A low budget and painfully stupid film, but chock full of kung fu goodness. As the title of the film implies, this is a movie solely about stick fighting. All sorts of sticks are represented, from the traditional staff, to twin short sticks, the long staff, the iron rod, the three-sectional whip, and anything else stick-like. It has nothing to do with Shaolin kung fu and the "Shaolin" of the title is nothing but a cheap marketing ploy. The story is exceedingly simple: a villain and master stick fighter (Chang Yi) is going around killing all the other stick fighters he meets to prove his superiority. The elders of the Chan family hear about this and expel the heir to the family stick (Wong Tao) in order to protect him. Confused and penniless, Wong roams the countryside searching for the meaning the life until he realizes what's going on and trains to kill Yi. He also meets up with the beautiful and highly flexible Hsia Kwan Lee who gets to show off her talents all too briefly. As a side note, this film features the largest collection of asymmetrical and bad looking moustaches I've ever seen. Wow. The stick fighting sequences are excellent, although spoiled by the extremely annoying dropped-frame editing technique. Unfortunately, the stuff in between the fight scenes is intolerable drivel that will make you scramble for the fast forward button.
Ashes Of Time (product link) Swordplay/Sword(s) / Art ACC best described this as "chop-socky for the art theater crowd" - not my kind of thing. It even has that annoying art film narrative sound quality. And even though Sammo Hung directed the martial arts sequences, they're mostly filmed in blur-motion so you can't tell what's going on. Yeah, it's art, but it's annoying! And the story? Something about the human condition and the futility of everything. Very moody, depressing, and non-linear. Fine performances by everybody - Tony Leung (Chiu Wai) is great as the going-blind swordsman, Charlie Young is beautiful as a helpless and despondant villager, Maggie Cheung is wonderfully depressing as well. Only Leslie Cheung's performance seems to fall flat, but maybe that was intended. Overall - not bad filmmaking, just tedious.
AWFUL! Apart from a half dozen well orchestrated kung fu brawls, this film is an atrocity. Polly Shang Kwan and Sam Hui are a couple of con artists who end up befriending a family of street venders and entertainers. But money is always a problem - one of the young girls has her school fees stolen by thugs, the family car breaks down, the landlord is raising the rent, and one of the girls' sleazy boyfriends has a large gambling debt. So Ms. Kwan (who portrays a man for the entire film!!!) lies, cheats, and steals to come up with the cash that everyone needs. Things get more serious when triad thugs kidnap the schoolgirl and sell her to a nasty gang boss, killing Carter Wong in the process. Then the group devises a plan - they decide to dress up Ms. Kwan as a girl (!) and sell her and lovely Angela Mao to the gangsters in order to infiltrate the organization and free their friend. A furious kung fu frenzy goes down with Ms. Kwan and Ms. Mao beating the crap out of the evil bad guys. The film ends with Polly proclaiming that she really is a girl, much to the astonishment of the entire cast. Ugh.
Okay, we've seen this "girl dresses as boy and fools everyone" gag dozens (and maybe hundreds) of times, but this time it's painfully obvious. Polly Shang Kwan is too cute and far too busty to come off as a man. Especially in the tight early 70's fashions that she's wearing. Even in loose fitting clothes you can tell she has a sizeable chest. And to have her pretend to be a man for the entire film? What's the point?!? And then there's the mind-boggling aspect of having her pose as a girl in order to fool the bad guys? What could the filmmakers possibly be thinking? "We need a woman to play the part of a man so that we can have her pose as a woman in the last twenty minutes of the film, and then she can surprise everyone by actually being a woman in the first place." Sure, it makes perfect sense... But regardless of what gender she's supposed to be, she and angelic Angela Mao kick glorious ass throughout the film, and they're the ONLY reason to sit through this abomination - or at least fast forward through it.
Donnie Yen is a troubled and jaded professional assassin named Cat. Ironically, he's stalking a beautiful young woman (Annie Wu) who just so happens to be one of the police officers that's trying to bust him. Having grown tired of the killing business, he decides to take that fateful "one last job" and then settle down. It turns out that the last job gets a bit messy, as an old enemy from Cat's past shows up and a vendetta plays out. Annie and her roommate get caught in the crossfire of this testosterone fueled feud, but fortunately manage to survive. The guys aren't so lucky...
I admire Donnie Yen a lot and I really wanted to like this film. Unfortunately, it's a jumbled mess due to incoherent writing and confusing editing. Donnie once again proves that he has a good cinematic eye, and the look and feel of the film are great. His choice of lighting, angles, and filters is stunning and stylish - one might even consider this an action art film. Donnie also flexes his acting muscles a bit, giving a convincing portrayal of a distraught and moody killer who is utterly alone in the world. The action in the film is very wild and over-the-top, giving the film a very cartoony, or anime feeling. The gunplay in the film is outrageous, and even though I'm pretty forgiving when it comes to gun physics, seeing a revolver fire no less than thirty rounds without being reloaded bothered me. The brief kung fu sequences are pretty cool, but invasive editing spoils their flair a bit. However, the biggest disappointment in the kung fu department is seeing Yu Rong Guang and Michael Woods show up for cameos and not duke it out with Donnie. Talk about dashed expectations! All of the over-the-top filmmaking is perfectly complemented by a melancholic and melodramatic musical score, completing the mood and making the film seem even more like live action anime. I even liked the story and the characters quite a bit, but the dialog is confusing and often times just bad. Definitely a mixed bag, but one worth sitting through at least once.
A bit of a letdown after seeing the totally kick-ass trailer, but still a fine piece of entertainment. Lau Ching Wan is an intense, hot tempered cop (hey, there's a surprise) who gets transferred to another unit after beating up his backstabbing superior. His rough reputation wins him the respect and admiration of his new teammates, except for Jordan Chan who is disgusted by his impulsiveness and lack of discipline. This sets up the formulaic rivalry for the rest of the story. Naturally, this mismatched team breaks open a huge case involving drug runners Yu Rong Guang and Anthony Wong by breaking the rules and disobeying their superiors. Jordan loosens up a bit and everyone gets treated like heroes by the end of the film.
A welcome surprise from Hong Kong as this is a great looking and great sounding big budget action thriller with very high production values. Unfortunately, as Hong Kong productions become glossier and more professional looking, the stories become less interesting and more clichéd. The action pieces are exciting and well staged, but seem a little too sparse for me. There's all of ninety seconds of kung fu goodness dealt out by action veteran Yu Rong Guang, but it's quite rewarding. It's not a stretch to see Yu Rong Guang and Anthony Wong playing evil gang bosses - they look natural and confident in their roles, and fortunately they don't have to resort to psychotic antics to validate their bad-guy status. Lau Ching Wan is also in a typecast role, but he still comes off as being genuine and fresh. Cute and perky Theresa Lee is a welcome sight, but she doesn't get enough opportunities to be tough. In the funny subtitles department, we see that "Don't fuck it up this time" is translated as "No more games." Very amusing. Overall I'd say it's a good police thriller and a good way to satisfy a Hong Kong action fix.
The Big Heat (product link) Action/Adventure / Crime A graphically grim and gritty police thriller featuring an intense and brooding Waise Lee as the obsessed officer in charge of a murder/smuggling case that left his undercover friend dead. Additionally, his trigger hand freezes up in high stress situations due to either an injury (with a drill!) or a nervous medical condition - it's not made clear. Pretty Joey Wang is available as a nurse, and she gets to run around and scream a lot. Very good looking and well made, but has some rather extreme lighting and a musical score that's all over the place. There are also some extremely over-the-top blood and brutality scenes, which is where the film really pays off.
Pretty awful in every sense of the word. I would have given this piece of Hong Kong schlock a one-star rating, except that the film takes a radical turn for the better in the final thirty minutes. Woody (loud-mouthed Jordan Chan) and Bee are a couple of young punks who work at a disreputable video store in the mall. They spend their days goofing off, getting in trouble, flirting with girls, and acting tough - until zombies start showing up, that is. Apparently, the US has developed a new biochemical that creates zombies (undoubtedly for military purposes), and it accidentally gets unleashed in Hong Kong. Woody and Bee, as well as a handful of others, get trapped in the mall one evening, which is teeming with zombies. Fortunately, they've been playing "The House Of The Dead" in their spare time and quickly figure out how to deal with the undead fiends (I'm not kidding). The entire first hour plays out as a monumentally bad sit-com and is downright dreadful to sit through. I nearly turned it off at least a dozen times, but I somehow managed to persevere. Then suddenly towards the end of the film, it shifts gears and starts taking itself seriously, playing out like a typical horror film as the remaining heroes show their true colors and make a grand stand for survival. The burdens of social status and the imposed confinement of society fall away, with the resulting anarchy bringing out the (potential) hero in everyone. Jordan Chan the cowardly loud-mouthed braggard is detestable, but Jordan Chan the stoic kick-ass zombie slayer is truly admirable. Also in the admirable category is Rolls (Angela Tong), the snobby bitch who works in the beauty parlor. She is totally HOT, and the camera is keenly aware of that fact. Unless you have a high threshold for abusive stupidity, do yourself a favor and just skip to the end.
Black Cat [1991] (product link) Action/Adventure / Girls With Guns Another retread of "La Femme Nikita" featuring Jade Leung as the femme fatale and Simon Yam as her mentor. A rather butch Jade Leung gives a fine performance, but her character wasn't sensual enough to keep me interested. (actually, I liked Bridget Fonda's portrayal in "Point Of No Return" more) Average action fare, but kind of disappointing...
A stone-faced zombie Jade Leung (with a bad haircut) returns as Erica, the computer controlled assassin from the original, and this time her memory has been wiped and she's hardly human at all. She does little more than parade around in a short black dress (which isn't bad), stare blankly, and widen her eyes occasionally. She finally smiles and speaks briefly 70 minutes into the film and is immediately carted away for some "corrective surgery". (The number of speaking lines she has may be fewer than Arnold Schwarzenegger's in "The Terminator") Robin Shou is a welcome sight as the CIA officer assigned to work with Black Cat, but he doesn't get to show off his talents, and repeatedly gets his ass kicked. Lots of light B-movie action, but nothing overly satisfying. The martial arts sequences are slow, sloppy, and poorly choreographed and the chase scenes lack vitality. On the plus side, the film looks great and has an excellent soundtrack (in Dolby stereo, even!). Filmed exclusively in Russia and America with a primarily American cast (!!!), and the Russian locales are really gorgeous. The rest of the film just falls a little short and never kicks into high gear. You'd never guess it was a Hong Kong film!
Odd. A well made and great looking action film, but the pro-China propaganda gets heavy-handed and tiresome very quickly. Lao Wen Zhiou is a Chinese anti-terrorist soldier who gets transferred to the Chinese embassy in a country called Lavernia, which lies on the border of Russia. The Lavernians are generally nasty people with absolutely terrible English dubbed voices who don't like Asians and plot to frame Zhiou's team after they deal with a slippery Japanese fanatical criminal. Confusing? At times. But the Chinese persevere and come out on top, even though it costs Zhiou the life of his cute, shrieking girlfriend. Very uneven. Lao Wen Zhiou finally gets to show off his fighting expertise, and he looks great. His movements are very fluid and graceful, and he's beautiful to watch in action (he must be a fine dancer). Ching Siu Tung's action choreography is excellent and the action pieces are exciting to watch, but often times hilariously excessive. (there's one scene where Zhiou shoots a guy out of a tree and continues to plug at least twenty rounds into him as he's falling - it made me laugh really hard) Just what is this film trying to say? It just barely works as an action film because the biased political slant drags it down so much. Interesting once, but keep your thumb on the fast forward button the second time through.
Blade Of Fury (product link) Martial Arts / Swordplay/Sword(s) A beautiful big budget period piece with lots of great swordplay and kung fu going on. Government official Ti Lung, his perky assistant Nine Catties (Cynthia Khan), and a despondant swordsman (Yeung Fan), go up against a group of corrupt and greedy government officials. A great looking film, with an exceptionally intense performance by Ti Lung. Also, it's a treat to see Cynthia Khan playing a non-police officer role, even though she gets blown up at the end of the film. The fighting is well executed, but many of the shots are so severely undercranked that they just look silly, which is a real shame. It also features a couple of "oh my god" shots featuring a horse jumping off of a cliff into a river and another horse running head-on into an adobe wall. Ouch!
A supernatural fantasy period piece, this film is highly critically acclaimed, but I just didn't enjoy it that much. It looks great and the chemistry between Brigitte Lin and Leslie Cheung is good, but the film just doesn't seem to come together. Leslie Cheung is an apathetic master swordsman who loses interest in the constant bloodshed of warring clans. Semi-supernatural Brigitte Lin is with the enemy, and the two of them manage to fall for each other's charms and enter into a relationship of forbidden love. This doesn't please either of their families, and nasty plots of betrayal are set into motion. But Leslie Cheung commits the ultimate sin by not trusting his lover, which turns her into a bitter and vengeful white-haired witch. He realizes too late who the real enemy is and goes into seclusion for the next ten years to atone for his sin. An erotic kung fu movie made for girls who don't like kung fu movies.
Ten years have passed since the original, and Brigitte Lin has become a cold hearted villainous murderer, killing any man she sees and taking in wayward girls who have been wronged by men. Naturally, she comes between two young lovers and snatches the girl away while slaughtering the rest of the castle's inhabitants. What few survivors remain plan to rescue the girl and destroy the white haired witch, but are hopelessly overpowered by her and her nasty minions. Leslie Cheung finally shows up at the end of the film to atone for his sins by presenting his love with the magic flower from the first film that blooms only once every ten years and they die in each other's arms as the palace goes up in flames. Great to look at, with some wonderful scenes of flaming destruction, but rather light on substance. Tomboy Christy Chung steals the show and is extremely sexy and dashing - too bad she bites it at the end.
The ultimate feng shui action movie, as odd as that sounds. Through feng shui, or geomancy, good fortune and harmony with nature can be achieved with the proper orientation of objects. In this case, ancestral burial locations ensure the wealth and/or success of future generations. After his power-mad brother chooses an ill-fated burial site for power, master geomancer Corey Yuen hides his research and flees with the help of a loyal servant. He promises to bury the servant in a "wealth" position and ensures that he himself is buried in a "wisdom" position. His son turns out to be the famous Chinese adventurer, Wisely (Chin Kar Lok), and the servant's daughter (Moon Lee) grows up to be the wealthy president of a major American computer corporation. But after twenty-five years, their good fortunes turn for the worse and they visit their ancestral burial grounds with the aid of a bumbling, but likeable, feng shui professor (director Tang Chi Li) in order to set things right. The only problem is that the burial site is located in a militant backwater Asian country run by a crazed dictator (villainous Yuen Wah - surprise, surprise) who has his own feng shui plans for world domination. His militant sister (Sibelle Hu) doesn't agree with his rash tactics and eventually aids our heroes in resolving their ancestral problems, leading to an all-out kung fu/gun fighting frenzy. Naturally, the good guys win.
A bizarre and off-center film, but thoroughly enjoyable. Extremely high production values (especially for a Hong Kong production), and exquisite use of lighting and gradient filters give the film a beautiful cinematic texture. The action scenes are well staged and exciting to watch, and the kung fu is top notch. Even the rather chubby Tang Chi Li pulls off some incredible fight maneuvers. It's nice to see both Chin Kar Lok and Cho Wing in starring roles for a change, as they are extremely agile performers. Their fight scenes are amazing to watch - very graceful and very energetic. For the most part, Moon Lee just plays a beautiful corporate executive, but by the end of the film she's swinging around an AK-47 and trading kicks just like everyone else. Very cool.
Hong Kong's big budget action spectacle of 2000. Darren and Alex (pop star Aaron Kwok and Wang Leehom) are police officers in Shanghai who are investigating a murder that's connected to a drug smuggling operation. Tony (Mark Dacascos) is a young upstart who's tired of dealing in legitimate business, and hooks up with drug boss Coolio from the US. Drop dead gorgeous Japanese model Norika Fujiwara is an undercover cop who has her own score to settle with Coolio. The good guys finally manage to cooperate with each other long enough to take down Tony and Coolio in a completely over-the-top fight sequence on top of a piece of glass that's suspended forty stories in the air.
About what you would expect from a Stanley Tong action film - big budget, well executed, and a bit outlandish. And much like Stanley's last few films (such as "Supercop" (1992), "Rumble In The Bronx" (1995), and "First Strike" (1996)), "China Strike Force" has a bit too much of an American feel to it. Fortunately, the fighting is very good, thanks to the agile and physically expressive Aaron Kwok, and the wushu expertise of underrated Mark Dacascos. Even the annoying Coolio gets in some impressive and convincing chops. Norika Fujiwara is an amazing combination of feminine grace and beauty, coupled with raw physical strength and untamed aggression. Seductive and deadly, her penetrating stare would kill you just as easily as her foot in your face. Norika clearly owns every scene that she's in, and it's a shame she doesn't she more action and more screen time. Sadly, for all the great things going on in this film, it's full of minor dissappointments. First of all, Coolio's character is a constant irritant. Whether that's his fault, I'm not sure, but I'm thankful that he was subtitled because most of his slurred English is incomprehensible (even though many of the subtitles are laughably off). The annoying rap soundtrack is also inappropriate and spoils the tone. In the action department, many of the action scenes are spoiled to the point of absurdity by outlandish and awkward looking wire stunts and digital effects. This unfortunately makes the film look more campy and tacky than it should be. With digital wire removal becoming cheaper and easier to employ, even Chinese filmmakers are getting lazy and uninventive. Just because you can perform a wire stunt doesn't mean that you should. Wire stunts should be used sparingly in order to support the illusion of something amazing, not to create something that clearly looks impossible (especially in a contemporary action film where people shouldn't be able to defy gravity). Just because you can make a wire invisible in post production doesn't mean that the end result is believable - it more often just looks like somebody hanging from an invisible thread, which has the same overall effect as seeing the wires in the first place. Hopefully, filmmakers will get over this fad and go back to being more clever and judicious with their use of this technology in the future. It's still good entertainment with some truly jaw dropping stunts, but fans of classic raw Hong Kong action may be disappointed.
A Chinese Ghost Story 2 (product link) Horror / Ghost This movie continues where part one left off and even surpasses the original while maintaining the same look and feel. Our hapless hero (Leslie Cheung) escapes from prison and ends up at yet another haunted house, where he meets a wandering Taoist monk (Jacky Cheung), a woman who looks like his beloved ghost from the first film (Joey Wang), and a soul eating tree monster that just will not die. Beautiful Michelle Reis is also on hand to vie for Leslie Cheung's attention. The whole thing ends with an outrageous battle pitting our heroes against a giant flying centipede. Cool stuff once you get past the goofy humor.
A Chinese Ghost Story 3 (product link) Horror / Ghost Very cool. By far the best looking film of the series. The effects are awsome and the flying sequences are amazing. However, the film bogs down in places and is downright dull at times (just like the first two). It's one hundred years after the original film and the tree demon from that movie has been reincarnated. Joey Wang is up to her usual tricks as a ghost trying to seduce unsuspecting men, but this time she's got her busty sister Nina Li to compete with. Bumbling Buddhist monk Tony Lueng is the victim this time, and after getting repeatedly tongued by both of the ladies (lucky bastard) he eventually falls for Ms. Wang. But the tree demon is up to no good and it's up to Wang, Leung, and swordsman Jacky Cheung to put it out of commission. Fun stuff, with the highlight being the "tongue cam" as Joey Wang's tongue explores Tony Leung's throat and stomach.
Painfully stupid. People should not be allowed to make movies like this - ever. I actually found myself yelling at the screen and covering my ears on several occasions while watching this atrocity. Some guy has some microfilm to incriminate a powerful triad leader. FBI agent Cynthia Rothrock wants to get to him before the bad guys do, and she follows him to Hong Kong where she is forced to work with a couple of idiot CID inspectors on the case. Then there's about an hour of pointless comedy crap as the cops play practical jokes on Cindy and try to seduce the suspect's sister. God, it's dreadful, and it just keeps getting worse. Thankfully, there's a minimally rewarding kung fu climax at the end when Japanese yakuza boss Michiko Nishiwaki shows up to get the microfilm. She's ultra cool as a Japanese baddie, and strangely enough all of her henchmen are familiar Hong Kong gweilos, including blondie Mark Houghton. Cynthia looks good and the three or four fights she gets into are pretty decent, but unless you're a die-hard Cynthia Rothrock fan, leave this one on the shelf.
City On Fire [1987] (product link) Action/Adventure / Drama Source material for Quentin Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs". In fact, some of the scenes in "Reservoir Dogs" are ripped off shot-for-shot from this film. Danny Lee is an honorable crook who gets involved in a jewel heist that goes terribly wrong. Chow Yun Fat is a timid cop who goes undercover to bust the crooks, only to befriend Danny Lee and ultimately betray him. Chow Yun Fat not very engaging, but Danny Lee is surprisingly charismatic. The film also features Carrie Ng in her film debut.
One of Sammo Hung's misfires, this is a long and tedious horror comedy along the same lines as "Encounter Of The Spooky Kind" (1980). Fatboy (Sammo Hung) is a bumbling young man who works for his elderly uncle (Lam Ching Ying) who's a Taoist priest (hey, there's a stretch). When Lucho, one of Fatboy's friends, mysteriously turns up dead, he's determined to find the cause. However, it's just an elaborate ruse in order for Lucho to cash in on his own funeral. Along the way, Lucho's co-conspirators find out that they'd be better off if Lucho were really dead, so they kill him. Lucho's ghost pleads with Fatboy to avenge his death and much silliness goes down. In the final twenty minutes the film takes a radical twist as Fatboy's fiancée (pretty Cherrie Chung) takes on the dangerous task of rescuing Fatboy's lost soul. A lot of bizarro Chinese mysticism comes into play here as Uncle and Cherrie prepare to trick Hell's guardians into freeing Fatboy's soul. The oddest is that when Fatboy gets turned into a beetle, the only way to hide from the hell spirits is to be wrapped in his wife's sanitary napkin. Ahem. Hey, I don't make this stuff up. Anyway, the pacing is slow and the humor is awkward and unfunny, but the wirework is astounding and the two or three obligatory kung fu brawls are quite satisfying.
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