portrayed by Jackie Chan's stunt team.
History[]
Background[]
Hong Kong Police Force Officer Ricky Tan and his partner who was Lee's father were working on an international smuggling case involving a counterfeit money operation. Lee father's soon discovered that his partner was a dirty cop working for the Triads. Just as he would deliver the information to his superior, Tan confronted Lee's father at gunpoint. When Lee's father begged him to promise not to kill his son, Tan snapped and shot Lee's father dead. The evidence disappeared, the case was never solved and Tan resigned from the police force. He continued to work for the triads even after resigning from the force.
Rush Hour 2[]
Five years later, Tan started another crime wave with the triads and became their leader alongside his henchwoman Hu Li. He had hired her to kill two U.S. Customs agents (who were impersonating themselves as American translators) trying to investigate them. Hu Li followed the plan and went to the American Embassy delivering them a bomb disguised as a package. Soon after the building exploded killing the two agents.
Later at the gangster bar while Lee and Carter are searching for Ricky Tan. Hu Li appears through the curtains and Lee spots her. When Lee attempts to pursue her she and the Triads flee through the city as Lee gives chase and Carter follows. The chase leads all the way to a bamboo building in the marketplace of Hong Kong. As Lee pursues them all the way to the top of the building he fights several of the henchman knocking them off the building one by one. Once Lee reaches the top, Hu Li attacks him with a bamboo stick and knocks him off the building. As she prepares to finish him off she hears noises coming from the doors and flees as soon as Carter arrives. He attempts to rescue Lee, but she sneaks up behind him and as Lee tries to warn him about Hu Li being right behind him, she knocks him off the building with the bamboo stick, leaving the two cops hanging from the building while she flees again.
At the Heaven On Earth massage parlor, Ricky Tan sits down on a recliner after he emerged from the spa room. Carter tells Lee they should go and arrest him but Lee warns him not to because he is very dangerous. Lee goes to call for back up and Carter decides to confront Tan himself. He walks over to him and demands that he get up but when Tan tells him that he's busy as of the moment, Carter jokingly says that he's busy too and again tells him to get on his feet. Tan recognizes Carter and says he knows that he is Lee's American friend. Carter once again makes another joke and again tells him to get up. Tan laughs and says that Americans are so funny. Angry Carter takes Tan's laptop and throws it on the ground smashing it into pieces. Tan's bodyguards stand up but Tan orders them to settle down. Lee comes out witnessing the fiasco and tries to stop Carter from confronting Tan. Tan is happy to see Lee again but Lee explains to him about the deaths of the two Americans from the embassy explosion and asks him to come down to the police station. Tan tells Lee if he has anymore questions he should ask him here. Lee makes a move with his mouth and Carter mistakenly thought that Lee was telling him to confront Tan even more. He grabs Tan by the collar of his robe causing the bodyguards to stand up and confront him. Carter apologizes for breaking his laptop and offers to pay for him and get him a new one. Tan tells him that he must excuse himself and tells Lee to have a good day. He then immediately leaves leaving his bodyguards to confront Lee and Carter. This breaks into a large brawl which ends with the two as victors. They later dump Lee and Carter off on the freeway after capturing them from the massage parlor and stripping them of their clothes.
Hu Li later goes into the Yau Ma Tei Police Station disguised as a delivery woman again and walks towards Lee's office. Carter comes out and flirts with her not knowing that she is the same woman who knocked him off the bamboo building the night before. When he blows a kiss to her, she shuts the door, leaving him dumbfounded. After Carter leaves the police station Lee returns to his office after speaking with Sterling and his boss Captain Chin. Soon after his office explodes frightening all of the police officers present. Ricky Tan might have sent Hu Li to kill Lee at the police station. Lee survived the explosion and became horrified when saw his office on fire and thought Carter was killed in it.
When Lee was mourning Carter, his boss asked him if he's okay and he said that "all he wanted was some mu shu".
Later Tan holds a dinner party on his yacht in the middle of Hong Kong harbor. Carter makes it to Tan's boat before Lee does but when they are able to catch up with each other (revealing to Lee that Carter was still alive) the Triads tell the cops that Tan is waiting for them. On their way to the main deck Lee reveals to Carter that Tan was his father's partner. Meanwhile Tan reprimands Hu Li for disappointing him and asks her if she has forgotten where she is from. Then tells her not to forget who she works for. As he asks her if she sure she will think she can be a leader, Lee and Carter arrive to confront Tan. Tan dismisses Hu Li and tells Lee to have Carter wait inside. Carter refuses but Lee tells him that he will be fine. Carter reluctantly leaves. Tan tells Lee that he never blew up the embassy but he believes some of his people did and that he is being framed. He is caught up in a war within the Triads and is afraid he is going to lose this time. He says to Lee that if his father was still alive he would have turned to him for advice but Lee warns him to never speak of his father. Tan asks Lee for help as he cannot trust anybody. When Lee interrogates him on why they killed the customs agents. Tan tells Lee that he will give him all the information he needs but he has to get him out of Hong Kong right away. Suddenly Hu Li and some henchman interrupt the meeting but when Tan reprimands her again she responds by shooting him in the chest and he suddenly falls of the boat. Hu Li then leaves her henchman to deal with Lee who defeats them before chasing after Hu Li as she escapes off the boat.
At the Reign Plaza Bank in Los Angeles as Lee and Carter are giving chase to a worker named Zing it is revealed that the triads were waiting for them the whole time. While the cops are being held at gun point by the henchman, Hu Li tells Lee that she'll be remembered for getting rid of him. When Carter attempts to lie she sees through it and pulls a gun on him forcing him to apologize. She prepares to kill them both but Isabella Molina a crooked Customs agent (who is revealed to be an undercover Secret Service agent) steps in and says "I think there is someone who would like to talk to them first". Hu Li lowers her gun as Isabella sneaks up behind Lee and knocks him unconscious with her gun. Carter confronts her as she aims her gun at him but Hu Li kicks him in the chin knocking out his filling. When he tells her that its gonna cost her, she slaps his face and he retaliates by saying that he never hit a woman in his life but she is pushing it. Angered Hu Li orders her henchman to take the unconscious Lee to the truck and hold Carter. As Carter is being held at gun point and being forced to go to the truck he stops by and tells her "you better watch you're back!" Infuriated she knocks Carter unconscious again and orders her henchman to carry him to the truck as well.
As they depart for Las Vegas, Hu Li is shown riding in a limousine with her bodyguard and Isabella. While carving an apple she is upset claiming that she doesn't trust Isabella and that it was a mistake having her there. Her bodyguard tells her that their orders are to leave her alone. Isabella looks up at Hu Li and smiles. She smiles back and tells her bodyguard, "i Want to slice those pretty lips off her face and bury her in the desert with those two cops".
She gives the apple to Isabella and asks "Some apple?" Isabella takes it and says "Id put that knife away, bitch, before you have an accident". In retaliation Hu Li throws the knife and it strikes the apple just before Isabella was about to eat it.
At the Red Dragon Casino, Lee, at Isabella's request, goes to infiltrate the back area to find the engraving plates which were used to make the counterfeit money scam. Lee is spotted by the guards through the security cameras and after fighting them he attempts to escape but is captured by Hu Li and another of Ricky Tan's henchman. While the guards are holding Lee down she sticks a Ying Tao Grenade and puts it in Lee's mouth, her henchman gags and tapes his mouth and hands as she tells him to follow her or she'll push the detonator and blow 32 teeth in his brain. She takes up to the top floor of the casino where Isabella is waiting along with a still alive Ricky Tan revealing that he has faked his death and as Lee suspected is in charge of the operation. Hu Li points out to her boss that Steven Reign (who is also an associate of the triads) is headed for the penthouse to get the plates. He then tells Lee that he is planning to get rid of Carter and that the trouble with partners is they die "as will he". Before he leaves he tells Hu Li to "have fun".
Hu Li approaches Lee and tells him that after she's through with him he'll be begging her to push the button on the detonator. Isabella then takes out a gun from under the table, reveals herself as a U.S. Secret Service agent and attempts to arrest Hu Li, before she would press the detonator Lee kicks it out of her hand and a fight ensues. After subduing Isabella by knocking her out with a kick, Hu Li sees Lee subdue the henchman and attempts to kill him by going for the detonator but Lee stops her by holding her close to his gagged mouth intending to kill them both. She kicks him in the groin area and he stops her by holding her until she breaks free and kicks him out of a window where he falls out on to the casino floor still gagged and taped. Isabella regains consciousness and sweeps Hu Li's detonator out on to the casino floor, where Lee spots it and chases after it to prevent his own death.
Isabella regains her gun, but Hu Li attempts to steal it from her. While they are both fighting over it the gun goes off firing shots all over the office which causes everyone in the casino to flee. Isabella and Hu Li keep fighting over the gun until Hu Li pushes Isabella off and shoots her in the arm. She attempts to shoot her again but the gun is out so she escapes by jumping out onto the casino floor. Hu Li attempts to find her detonator and she soon sees it sweep out from under her while the people were panicking and running from the casino. She sees Lee and Carter together as Carter starts pulling the tape off of Lee's mouth. With a sly smile Hu Li finds her detonator trying to kill them both but Lee managed to spit the grenade out and it lands on a roulette table. Hu Li pushes the button on her detonator and the table explodes forcing Lee and Carter to duck for cover.
After Lee frees himself he tells Carter that Ricky Tan is alive, they attempt to head to the penthouse but a furious Hu Li throws a harpoon at them. Lee attempts stop her but Carter tells him to go after Tan while he deals with Hu Li. Carter taunts her by challenging her and saying that he's going to pretend that she's a man. Hu Li takes a sword from a statue and attacks Carter. While they fight Carter grabs her and sniffs her while going "mmm you smell good" She does a high kick to his face and chases after him with the sword. He uses a roulette from the casino table to block Hu Li's attacks and even use a chair. He grabs her sword but she grabs another one off a statue and nearly stabs Carter in the chest with it. She thrusts in the blade again but it seems to not be working so she kicks Carter and he falls back into a statue which causes a spear to fling up and seemly impale her in the chest knocking her unconscious and making her appear dead. It is revealed that she was only thrusting a stack of money into the left pocket of Carter's suit, which makes him feel relieved and joyful. He then looks down on the unconscious Hu Li and tells her that they could've been a good couple, but she was crazy.
At the penthouse as Reign opens the safe and takes the plates he runs into Tan just as he was about to leave. Reign tells him he is cutting their deal short as is keeping the plates. Tan then kills Reign by stabbing him in the stomach with a knife after mocking him for the moral of his story about the dragon and the treasure and claims that it came from a fortune cookie. Lee arrives and confronts Tan demanding the plates and tells him that his crime is over. Tan offers to help Lee gamble instead of bringing him to justice warning not to make the same mistake his father had done. Tan tries to attack Lee but Lee grabs Reigns gun shoving him against the wall and holding him at gunpoint. Carter appears during the confrontation and a struggle ensues as Tan tries to break free. Lee accidentally kills Ricky Tan by kicking him through a window where he fell to his death outside. Hu Li enters the room with a time bomb and threatens Lee and Carter but the two escape out the window and leave her to die in the explosion by her own bomb.
Trivia[]
- It is unknown what happen to the rest of Ricky Tan's men after Tan's death. Presumably two of the henchmen that Lee fought in the control room might have been arrested by police after Lee knocked them both out during the fight.
- Most of the actors who played Ricky Tan's men also played Juntao's men in Rush Hour.
- Despite the Triads being a Chinese crime syndicate, they are the only Triad faction in the series to actually have a Chinese leader as Juntao, the Triad leader from the first movie is Caucasian and Kenji, the Triad leader from the third movie is Japanese.