Tonal shifts and hard cuts from comedy to extreme violence are often an issue with action films from Hong Kong in the 1980s and early '90s. It often feels like a cultural difference; something unique to this period and region in cinema. The earliest examples of kung fu comedy showcase this to some extent, for example the opening death from Drunken Master which effectively introduces the villain, but is quickly dropped in favour of wacky teenage hi-jinks and disobedience. Later it can be seen in something like Armor of God II: Operation Condor at which point it's evolved into a far more extreme version of this trope. An unarmed group of desert travellers is brutally killed by mercenaries, immediately before a series of juvenile gags involving Jackie Chan and his companions. There are many examples, but in some ways the tonal incongruities from Jet Li's Meltdown (aka High Risk) are amongst the most absurd.
