B13: Banlieue 13 (product link) Action/Adventure / Martial Arts Parkour (free running) and Kung Fu together at last...if you don't count most Jackie Chan films. Add in a bit of "Escape From NY" nonsense and you've got a pretty fun ride.
A Brief History Of People's Republic Of China (product link) Documentary / Historical Propaganda history on crack. These rapid-fire reports look like they might have been sandwiched between TV shows. Kind of like Schoolhouse Rock, only with industrial-communist vignettes instead of animated songs about English grammar and US politics.
Operation Scorpio (product link) Martial Arts / Action/Adventure Okay maybe, just maybe, Scorpion Style isn't the most effective martial art ever. It is probably one of the most fun though.
The plot offers tweaks on the themes of "no good deed goes unpunished" and "young pupil seeks master\training."
Kim Won Jin is a blast to watch (even with his "period" hair style). Lau Kar Leung, as always, is fantastic as well. As the callow youth, Chin Kar Lok, does a good job.
Overall it's a stylized, over-the-top, and all-around fun flick!
Bio-Zombie (product link) Dark Comedy / Horror This is a fun zombie comedy. The undead are western-style (non-floating/hopping) corpses. Most of the humor is verbal but comes across well in the translation. The underlying moral is that video-game playing will save us from the apocalypse.
Azumi (product link) Martial Arts / Action/Adventure I remember enjoying this movie. I don't remember anything else about it though, which isn't that good of a sign.
A Better Tomorrow (product link) Action/Adventure / Bullet Ballet Frickin' awesome! You already know that though because you've seen it or read all the other reviews.
The Blade (product link) Swordplay/Sword(s) / Action/Adventure I caught this movie at a Hong Kong film fest in the 90's. I really dug it. I bought the Jimmy Wang Yu "One Armed Swordsman" box set plus "One Armed Boxer" films while searching for the one I'd seen in the theater. I really enjoyed those of course, but still couldn't find Tsui Hark's "One Armed Swordsman." Little did I know it was simply called "The Blade." Thanks HKFlix for helping me find it!
Drunken Monkey (product link) Martial Arts / Action/Adventure Lau Kar Leung and Gordon Liu in a movie called "Drunken Monkey"?! This should be fantastic!
Well, maybe my expectations were too high. Lau Kar Leung and Gordon Liu are both excellent. The younger stars are fine too. The fights are great. The pieces are all great. The sum of the parts, however, seems a bit lacking.
Shaolin Kung Fu Master Collection [8-Disc Set] (product link) Martial Arts / Action/Adventure Shaolin Kung Fu Master Collection is the Instant Old School Library!
I have been burned by kung fu box sets before. Sub-par movies that have been cropped, bad dubs without subs, and really bad transfers.
This set is just the opposite. Great movies that are true classics. Celestial did a fantastic job with the disks too. They clean, clear, and crisp. The colors pop out at you. The audio is good. The subs are fine. Nice packaging and notes.
Home Theater Tune-Up (product link) Instructional All-in-all this is a great value. The actors do a good job of presenting the info needed to calibrate your system. They can be a little grating at times but luckily you can just skip to the tests and tools if you know what you are doing!
The Invincible Kung Fu Guy (product link) Comedy / Martial Arts The Invincible Kung Fu Guy delivers just what it should: The Epic Grandeur of The Martial Arts Masterpiece of All Time. Move over Drunken Master, Fong Sai Yuk, Shaolin Master Killer… Make way for the Invincible Kung Fu Guy!
Dragon Fight (product link) Martial Arts / Action/Adventure Good fights and funny Americans. Plus, it was cool to see young Jet Li and Steven Chow in a movie together (with Dick Wei!).
Drunken Master 2 (product link) Martial Arts / Action/Adventure One of the best action movies of any style or geography. Period.
I saw this in a theater years ago and it blew me away. Whenever I watch it again I am reminded how great it is (even though Jackie is just a -little- too old to be playing Wong Fei Hung at that age).
The Victim [1980] (product link) Martial Arts / Action/Adventure This is a great Sammo flick, but... The Victim's particular mix of comedy, blood, and High Drama (though common in Chinese cinema) left me a bit cold for some reason.
Rumble In Hong Kong (product link) Martial Arts / Action/Adventure I remember finding this years ago when I first started collecting Asian cinema. It shamelessly tried to capitalize on the then recent success of "Rumble In The Bronx".
Before I found HKFlix, I'd just trust what was on the video cover. Do not judge this movie by its cover! Jackie has a bit part as a bad guy's henchman. Buy it only if you just have to complete your Jackie library. That being said, it was fun to see Jackie with a giant mole (usually used in Chinese movies to indicate bad or slimy characters). The rest of the movie was not nearly as cool as Jackie's fake mole.
Chop Socky: Cinema Hong Kong (product link) TV Shows/Movies / Documentary This is an entertaining and informative doc. I learned, among other things, that wuxia is pronounced "woo shaw" (man, have I been saying that wrong for years). It's a bit short, but has nice clips and interviews. The early, early examples of special effects were very cool.
I gave this movie five stars because the rating’s drop-down indicates "loved it!" I did not give “New Legend” five stars for being a cinema masterpiece. Caveats aside, I love this movie. After seeing it in a theater, I found the US version but promptly tossed it when I found a non-edited version with subs.
There were many really fantastic moments. Sure, some are stolen and others are totally whacked out, but that didn't ruin the fun for me. And yes, the acid/venom-space-car reminds me of the retarded "baby" alien in Alien IV in terms of boss-fight-lunacy; but what the hell, it was still fun. Finally, I generally hate kids in action movies (most movies, actually), but this time it worked great. Jet has great father-son chemistry with young Miu Tse (same talented kid from “My Father Is A Hero").
Don't buy this if you don't like:
Jet Li
Wire-Fu
Kung Fu Kids
Fantasy Films
Chicken Butt Jokes
Acid/Venom-Space-Cars
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This review is exactly right: The movie is silly and unbelievable. It is also an awful lot of fun.
Zatoichi [2003] (product link) Drama / Swordplay/Sword(s) This is the first "Zatoichi" film I had seen (so many movies, so little time); so I don't know what Takeshi Kitano did differently from the previous movies. The closest I'd come to "Zatoichi" was "Mr. Magoo" and Rutger Hauer’s "Blind Fury" (a western homage to "Zatoichi"). But I digress… I liked this production. It was quite entertaining. I noticed but didn’t mind the CG touches. The direction, sets/lighting, and casting were all creative. The “grand finale” that others have mentioned was completely unnecessary but didn’t ruin the movie or anything.
Versus (product link) Martial Arts / Horror Kitamura delivers on *almost* all the hype surrounding this low-budget b-movie zombie yakuza samurai prison-escape sci-fi action film.
Twelve Deadly Coins (product link) Martial Arts / Action/Adventure A very enjoyable Shaw wuxia flick. Its plot is a bit of the original "One Armed Swordsman", a bit of "Romeo And Juliet", "The Fugitive" and a train-robbery western with great locations and sets! While there is a revenge element, the plot does not contain any training sequences. I don’t want to ruin the ending, but I will say that it is *not* your usual masters’ battle climax.
About the deadly-coin weapon style: according to the (Celestial) DVD extras, various types of thrown darts were the weapons of choice to protect shipments from bandits. The ability to throw twelve simultaneously with such accuracy would rival any hand gun. I’m not sure I buy that, but it’s still badass.
Frankenstein Conquers The World (product link) Science Fiction / Thriller This is a movie almost as good as its premise. It's Giant-Radioactive-Caveman-Frankenstein-Boy vs. Science vs. The Media vs. the Military vs. Triumph the Insult Dragon.
Lady Kung Fu (product link) Martial Arts / Action/Adventure All-around great! It's fun to compare with Bruce Lee's "Fist Of Fury" (and all the "new" "Fists of Fury" flix for that matter).
Among the other great guest stars, Grand Master Ji Han Jae's demonstration at the start was great.
Contour (product link) Martial Arts / Action/Adventure A very fun flick! Like any low-budget film, it is uneven. So here is my rating's breakdown:
5 Stars for fight choreography and execution (and, really, what's more important). The Stunt People are the real deal.
2 Stars for production values (lights, sound, film, etc.). This category suffers from a low budget with editing the only exception.
3 Stars for Acting and Writing. I wasn't expecting anything in this department but was pleasantly surprised to find intentionally funny jokes and some strong potential in the cast.
So all in all, I give it 4.5 stars. It's certainly worth the money; not only for the film but also to support the people put it together while working day-jobs.
Legend Of A Fighter (product link) Martial Arts / Action/Adventure Highly recommended. It was not what I expecting for a Fok Yun Gap (Huo Yuan Chia) movie. That's the trouble with only knowing history through movies. This isn't Bruce Lee or Jet Li's (or even Donnie Yen) Legend. This is Leung Kar Yan and Yuen Wo Ping's movie and it is excellent all around.
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Totally agree! Leung Kar Yan and the underated Yusuaki Kurate make this a great old school feature.
Yes, Madam! (product link) Martial Arts / Girls With Guns Michelle and Cynthia showcase fantastic fights and the stunts are definitely not for the feint of heart! Easily recommended.
Laser Mission (product link) Action/Adventure / Martial Arts This garners one star for b-movie humor value only. I bought this to have a full set of Brandon Lee DVDs in my collection. This movie makes "Showdown In Little Tokyo" look like a masterpiece of subtlety and skilled filmmaking.
If you watch this, try no to think about how great a career Brandon might have had.
The Stomp Tokyo review examines "Laser Mission" much better than I can, so please read that if you haven't already.
Wow. Wow! I just watched "Martial Angels" and I am speechless. This is a bad movie. The script (if there was one), direction, stunts, cinematography, special effects, and editing were all bad. The video quality (referring to Tai Seng’s US Version 2) looked like an unrestored 1991 film instead of the 2001 film that it is. This shouldn't be surprising, but I was really blown away at how bad it was. Not all girls-with-guns flix are winners, but this makes "Naked Killer" look like "Hard Boiled".
I am so glad I bought this though (and that it was so cheap)! I can't wait to inflict this on my friends! Just think of the drinking games:
Drink when you see insanely bad CG,
Drink when you see thieves crack a safe in a 4-foot-deep pool without coming up for air for five minutes,
Drink when the actresses look hot (strike that, you'll die of alcohol poisoning),
Drink when people and vehicles are drastically under-cranked (in funny key-stone cops’ fast-motion),
Drink when you feel bad about ogling the hot actresses when the masturbating rapist is on screen,
Drink when actresses turn into skinny stunt men,
Drink when dead henchmen come back to life to die in later scenes,
Drink when English is used intermittently by anyone (Drink twice when the subs don’t match the spoken English),
And finally, for the Designated Driver, drink when you see any female nudity.
Nowhere To Hide (product link) Action/Adventure / Crime Ignore the plot (easy to do) and enjoy the visual splendor and creative characters in this excellent film.
Flash Point (product link) Action/Adventure / Martial Arts Based on early reviews, I had lowered expectations going into this sort-of-prequel to "SPL". Thankfully, I was pleasantly surprised. Donnie Yen, Louis Koo and Collin Chou (Seraph from 'The Matrix Reloaded') really put on a great show. The plot is thin but the characters are great and the action feels fresh and real. Speaking of action, I am not a huge fan of UFC or other cage fighting. Donnie likes UCF though and he’s done a great job of translating MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) into "film fighting". He’s been working long enough with the best directors and action coordinators to know what looks good on screen. He put a tremendous amount of effort into the action and, along with director, Wilson Yip, really drove the other actors and his hand-picked stunt team to give it everything they had. The effort shows, making this an easy recommendation to action fans.
The South Shaolin Master (product link) Martial Arts / Action/Adventure "The South Shaolin Master" is a great showcase of Wushu weapons and hand-to-hand fighting. This film also shows off some spectacular scenery and architecture.
You could go your whole life thinking that ninjas just hid in the dark and gathered information. Maybe they'd occasionally kill someone quickly with a short blade and run. That’s what ninja would like you to think… This documentary (which some claim is fiction) shows the Real Ultimate Power of the ninja. It demonstrates their ancient power to hang-glide, form many ninjas together to make a much bigger ninja, expose breasts to befuddle Buddhists, and other fantastic feats.
All these shinobi-shenanigans are just the back-drop in a movie that's–really--about the ancient duel between the best of swordsmen of China and Japan. “Duel to the Death” traverses the border-conflicts near the territories of Family, Friendship, Love, and Honor. These abstract concepts are illuminated by the words and actions of our heroes.
Fights are plenty and skillfully blended with the human drama, treachery and tragedy that abound. The final battle is a bloody mess of wondrous wuxia. Don’t say I’m spoiling anything here; they didn’t call it “Duel to the Point-Where-Everyone-Just-Agrees-to-Disagree.”
This is not only a movie that stands up to multiple viewings, it demands them. If you don't own this, order it now. Seriously.
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