The story follows a young man named Cheng, who is fleeing an arranged marriage because he loves another girl named Mei Ling and his prospective bride is a chubby but intimidating kung fu practitioner. He winds up in Shaolin, hoping to improve his skills and hide from his betrothed.

He meets a number of other men who have traveled wide and far to become disciples at the famous Shaolin Temple, but Master Heng, the scowling teacher assigned to them, does not readily teach them kung fu.

This basically follows a familiar theme that one must train hard developing mental, physical, and even spiritual strength and endurance before tackling martial arts forms and techniques. Thus the students haul water and firewood, work in the kitchen, and do all sorts of menial labor.

Eventually, a kung fu fanatic simply called The Ranger shows up at Shaolin. He was a former student, and a ferocious fighter, but his ambition is to be the best warrior, and not to achieve enlightenment. He attacks and nearly kills several Shaolin students, and humiliates the Abbott and other monks, who refuse to give him a duel for it violates their principles.

Ultimately, Master Heng begins to teach his students more kung fu, especially Cheng, who has the greatest potential. Heng even duels with The Ranger in an attempt to stop the latter's rampage, but the 18 Lohans sent by the Abbott intervene and force Heng to return the temple and be "punished" by sequestering him in a meditation hall. Cheng, who has improved his skills adequately enough, then goes out and defeats The Ranger once and for all in a final showdown.

Anyway, what makes this movie special is the unique "Chop Kick" technique, a really cool move that attacks an opponent's shins and the tendons above the heel, tripping and potentially crippling him. Building up endurance to absorb and deflect the kick is the best counter for it. No other movie I know of shows off this unusual and devastating "Chop Kick" maneuver, and to see it in action is alone worth the price of getting this movie.

This movie has fantastic training sequences, humor, and touching drama as the mean-looking Master Heng, who has a real compassionate nature behind the tough guy persona, cares for his students as a father would love his sons. Highly recommended.

Set in Manchuria during the 1930s, three Korean men--one a bounty hunter, one a bandit chief, and the other a seemingly bumbling thief--cross paths during a train robbery. The thief, Tae-Goo, happens to grab a map believed to mark the spot where Imperial Chinese treasure is buried, and this sparks a race between rival bandit gangs and even the Japanese Army.

The action is almost non-stop, with thrilling stunts, gun-fights, bits of humor, and a rollicking "spaghetti western" style soundtrack, and it culminates in an intense chase sequence in the seemingly endless Gobi Desert, where scores of bandit horsemen chase after Tae-Goo, who's riding a motorcycle, as well as Japanese and Manchurian cavalry pursuing with jeeps, trucks, and motorized artillery.

Ultimately, it's a face off between the three Koreans, the only survivors of the battle in the desert, in a three-way gun duel.

If you like action/adventure fun, get this movie quick!

From the 2008 drummers pounding away in unison, to the mass tai chi performance, to the hundreds of beautiful girls in gorgeous costumes, and finally to Li Ning's "run" around the stadium suspended on wires before lighting the Olympic flame, it is chock full of color, excitement, and innovation.

Being in the US, my initial experience of the Opening Ceremonies was NBC's taped coverage, and now having this DVD based on the CCTV broadcast, I finally realize how much was never shown on US television.

For example, the segment with Chinese opera and the puppeteers was cut out from the US broadcast, and the CCTV crews obviously spend many extra minutes filming the entry of the Chinese team all the way into the athlete's field in the middle of the stadium, as well as filming every step the Olympic flag-bearers take as they walk around the track. Moreover, you get to see the athlete's oath and the official's oath, and the full length of all the fireworks display.

These version are also much cheaper than NBC's US DVD set, so definitely pick up these superior versions of the ceremonies.

The story has a very good moral about dealing with death, and more importantly, life itself...to live without regrets because one made the right choices for the right reasons.

Nonetheless, I much prefer the extended director's cut far more than the theatrical version released in the USA, simply because there's greater character development and deeper philosophical insight. It's not simply extra footage stuck here and there, but a richer, fuller story that explains much more convincingly how Huo Yuanjia transformed himself from a cocky fighter to a wizened master who strives to unite people through sport and self-improvement.

For example, I thought that his confrontation with a Muay Thai boxer in the village was a truly key moment in helping him understand to what purpose he practices martial arts, but it was completely cut from the theatrical version, such that in the latter version we are led to believe that he rehabilitates himself primarily because a beautiful woman nurses and loves him.

Anyway, by the time he did this movie, Jet Li had already been a veteran of kung fu movies for two decades, and "Fearless" naturally packs in some great fights, he has to do a lot more acting than fighting, so there are plenty of occasions where he gets to flex his acting range.

For example, after he loses his family in the aftermath of a violent act of vengeance, simply seeing Li's aged, anguished face, grayed hair, and his weary eyes conveys profound sorrow more effectively than mere words, and it is likely not something he could have successfully pulled off in his younger days.

Overall, great story, fights, and cinematography, highly recommended.

Finally seeing a crisp re-mastered presentation was well worth the wait. In terms of story, action, and a moral lesson in courage, this film has it all; and I liked Jet Li's version of the story far better than Bruce Lee's "Fist of Fury".

Jet Li's Chen Zhen is lot less impulsive than the character played by Bruce Lee, and unlike "Fist of Fury" where all the Japanese are villains, there are honorable Japanese characters in "Fist of Legend", such as Chen's girlfriend Mitsuko, the elderly grandmaster of the Black Dragon Clan (played by Yasuki Kurata), and even the Japanese Ambassador.

The bad guys in Li's movie are clearly identified as the ambitious militarists who seek total dominion over China. While these imperialistic officers have the advantage of a powerful, modern army over the Chinese masses, as a matter of pride, they also seek to defeat the Chinese "Fist of Legend," to overcome in hand to hand combat the reputation of China's ancient martial arts tradition by hook or crook.

Thus Chen Zhen must fight for honor and country in a gruelling, exciting showdown with a frighteningly tall and tough Japanese general named Fujita.

Finally, when Maetel Legend became available on sale on this site, I thought...well, why not start here? I recalled from Galaxy Express that Maetel was a tall, elegant figure, but not much else about her character, and learning about her background would be interesting as well.

The movie starts off with a narration about how her homeworld La Metalle became a dying planet. Somehow it got knocked off its normal orbit and drifted into space. An artificial sun was needed to continue giving warmth and light to La Metalle, but as its power faded, the planet's climate became colder and "mechanization" of human bodies became the apparent only option to survival (other than total abandonment the planet itself by the whole populace).

An evil scientist named Lord Headgear is the mastermind of the mechanization process. His ultimate, secret aim is to control the planet by having all the inhabitants transformed into his obedient mechanical servants, and then to conquer all other biological life forms in the galaxy.

As I haven't read any of the manga behind the movies, I don't know if Headgear deliberately caused the planet's astronomical mishap in the first place in order to fabricate a crisis, and thus a demand for his machine process, but having watched this film alone, I infer that to be the case.

Anyway, the story unfolds that the two royal princesses Maetel and Emeralda refuse to submit to mechanization, preferring to believe in the sanctity and beauty of natural, human life, and thus defy Headgear and his henchmen.

There are plentiful action scenes, although sometimes I wonder why is it that the robot troopers are so terrible in their aim (I guess there's no other explanation than typical bad guy ineptitude).

Also, it is sometimes wearisome to go through yet another mawkish scene where Maetel laments the choice between fighting or running, or laments that she cannot save her mother, etc. etc.

None the less, I suppose that's one way to stretch out the story to a feature length film. After all, if Maetel were as "let's cut the crap and start kicking butt" as her sister, the movie probably would be a whole lot shorter and we'd also lose the opportunity to compare and contrast the two personalities.

In the end, the story is both sad and yet uplifting with a message of hope, and so I found it quite enjoyable despite a few of my issues with the movie cliches.

Well, at least I finally found the Shadow Warriors uncut on disc, and notwithstanding the price for all 27 episodes, it's a worthy investment.

The series follows the adventurs of the 3rd generation ninja master Hattori Hanzo (played by the great Shinichi "Sonny" Chiba). Hanzo's clan has fallen into hard times, and he has become the owner of an Edo (Tokyo) bathhouse, but he comes out of the shadows now and then to battle corruption and injustice, or whenever an innocent is in dire need of help.

Those familiar with samurai movies or the kung-fu genre in general, will find many of the basic plot ideas used before, but none the less, just about every episode is well-written and acted. Some stand out particularly in their poignancy, such as Episode # 18, where a warrior suddenly realizes to his horror that he has kidnapped his own daughter, whom he has not seen for several years. That and his nagging conscience finally drives him to abandon an evil cause, and he sacrifices his life to try to make things right.

The themes of love, honor, betrayal, redemption, justice, freedom, loyalty, and courage are all touched upon, and it's very intriguing to watch various characters grow as they deal with various trials and tribulations. Even if the characters were not to show much development, the series would be fun to watch anyway to see how ordinary, humble looking folk, living at the bottom, or near the bottom of Tokugawa Japan's feudal society, transform into formidable warriors whenever they heed their master's call. There are even bits of comedy, mainly in the form of the buffoonish hairdresser Orin, a middle-aged woman who's madly in love with Hanzo, or rather "Han-san," as she is not privy to his true identity.

The production values in terms of costume and sets are also pretty good. Moreover, for a mainstream TV show (albeit a very late night one when originally aired in Japan), there are frequent displays of bare female breasts, some of them casually in scenes of women bathing in Hanzo's bathhouse, and some of them in rather torrid love scenes.

Anyway, aside from the eye candy, every week features a different master villain that Hanzo must defeat. The battle sequences usually are well done, although there are fights that take place at night, or involve rapid editing cuts, so it's difficult sometimes to see what's going on. Interestingly, black exclusively seems to be the color of Hanzo's Iga ninja, and ALL other ninja factions only wear gray, brown or shades of tan. That does help to identify who's battling whom, although it's odd in a way that the bad guys can’t wear black.

Overall, given the quality of the stories, performances, and the action, plus Chiba's presence and gravitas as Hattori Hanzo in the days of his acting prime, I believe this is a classic worth acquiring and keeping. I've never seen any of the Shadow Warrior sequels, as the booklet mentions that there were several of them up until 1985, but I hope they are released soon and measure up well to the original 1980 series.

Moreover, the skillful use of CGI has advanced the stunning visual richness by leaps and bounds. It is worth watching the film several times over just to catch the details you may have missed in an earlier viewing. One example is the store where Batou is buying that dog food. Take a good look at many products lined up on the shelves and note all the labels, and also how realistically the refrigerator glass shatters upon the impact of bullets.

The film is also worth watching several times over just to re-absorb and ponder again the philosophical questions the film raises because there is so much packed its running time. In this regard, the film is very much like I, Robot. None the less, the villain(s) in this movie isn't a supercomputer that has decided to take control over human life, but rather a shadowy union of criminal gangs and shady corporate interests. Even in a highly advanced technocratic society, the old human vices are still very much prevalent, and yet so are human virtues.

Multiple plot twists unfold, layers of deceptions are unveiled as the connections between the various characters become clearer, until at last the motive for the deadly game becomes revealted. It's a movie worth watching more than once to appreciate the subtle hints of foreshadowing that you likely missed on the previous viewing, or how a convincing clue turns out to be a red herring.

The various enigmas themselves have been seen in one variation or another in other places...books, math journals, movies, etc., but having to remember how to solve them correctly in under a minute with one's life on the line certainly ratchets up the pressure, and thus drive's the story's suspense.

My only critique of the film, and it's a minor one, is that apparently in post-production the creators chose to color virtually the whole movie in some sickly yellow hue, even the scenes not located in the claustrophobic room. I would rather they had left all the colors in their natual hues, as the yellow effect really muddied the picture quality and strained my eyes to watch.

Oh well, it's a cool movie to watch. With a great script and appropriate acting, it's fun to see just how much can be done with just the bare minitmum of actors and sets.

Chocolate refers to the favorite candy of the lead character, a mentally disabled teenage girl named Zen. Her mother Zin was a former gang member, and the mistress of Bangkok's top underworld leader, but she fell in love with a Japanese yakuza man named Masashi. Zin separated from her lover and her past life to lead a quiet existence with her daughter.

However, by the time Zen is grown up, the mother is stricken with cancer and urgently needs money for her chemotherapy. Zen's childhood friend Moom finds a notebook with a list of names of people who owe money to her mother, and he naively takes Zen along to collect these debts.

Thus, Zen engages in a series of furious fights, having learned combat skills by observing the Muay Thai boxers practice next door, as well as watching movies and video games. She thus compensates for her mental disability with uncannily fast reflexes and an ability to quickly absorb new techniques.

All this butt-kicking arouses the concern of Bangkok's top mob boss, who is wondering what his former mistress is up to. It leads to a bloody showdown, and even Zen's father is drawn in from Japan. The final battle sequence where Zen chases the lead villain across multiple floors of a high-rise, leaping across the neon signs and ledges is particularly creative and well choreographed.

For any action fan, I highly recommend this title. Some measure of the intensity of the action can be discerned by the end credits which document a handful of the various injuries sustained during filming, not only to the lead actress, but by the many stunt men as well...bloody noses, bruises, broken necks, cuts, etc. It's absolutely a heck of a ride.

At times, the fight scenes appear a little too sped up, but they're never over-the-top or ridiculous (unlike those flicks that have fighters jumping up four stories or flying across water), and it's cool to see how fluidly Donnie Yen grapples and incapacitates his opponents. Now that he's reachng middle age, he plays the title character, Ip Man, with a credible gravitas.

In the movie's opening, Ip is a wealthy resident of Fo Shan, a town in southern China that's famed for having many martial artists who open up various schools. Ip however does not run a school himself, although the town elders recognize him as the elite master.

When circumstances intervene, such as a bullying northern fighter who wants to triumph over Fo Shan's masters, or the invading Imperial Japanese Army, Ip is forced to reveal and use his skills to defend his loved ones and rally the spirits of his people.

There is a great scene where Ip challenges 10 Japanese experts, defeats them, and thus wins the admiration of the local Japanese commander, General Miura, who is a top karate practitioner himself.

The filmmakers go to great lengths to recreate the look and feel of street scenes of the 1930s and 1940s, from the relative prosperity of the 1930s to the misery of the wartime occupation, although the beautiful actress who plays Ip's wife looks incredibly flawless even in scenes where the couple is supposed to be suffering in abject poverty, as she always appears with perfect skin and perfectly coiffed hair.

Nonetheless, that is hardly a flaw when the movie delivers great fight scenes and a good, inspirational story.

There is a "martial arts world" populated by various clans and mercenary fighters and assassins, and the story explores the themes of friendship and vengeance in a world full of violence and treachery.

As the story begins, a young clan leader named Kao is about to get married, only to find his father's archenemy Pai crash the ceremony in an orgy of killing.

Kao and a few followers escape, and he schemes to have a naive young man named Chang to take revenge for him. We soon discover Kao is the real villain of the story, as he plots of have Chang disposed of once the latter defeats Pai. However, since evil can't triumph in the end, Kao will ultimately will pay for his treachery.

The sword fights are overall quite good, on par with the best that the Shaw Brothers churned out in the 1970s and early 1980s, and the wire work is kept to a minimum. Famed kung fu master Lee Hoi San plays Pai and demonstrates a good deal of his skills.

Overall, I recommend this to any martial arts aficianado. After all, they don't make movies like this anymore.

He becomes a fugitive, and along his journeys, he meets a mysterious wanderer played by John Liu, as well as a beautiful woman with a deadly secret.

Liu's character is a northern leg fighter, but his allegiance is initially unclear. He seeks out Sheng for a duel, but it turns out he is merely seeking a worthy challenger and he is also an anti-Ching fighter.

Sheng winds up being captured, then released through the woman's intercession. It becomes quite clear that the woman aiding him is actually a secret agent for the Chings. Her goal is gain Sheng's confidence, so he will take her to Taiwan with him, and thus enable her to assassinate General Cheng, the leader of the resistance. It's northerner who unravels this plot, and he and Sheng reunite in time for a final showdown with the lead villain.

The training sequences and the fights are mostly very good, with John Liu showing off that's always a joy to watch.

However, a few of the fights drag on a little too long. It becomes a bit tiring to watch the heroes brush away a villain with a single slap, punch, or a kick, only to see that same opponent get up and return into the fray for another five or six rounds. Gee whiz, those moments I wanted to shout, "Just kick his damn butt and make him stay down!"

None the less, overall it's a solid "old school" martial arts movie, and for a price cheaper than an average movie ticket, it's well worth adding to your collection.

Tan Tao Liang plays Captain Lu, the police chief of a small town whose mayor, Master Yuen, has a dirty secret. Lu is also shadowed by a young girl, Miss Lee, who has an agenda of her own. Then there's Pai Yu Ching, a mercenary fighter dressed in white played by Wong Tao. He suddenly shows up one day to seemingly stir up trouble.

As the plot unfolds, Lu's fiance gets harassed by the mayor's lecherous son, who then murders the girl's mother. Lu vows to bring the scoundrel to justice, only to be obstructed by the corrupt mayor who has more than just a wicked son to hide. Lu's situation is further complicated by the fact that Pai seemingly has hired himself out to serve Master Yuen.

However, we later learn what Pai's mission truly is, and thus it makes for a very satisfying finale for Pai and Lu to finally join forces to take down the bad guys, the principal villain being Mayor Yuen's partner, a hunchback named Master Leung.

I've many a white haired evil master in multiple movies, but Leung actually has got dyed blond hair, a white powdered face, and a pronounced limp. However, he's definitely a kick-butt fighter requiring Lu's kicks to combine with Pai's fists in order to defeat.

Overall, a solid old school classic.

Alas, David Chiang himself doesn't do any kung-fu, but his three "Angels" plentifully punch, kick, or shoot their way through a huge army of bad guys to bring down the evil mastermind of the crime ring, a cruel woman named Yeung who's also a cocky martial artist.

The Angels consist of Saijo, a no nonsense Japanese martial arts master, a young girl named Moon, who looks too cute to be a convincing commando, and Elaine, who is the sassiest but clumsiest of the bunch. There's also Commander Fong, a Chinese-American narcotics officer sent to help the Hong Kong Police.

Hwang Jang Li has a cameo as a mid-level gangster who is conflicted with Yeung's murderous ruthlessness, but other than a few very brief fights, you don't get to see much of his legendary kicking skills.

Nonetheless, this film is non-stop entertainment. I only wish more of the so-called summer blockbusters that Hollywood produces each year were half as much fun and exciting.

John Liu, famed for his amazing kicking skills, stars as the leader of a motley gang of five ordinary guys who are hired to spring a revolutionary commander from a warlord's mountaintop fortress. The plot is decidedly simple and makes for a lean and mean fighting flick.

The five men each have different personality traits, and include a bumbling coffin maker and a juggler. Despite their swagger and bravado when Liu meets them for the first time, none are really professional fighters and he must train them ruthlessly for the task ahead.

They initially hate him for the hard work, but then learn to appreciate his firmness, discipline, and the marked improvement in their skills. A chance to make some money is a big factor driving their motives, but each one also wants to be a hero and not be looked down upon, and they all admirably prove their loyalty and courage when the chips are really down.

Once the training sequences are over, the movie picks up its pace with one fight after another as the men push their way through multiple ambushes and checkpoints. There's a massive battle within the fortress, but also a clever twist at the end, although the story drops a few clues here and there such that an alert viewer should see it coming.

Highly recommended.

Not here, though. Tony Jaa does not simply "kick butt," his character relentlessly but efficiently breaks arms, wrists, legs, and necks in some of the most intense action sequences ever put onto film.

In a follow-up to the hit "Ong-Bak", he plays a young man named Cam who is descended from a long line of warriors dedicated to guarding the King's elephants in battle.

One day during a festival where his father goes to present their treasured elephant as a gift to the King, gangsters suddenly steal it as well as the cute baby elephant. These gangsters are tied to an organized crime family headed by Madam Rose in Sydney, Australia, and they have truly nefarious motives for trafficking in rare and endangered animals.

This sets in motion Cam's journey to Australia, where despite not able being to speak a word of English, he conveniently runs into and is befriended by some expatriate Thais, including Police Sgt. Mark, a buffoonish character played by the same guy who acted the "Hum Lae" role in "Ong-Bak".

As later explained in the film, there is a special bond between Thais and their elephants--the noble animals are especially like family to those descended from elephant warrior guardians--so whoever dares to harm or endanger elephants better be prepared to face some "ass whoopin'".

Thus Cam takes down all sorts of fighters, including three beefy wrestlers and Madam Rose and her deadly whip. The DVD sleeve proudly proclaims no wires or CGI were involved, so the various stunts are truly impressive.

Watch Cam intimidate a lowly thug by running up a light pole and kicking out the street lamp. Re-wind it a few times just to stare at Tony Jaa's incredible athleticism. There are various moments of humor, too, mainly from Sgt. Mark. Look also for the cameo of Jackie Chan.

Overall, this is highly recommended if you like no-frills, almost non-stop action.

"Yamato's" story opens in the present day, where a young Japanese woman exhibits a great interest in the fate of the Battleship Yamato and her crew in the final days of World War 2. The audience later learns her foster father, Petty Officer Uchida, served on the ship, and she wants to know more about him and his ship-mates. She ultimately befriends an elderly fisherman named Kamio, who was one of Uchida's friends and served on that same ship as a cadet, and he agrees her to take her on his boat to the exact spot where the warship sunk in battle.

The movie then turns into a series of flashbacks, but similar to "Saving Private Ryan," there are many scenes that Kumio's character obviously did not witness or partake in, but they do serve to flesh out the personalities of the other key people.

Memories of the war are painful for Kamio, and until he met Uchida's adopted daughter and learned Uchida in fact was rescued, he never knew any of his close comrades survived and he spent 60 years of his life living with a degree of guilt.

However, by the end of the movie, he understands that having survived, to live life well and to the fullest, to cherish all its precious moments, means that those who died--those who were willing to pay the ultimate sacrifice--did not do so in vain, for through him and those of the next generation, the dreams and hopes of the departed also live on.

Sammo admits that in order to keep the movie's running time under control he had to cut out a lot of material and risk upsetting many of his peers, so it could be interesting for a real Hong Kong movie aficianado to keep a running list of who's who among the big names that DON'T get to appear in cameo role (Jackie Chan is one of them who comes to my mind).

Fortunately, with the comedy sequences and the efficient editing, watching a bevy of characters constantly come and go didn't bother me much. The plot was very simple, involving a special train called the Millionaire's Express. A gang of bandits want to rob it, while a petty crook named Chen (played by Sammo himself) wishes to blow up a section of track used by that train, a segment which passes near his hometown of Hanshui. His goal is to compel the wealthy rail patrons to come to his sleepy village and spend money there. A brief flashback scene reveals he was mischeviously attracted to explosives as a kid, and he had blown up the town's dikes. Hence, this diversion of rail traffic is his scheme to pay back his town (and also line his own pockets in the process).

Along with the various characters in the town itself, and the government agent pursuing Chen, the stage is thus set for all sorts of people to converge on little Hanshui, ultimately resulting in a massive showdown pitting Chen and his friends against the nefarious bandits and even some Japanese agents (all in anachronistic samurai outfits).

Anyway, I highly recommend this film because it's unlikely anything like it will ever be made again. Before the advent of CGI, Hong Kong's top martial artists and stuntment dared to perform outrageous actions scenes. For example, watch at the beginning of movie how Yuen Biao jumps off a burning FOUR STORY building and lands unhurt, and then runs to speak some dialogue in a single take. Simply awesome!

Sammo also built a full scale town to use a set in a then undeveloped part of Hong Kong's New Territories, utilized a vintage locomotive in Thailand, and brought together an impressive array of Hong Kong's top entertainment names, so it's difficult to calculate the staggering cost of making sanything like it in similar fashion today.

It's a mix of the Old West and old China, with bits of silliness and bone crunching action, in short, the Shanghai Express is one fun ride.

Jimmy Wang Yu plays a Hong Kong Special Branch inspector sent to Australia to retrieve a drug courier (Sammo Hung in an early role) being extradited. However, when Sammo's character gets killed by a sniper on orders of Wilton, the Sydney crime boss played by George Lazenby, the inspector goes on a rampage to bring Wilton down, and the Australian federal police are aghast at his no-holds barred methods.

There's a scene where an exasperated agent blurts out, "This is Australia mate! Not 55 Days at Peking!"

Later that same cop has another great line: "This country's got a small population, and he's getting through them very fast!"

I was almost on the floor laughing! When you watch the dialogue in context, I'm sure you'll agree how hilarious it sounds.

Moreover, Wang Yu has time to bed two pretty Australian women, and the love scenes provide more great dialogue. Check out this priceless exchange prior to steamy love-making...

Girl: "Do you think you've recovered enough for me to make love to you?"

Jimmy (in a totally nonchalant tone): "I think I could stand the pain."

The quality of the martial arts and stunts might not up to par to a later Hong Kong action film set in Australia (Jackie Chan's Police Story 4), but all in all The Man From Hong Kong is a lot fun, down to even the corny 1970's outfits and pop songs.

Nonetheless, the film also explores themes of honor and loyalty. Jeff's old comrade Sidney attempts to betray him on orders from the big boss, but Jeff spares his life out of friendship, and Sidney later repays this act of mercy many times over, even to death.

Moreover, Jeff runs into two Hong Kong police officers who attempt to arrest him. One of them dies in the line of duty, but the other (played by Danny Lee) grows to respect and even admire Jeff for the sense of honor and compassion that lies beneath the facade of a cool, determined killer. In the final battle against hordes of minions sent by the crime boss, they are trapped in a church but stand side by side, even swapping guns to symbolically demonstrate their new bond of brotherhood and friendship.

I had the sense all along that Jeff was going to die, although I had hoped for a somewhat happy ending with Jenny finally recovering her sight, and this is my one quibble with the film.

Jeff made the cop promise him that if he were to die, he would like to arrange for his corneas to be given to Jenny for transplantation, to do one last decent thing, but sadly Jeff's own eyes get destroyed before he perishes in the final shootout.

The cop ultimately kills the crime boss AFTER the villain surrenders to a battalion of police who arrive on the scene, and the movie ends there.

We never know if Jenny ever makes a recovery, and I suppose the director wanted it that way. None the less, the incredible action sequences, and the interesting documentary in the special features on firearms and tactics, are worth getting this title anyway.