This set is great! I've been hoping for a restored release of the Sister Street Fighter films ever since Optimum released Sonny Chiba's Street Fighter trilogy in the UK. Sadly no UK release has been forthcoming, but this Brentwood set's very reasonably priced and well-restored.

Chiba himself makes an appearance in the first film, although not as Takuma Tsurugi (from his Street Fighter films). The action choreography's similar, as are several cast members (Masashi Ishibashi, from the first two Street Fighter films, appears in at least the first two Sister films, if not the third as well), but the first three Sister films are a hell of a lot more wild and wacky.

The villains are pretty much all dressed in bizarre costumes, and carry traditional weapons at all times. Never ask why no-one carries a gun - it's like asking why Bond villains don't just shoot Bond in the head when they capture him. I can only imagine the glee the costume department took when they set to work.

The great Yasuaki Kurata co-stars in the second and third films (as different characters), which is reason enough to watch them anyway. I've a feeling Japanese action cinema at the time had an even smaller talent pool to play with than Hong Kong, given you see several actors appear in more than one film, yet playing someone else each time.

The first three films follow fairly similar stories, but all are fun, if a little sadistic at times. The fourth film, Fifth Level Fist, is a bit different however.

Fifth Level Fist is a sequel in name only, with Etsuko Shihomi playing a completely different character here. There's a disappointing lack of crazy villains here, but there's a few Western actors involved, who appear to be speaking Japanese, rather than being dubbed, like they would have been in Hong Kong. I was rather impressed with the rather open treatment the film-makers gave the racist abuse two of the characters suffered in their youth. It's not something you expect in a Martial Arts film, and was handled very well.

I doubt I've covered why I actually recommend these films with the above meandering waffle. Basically, you get a very pretty leading lady who kicks major-league ass, crazy henchmen, a few naked ladies, Sonny Chiba, and Yasuaki Kurata. You also get Etsuko Shihomi displaying some rather fine nunchaku technique as well.

Perhaps I've been spoilt by films along the way (Lau Kar-leung's Shaw Brothers directorial outings, and much of the Hong kong Legends series), but I didn't get much out of King Boxer choreography-wise. It seemed very much in the pre-Bruce Lee "Windmill Fist" vein, and it seemed to be running in slow motion at times.

In saying that, Lo Lieh made a good, intense hero, a role (like the great Hwang Jang Lee) he didn't get to play too often. Also, the crimson Shaw blood remains a favourite effect of mine, even after working my way through my beloved grubby Italian splatter-fests, George Romero and David Cronenberg films, and Ichi the Killer.

Looking at the story, King Boxer does have nice sub-plots, even if the characters never really develop. However, like I mentioned at the start, I've seen a lot better films since this was released, with Sammo and Lau Kar-leung primarily responsible for some of my favourites (ie The Victim, The Prodigal Son, Heroes of the East and The Eight Diagram Pole Fighter). It may be unfair to compare true "old-school" films with more modern pieces (even if only ten years separates them) but, unfortunately, that is what is going to happen, especially with Celestial reissuing about 75% of the Shaw Brothers catalogue.

Personally, King Boxer is a film I bought due to it's fame as the film that broke Chinese Martial Arts movies in the USA (under the name Five Fingers of Death). For that reason alone, it's one to own.

Oh, and it's still better than many, far more recent, American Martial Arts movies.

Where do I start? The misogyny? The homophobia? The wasting of Chiu Man Cheuk? Being a Wong Jing production? The completely ludicrous revenge storyline?

Whilst I'll admit that Wong Jing has come out with a few good films over the years (he's made so many that the law of averages says some of them must be watchable) this certainly isn't one of them. Whilst he isn't the director, his hallmarks are all over this film. Misogyny far beyond any of Sammo' films, a man who kills women seemingly solely because he's gay, and the wasting of a gifted martial arts star.

One thing I didn't work out is that, if the killer murdered one of the characters because he loved Chiu Man Cheuk, how does that explain the earlier victims?

I remember Bey Logan saying that this was one of the worst films he'd seen to come out of Hong Kong. He wasn't exaggerating. Avoid it like the plague.

The choreography is stunning, especially the duel between the masters and Leung Kar-yan. For a man whose only real training came when he decided to work in films, Leung Kar-yan has superb control. How they didn't kill each other amazes me.

I have to admit, I though Dean Shek was hilarious as Master Rocking. He was a bit too strange in Warriors Two, but here he's just right. Funnily enough, before seeing any of the HKL series, I was unaware that Dean Shek had done roles like this. I'd only seen him in A Better Tomorrow II, where he'd done a rather good dramatic turn. I digress...

Anyway, this film is one of the finest Hong Kong martial arts films of all time. I still prefer 8 Diagram Pole Fighter for weapons scenes, but this comes very close to that.

Having watched the UK release of this film, I can safely say I wish I hadn't bothered. It's terrible. It's a poor knock-off of Eddie Murphy's almost as bad "The Golden Child", with little in the way of decent action.

Lam Ching Ying's hardly in it, one of the people who's meant to be a good guy is a child-abusing teacher with a gambling problem (only in Hong Kong...), and Conan Lee doesn't get to do much apart from pratfalls until the end sequence. Cynthia Rothrock does her best, but she's never been able to act, and doesn't look anywhere near as good as in "Yes Madam".

The English dubbing is atrocious. No attempt whatsoever has been made to lip-sync the dialogue, the result being that everyone's finished speaking before their mouths stop moving. The western actors don't have their own voices, but their lines seem pretty much the same, only a second or two out of sync. Ridiculous.

Don't waste your time with this film.

Tiger Killer is a simmering drama (with some kung fu - it does star Ti Lung, after all) where Ti Lung is forced to escape to the country after killing some local bullies. His elder brother, played by Ku Feng, takes the blame, despite being of somewhat diminutive stature and a local figure of ridicule. Whilst away, Ti Lung gains fame after killing a tiger - a somewhat disturbing mix of Ti Lung vs man-in-suit and stuntman vs tiger. Upon his return, he finds his brother married to Wang Ping, a girl with a wandering eye.

Employed now as Assistant Chief Constable, Ti Lung is forced to go away to the capital as part of his duties. His brother promises to wait for him but, on his return, there is no sign of Ku Feng...

Ku Feng and Wang Ping both won Golden Horse awards for their roles (Best Supporting Actor and Best Actress respectively), with Ti Lung unfairly missing out, as his performance is superb.

Only three real action scenes in this, with one of these being against a tiger, so not really one for people only wanting kung fu scenes. This is a very well-acted drama, with a couple of fight scenes added for good measure.

This is in Mandarin with imbedded subtitles, despite the box saying it's the English version. The bonus fight's very silly, and seems to star the Shaolin hero from this film.

To be honest, this film really isn't very good. The film seems very disjointed, like someone cut chunks out at random. Our bald hero seems to become a great kung fu expert despite the training consisting of swinging on some ropes and doing a few flips. If that's all it takes, I'm off to become one as well.

Characters seem to disappear then reappear with mention, and the end fight has the three combatants jump into a hallway, then mysteriously cuts to them, in the woods, with the villain up a tree!

A very silly part of the end fight is the obligatory drunken monk bizarrely being allowed to give the Shaolin hero alcohol to allow him to use his drunken pole fighting. WTF? What self-repecting villain would stand there and allow this? He could have at least have been knocked down and struggling to get back up.

Going back to the drunken pole fighting, this is actually rather good. Quite possibly the only reason to watch the film. The rest of the choreography's good, but nothing special.

I never have been able to discover who Jacky Lee is, or why he's mentioned on the casing as cameoing. I presume he's the random stranger that turns up at the temple looking for a fight, leading to a fight with our Shaolin hero. Never heard of him outside of this film.

Great performances, especially from David Hess, and a plot lifted from Ingmar Bergman ("The Virgin Spring") keep this disturbing film from descending into the downright nastiness that Italian directors like Ruggero Deodato (see "House By the Edge of the Park" - but not the UK release, as 12 minutes have been censored - you probably won't understand why it's notorious if you see the cut version) happily made their own in imitating this film.

Admittedly the ending doesn't ring true, but this doesn't really tarnish the film. Highly recommended, but most definitely NOT one for the easily offended. Quite why people took children to see this in American cinemas in the 70s is beyond me. Were they idiots? This is a perfect example of a film aimed at an adult audience - unlike some of Craven's later work, this doesn't have monsters uttering one-liners, or an attractive cast of TV faces.

As with "El Topo", dwarfs, amputees, tattooed ladies, etc. form part of the cast list, some in major roles, others merely background characters.

The cast are good, especially Jodorowsky's son, Axel, as Fenix, Blanca Guerra as his mother, and Sabrina Dennison as the deaf/mute Alma.

Thanks go to Anchor Bay (again!) for releasing an excellent Jodorowsky DVD. Here's praying his differences with the copyright holders of "El Topo" and "The Holy Mountain" can be resolved. They deserve to be released properly on DVD, especially as the never-prolific Jodorowsky is working on two new films, to be released this year and next, his first releases since 1990's "The Rainbow Thief".

Due to the lack of any subtitling (or even the usually unwelcome English dub) [on the version I watched], I wasn't quite sure why anyone wanted to steal the head of a town's Buddha. This should change with the upcoming international release of Ong Bak. Nevertheless, you can pick up enough to get by on, especially if you're a seasoned martial arts movie fan; the cliches are in place. From the drug-enhanced henchman to the outcast sidekick who eventually mends his ways, all the characters are present from many of the films you've already seen.

However, and this is a big however, the fight scenes are some of the best (if not THE best) I've ever seen. As the late Brandon Lee once mentioned about martial arts films, if you're not going to give us a great story with good acting, at least give us something special in the action department.

Boy, does Ong Bak deliver. Tony Jaa is an absolute physical phenomenon. Inside out somersaults, multiple twists into devastating kicks, huge jumping knees with his legs on fire (think Street Fighter II's Sagat's Tiger Knee with flaming shins), sliding under a car whilst performing splits, and thunderous jumping elbows, to name but a few.

Do yourself a favour and see this in it's entirety, as the international version is sure to be re-edited, be it for violence or because it's "too Asian" or some other lame excuse. The language barrier isn't a problem here. Just sit back and enjoy the ride!

Then, I somehow came across a review on Empire magazine's website about a restored, Japanese language release of the three main Street Fighter films (sadly no Sister Street Fighter, but here's hoping...) and off I went to order them.

Were they what I was expecting? Mainly, yes. I'd heard they were raw and brutal, and I wasn't disappointed. The choreography isn't quite what I expected, but does fit more in with the series' title than lots of vaulting and wirework would have done. You do see a few nice flips from Sonny Chiba, showing off a bit of his previous life as an Olympic-class gymnast.

The Street Fighter itself is brilliant. Best described as mixing Dirty Harry, Get Carter, and Leone's Dollars trilogy, with a seriously pissed Bruce Lee, Chiba presents a true anti-hero in Takuma Tsurugi. A man not beyond selling a girl into slavery for not paying his fee, he nevertheless works to a strict code of honor (if it can be called that). He literally fights his way into protecting a dead industrialist's daughter, simply because his usual Yakuza employers won't pay his fee up front. Brutal choreography abounds, with a stunning X-ray shot of a skull cracking sticking in the mind (pardon the expression...). Watch out for the Zatoichi-alike - he's great! Like Jackie Chan afterwards, Chiba also isn't afraid to take a beating during his scenes. All three films see him taken to the brink of death at various points.

Return of the Street Fighter has a fairly simple story, where Chiba's Tsurugi is ordered to kill the Karate Sensei he befriended in the original film, but ends up on the run, after refusing to do so. One of his pursuers turns out to be an unwelcome returnee from The Street Fighter.

The Street Fighter's Last Revenge is less bloody, but no less watchable. This time, Tsurugi gets involved in a heroin smuggling plot, with an over-zealous cop and Yakuza on his tail. An odd scene shows a telephone operator speaking, but making no sound. Presumably a fault on the original soundtrack, as there no other noticable errors in any of the films. The sound is good, and the picture nicely restored on all three.

In my opinion, the only way to own these films is this set.

Oh, and having Donnie Yen in a film and giving him very little to do action-wise is a sillly move. Quite how that would fit in in a serial killer movie is beyond me, which is quite possibly my point. You see Donnie's name and think some good action is forthcoming. Not here.

The script's rubbish and formulaic (another Wong Jing hallmark...), meaning the actors have very little chance of coming out with any credit at all. The girls are sexy, but I can find sexy girls in most films, and they'll be better films than this one. Well, at least this isn't as bad as "Evil Instinct". And no-one eats a penis, thinking it's a sausage ("Naked Killer", I believe. Wong Jing again...)

Lau Kar-leung himself cameos, as a Drunken Boxing teacher, in a display even better than that of Yuen Siu-tin in Drunken Master. He also doubles for Gordon Liu (certainly looks like him) for some of the flashier three-sectioned staff displays.

All of the fight scenes are great, with Gordon Liu's fights with his wife, Yasuaki Kurata (possibly the only time I'll ever see a Crab-based style), and his three-sectioned staff vs tonfa/nunchaka fight with the Bruce Lee lookalike as standouts.

In closing, ignore the suspect political undertones, and watch for the stunning choreography.

Anyway, the IMDb has this as being directed by Lau Kar-Leung, which I'm also trying to change. I don't think he'd make something quite this bad. The two stars are for the decent end fight, where Cynthia finally squares off against Michiko Nishiwaki. Were it not for that, a single, lonely star [out of 5] would be the maximum I could give it.

Perhaps it was the dubbing, but the jokes in this were awful. Watching one of the supposed detectives (the less ugly one) spend most of his time trying to seduce the sister of the man they're trying to find is somewhat ridiculous. Also, hearing the other detective (the ugly one) call Cynthia "my honey" leaves me in shudders. She's far too lovely for that.

Anyhow, don't bother buying this film, but you could rent it if you can find it. It's worth watching as a reminder of how bad Hong Kong films can be.

Absolutely stunning. Seeing Jet Li move like this without wires and before age and injuries took their toll is jaw-dropping.

Yu Hai is as impressive as he was in Tai Chi Boxer (with Wu Jing), and Lau Kar-leung's direction and choreography are superb. I've never seen the first two Shaolin Temple films and, whilst this is apparently the best, action-wise, I shall have to seek them out now.

Huang Qiu-yan made a good female lead, and it appears that Jet did in fact win her hand in the end, as he married her in real life (from 1987-1990).

What more can you ask for in a film? There's pole fighting, Mantis style kung fu, and the mighty three-sectioned staff.

Unless I'm mistaken, Chi Chuen-Hua (Yu from Fong Sai Yuk II) was one of the henchmen. There was certainly a mean-looking bald guy that closely resembled him in any respect.

Basically, buy this film NOW.