This film spans several years and cities in the lives of the characters, constantly torturing the audience with Li Xiao-Jun and Li Chiao's unfulfilled relationship. We want them to be together but there is always something getting in the way.

Maggie Cheung is amazing in her role. She has played the flower vase in many a film, which is a shame given her talent. Leon Lai is decent but is generally overshadowed by Maggie.

This film also has a really cool ending, which theoretically was intended as somewhat of a surprise, but which observant viewers will not be shocked by. Nonetheless, it works well, bringing the film full circle. Excellent and superbly textured performance by a well rounded cast (including seasoned character actor Eric Tsang Chi-wai and heralded cinematographer Christopher Doyle), along with beautiful cinematography by Jingle Ma helps make this masterpiece the best Hong Kong production of 1996.

Ok enough about bashing the film - despite some minor flaws, this was actually a pretty good movie for the most part. The two main characters: Ekin Cheng and the almost always flawless, Lau Ching Wan, were superb in their kind of "reversal of power" roles they established throughout the film. I was really surprised by Ekin's acting - it was pretty good, almost better than his Young and Dangerous roles. Chingmay Yau's part in the film was also fairly good, but kind of left us wanting her to go away towards the latter half of the movie, as she turned into a drug addict. The cute little girl ,who was the daughter, had some very memorable and shocking scenes in the movie.

What got me was how everything molded together : story, characters, setting, action and "triad themes", to make for an above average HK production. This movie won't be on many top ten lists or become a movie to watch over and over but it is a pretty fun ride the first time through. If you want to watch this movie, ignore the title and don't' expect much then you may find it entertaining - otherwise, you may just think of it as a bunch of Wong Jing crap! Good but not great.

Three years pass by, a horrible crime has been committed where a gang of cops have been "cleanly" wiped out - basically, the work of an ace-marksman. Alex Fong, a cop who was present three years ago during that same event at the shooting range, immediately suspects Leslie, knowing what he's capable of.

If you haven't seen "Double Tap" and are planning to, you don't wanna read on cuz I'm about to giveaway the whole movie in one sentence: Leslie Cheung goes "Postal". Something sparked in his mind the moment he shot and killed that man at the shooting range three years ago. He got off on it and he loved it. Sadly, that's all the viewers have to work off of.

The best thing about "Double Tap" is the viewers never do believe that Leslie is the one responsible for all the killings, even though the proof if right in front of us on a silver platter. But still, the script is generic with almost no imagination at all. There are a few scenes at the shooting range that are well done (especially if you're interested in guns) as well as some neat bullet-action that was obviously inspired by the "Matrix". The film is nicely made and production is tight but overall, uninspiring - if that makes any sense.

My only real gripe with this movie is the nastiness of the truly evil Wah character. His brutal murder-rape scene that just doesn't belong in this kinda movie mars all the light moments. He plays his character way over-the-top in most of his scenes. Agreed, many of us enjoy HK cinema because of its audacity and ability to mix genres and tones, but the brutality of the scene, much of it shown onscreen, is simply much too shocking.

Finally, the opponents discover each other and the fight begins (there are a couple of doozies this one). There is one featuring both Yuens fighting on top of a car hanging from a crane, a sword duel at the beginning, and the end fight that makes use of guns, swords, and then hand-to-hand combat. The combatants during the end fight take some nasty falls (none using stunt doubles!). It is a truly spectacular sequence that I would compare to Drunken Master 2.

A sword fight in the beginning, a dull mass beating a little later on, one-half of a shootout in the embryo stage, and the baddie catching bullets and flicking them back at their originators like freshly-picked boogers. That's what there is to sustain the viewer until the end, where we're treated to a fairly cool "how-far-do-you-dare-to-plummet" stunt and the two Yuens go at it tooth and nail in a fight scene which is remakrable not only because the rest of the movie is a snore, but also because it perfectly illustrates the fact that Yuen Biao's physical abilities are right up there with those of Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung, the two older "brothers" whose careers have unjustly overshadowed his for far too long.

Sorry folks, but a good ending fight does nothing to remedy such a lame story, nor does it single-handedly boost the movie from the status of the 98-pound weakling who gets sand kicked in his face at the beach to that of the guy who does the kicking. The Iceman Cometh is a weak link in Yuen Biao's cinematic chain.

And I was right. "Different" in the sense that it doesn't play out at all like the plot summaries on the package and elsewhere on the web would have you believe. The movie is described as an action flick with Michelle Yeoh and Cynthia Rothrock as cops (surprise, surprise) doing pretty standard HK action flick cop stuff. Not so! The main thrust of the movie is three friends...Aspirin, Strepsil and Panadol...trying to make a big score by diving into the deep end of the organized crime pool and cutting a deal with the notorious Mr. Tin. Aspirin and Strepsil and petty thieves and Panadol is a forger/counterfeit artist who has the most unintentionally funny line in the film: "I'll do things unthinkable of!" Strepsil is stuck with the role of mediator when Aspirin and Panadol bicker (which is all the time) and Sammo Hung has a small role as their mentor, referred to only as "the old man". It's odd to see Sammo as a young man pretending to be even older than he is no (2/21/01). Tsui Hark also appears in the film...I believe he plays Panadol but since I'm not accustomed to seeing him, don't think that's set in stone. The guy who plays Mr. Tin has just about the worst diabolical laughter ever produced by villain or villainess. Young Michelle Yeoh, in one of her earliest films (#2 unless I'm mistaken) may be considered the lead and may have the most screen time but she most certainly is NOT the central figure in the story. Neither is Cynthia. This ain't no mindless "You go, girl" flick about women just kicking ass...but you might wish it was.

There's a brief and pointless shootout to start things off; then, for a good hour or so, the story just plods along with a dash of excitement every now and then to keep the viewer at least vaguely interested. The catalyst for Michelle to have the case dumped into her lap is the murder of her friend Richard (which doesn't seem to bother her on a personal level even one little bit). Cynthia Rothrock gets introduced a later on and beats up a fleeing suspect in an airport. Then she beats him up again in the interrogation room. That's pretty much all she likes to do. Beat people up. Michelle's character is more of a good Samaritan type of cop. She may be the beauty queen, but Cynthia is more fun to watch.

Like I said, the plot (such as it is) focuses primarily on Aspirin, Strepsil and Panadol. Panadol is, to be blunt, an addle-brained buffoon, and his buddies aren't exactly criminal geniuses either. Their antics are supposed to be amusing, but they give you an unpleasant sense of "filler". Strange jokes pop up in odd places throughout the film to catch you off guard, but for the most part, they're pretty lame. One notable exception is when Panadol (a complete wuss in addition to being a jackass) must elude an angry ex-customer inside his tiny apartment, which is cluttered with all sorts of obstacles that he uses to his advantage in order to keep his attacker from throttling him. Additionally, there's a part where a civil servant and a police officer argue over the right to give a parking ticket which is worth a snigger or two. Also worth mentioning: a plastic tit, an unusual recipe for applesauce, and Mr. Tin's henchman who looks like a caricature of Saddam Hussein.

So what's the point of all this? Well, it turns out that Aspirin and Strepsil have inadvertently stolen a microfilm from Mr. Tin, and it has fallen into Panadol's possession. On the microfilm is a forged real estate contract worth billions of dollars. This is the plot device around which lots of shit revolves, yet it's hardly given a mention.

So, we have two ass-kicking ladies not kicking much ass and three nincompoops not doing much of anything for about an hour and twenty.

And then, the payoff.

Considering thie sparse and watered down action seen for the majority of the movie, my expectations for the inevitable showdown between the forces of good and the unscrupulous Mr. Tin weren't too high. When said showdown took place (it WAS inevitable, after all) I was much relieved to see that the film had not been a complete waste of time. While not epic by any means, it is a very good "Us vs. Them" battle with Michelle and Cynthia sending bodies flying everywhere and Strepsil just trying to survive (the part where he's cornered by swordsmen is the funniest bit in the movie; you'll know it when you see it). After the peons are dealt with, they go after the big fish. This whole scene seems to be where most of the budget went. They really make a mess out of Mr. Tin's home. The Police Story influence isn't hard to see.

So, when that's all dealt with, it just remains for everyone to go home and live happily ever after, right? Wrong. The very end of the movie tosses out the NLP (Neat Little Package) syndrome and hits the viewer in the balls (female readers, substitute the body part of your choice). All in all, a so-so movie with a very nice finish, but not worth writing home over (unless it's next door).

Leung Ka Fai gets sent to jail for manslaughter after kicking a triad under a bus, complete with sound effects (EWW!). There, he meets up with Chow Yun Fat's Ah Ching character, who happens to be the most charismatic prison inmate ever. Stuff happens, but I don't need to say more because you WILL see Prison On Fire.

Basically, Chow Yun Fat and Leung Ka Fai both deserved awards for this film as both of them are FUCKING FANTASTIC. No jokes. While some may say Roy Cheung is his usual sneering self, it works here and the evil prison warden is bloody well suited to this flick. I was stuck to the screen for the whole thing and I hated the fact that it ended because it just really demands more - probably why there was a sequel that was almost as good (but not quite). Ringo Lam really made the dull grey prison come alive with the characters and not the visual aspect because there's only so much you can get from grey walls and dusty exercise yards.

Prison On Fire gets a bit freakin' sick near the end and Chow Yun Fat shows that Mike Tyson watches Hong Kong movies with a nasty moment, but it doesn't detract from the film because it's already shocked you with the way the prisoners are treated. Ah Ching must be the most luckless man in Hong Kong...

Some of the best acting ever.

Mind you, that complexity isn't always a good thing. While not devoid of cool surprises and some involving non-action scenes, Righting Wrongs is laughably overwritten in some ways and bafflingly underwritten in others. The diatribes about the true effectiveness of the Law (always capitalized) and the relative advisability, or lack thereof, of taking it into your own hands just eat up the time and trigger a "Well, DUH!" reaction from the viewer. At the same time, the movie suffers from a couple of really big-ass plot holes...but so what. Too much chatter gets in the way of the ass-kicking, and that is one respect in which Righting Wrongs is beyond reproach.

The fight scenes are all good, and they're well spaced-out throughout the film. Yuen and Cynthia have a great outing against each other but, sadly, don't do any team-up fighting. Also noteworthy is Cynthia's duel with Karen Shephard. Interesting to see two Caucasian women given such a great showcase for their talents in a Hong Kong movie. A stunt double is used for some of Cynthia's spots, but this isn't as big a problem as it was in YES MADAM, another Corey Yuen flick in which she appeared (check out her miraculous color-changing hair in the chandelier bit).

The climax has a great bout between Yuen Biao and Melvin Wong, who I think makes a pretty good villain. It's followed by one of the most impressive stunts I've yet seen, since we all know that HK movies from the 1980s don't use computer effects to fill in for real people.

(SPOILER ALERT: skip this paragraph if you don't want to find out what happens at the end.) Ah, that ending...what a kick in the nuts. Yes, I know there are TWO endings, and I'm actually talking about both of them. In the original, everybody dies. In the revised one, Cynthia lives but looks ready for eight weeks of physical therapy, and Yuen gets fucked over by the system he once served (although there's no question that he brazenly violated the law...oops, I mean the Law...no matter how justified his actions were). I think a synthesis of the two endings would have worked best of all; I would have had Cynthia survive (but only just), and had Yuen sacrifice himself in his kamikaze-like quest to bring down the bad guy. If the audience finds it "too shocking", I say fuck 'em.

It's a very good action movie...maybe a little too harsh for some, but such is life. If nothing else, it proves that Yuen Biao is capable of carrying the lead role instead of playing second or third fiddle to Sammo Hung and/or Jackie Chan. RW is well deserving of a recommendation...

If you can, get the HK version. I've only seen that version but everybody's saying thit it's far superior to the dubbed international print. The HK version is one of the most pessimistic movies I've seen in my life. More good guys are killed that in your avarage Chang Cheh movie! EVERYBODY dies! The ending is bloody mervelous [they changed it for the international version, because the audience was too shocked]. (SPOILER WARNING HERE) First, we get to see a huge screw pushed through Cynthia Rothrock's neck. Then the main bad guy steals an airplane and tries to escape but of course Yuen Biao makes it on the plane too. During the fight they loose the control of the plane and it crashes and explodes. Fortunately, Yuen Biao managed to jump from the plane. And lands safely in the water below? No, the plane was flying too high and when he hits the water surface, he dies. The last picture is a shot of Yuen Biao's body floating in the water, then the movie ends. Cool? I liked it.

The Bad: Despite the great choreography, "Righting Wrongs" suffers from poor editing during most of it's action shots. I can't even count how many body doubles were so obviously spotted. For instance, there is an awful closeup of a male body double for Cynthia Rothrock with BLACK hair and dark skin - For some reason, they have him standing-in for a scene that involves a simple kick over a table!? It's ironic, considering the fact that just seconds before this, Cynthia was flying all over the place.

Bottom Line: RWs features all the ingredients that make Hong Kong cinema so tasty.

To sum it, Seventh Curse is mega fun. A perfect film to watch with your friends when everybody is bored. This film has everything: blistering 80's style martial arts action (helmed by Chin Siu-Tung, who directed the international hit fantasy "A Chinese Ghost Story" the following year), monsters (a giant stone buddha, kung fu fighting skeletor "Old Ancestor" and that creepy little "head" thing that eats people), nudity, horror, comedy (not your your usual splapstick shit), special effects, splatter (it's surprisingly bloody for a HK fantasy action flick), and Chow Yun-Fat blowing monsters up with a rocketlaucher.

I can't remeber much of the plot, but it had something to do with Dr. Yuen (Chin Siu-Ho) getting a curse on him and a good tribe living in some jungle or something. Dr. Yuen teams up with female reportist Maggie Cheung and a warrior from the tribe (Ti "Dick" Wei) to battle the evil sorcerer who has been terrorising the friendly tribe... Yuen must also get the antidote to his curse before it's too late. Actually the whole adventure is told in flashback, by Dr. Yuen and Wisely (Chow Yun-Fat) at some party.

[Special note: The UK videocasette, though presented in widescreed and with subtitles, is cut. The scene where a girl from the tribe cuts his tits with a blade to save Dr. Yuen is missing (BBFC does not allow englishmen see bloody tits).]

Conan Lee is Michael Cho, an up-and-coming cop who possesses the awesome ability to beat people up faster than the speed of sound...he hits a guy and we hear the sound effect several seconds later. Wow!

Together, these two men form a...a...well, um...they form a team of two men. Their conflict in approaches to cracking the drug case to which they are assigned makes them...uh...makes them...makes them not get along too well. Unlce Jim pairs them up because...since...uh...due to the fact that...er...well, he just DOES, okay?

Integral to the story are a brother and sister who get involved with the wrong people. He works the drug market to send money to his poor mama. She makes deliveries on his behalf to help keep him out of danger and when she gets uppity with Li he has to show her who's boss. Take THAT, bitch!

The siblings' antics cause all sorts of headaches for Li and Cho. The kind cured with violence, not aspirin.

The Lethal Weapon comparison for this movie is fairly accurate. There's a decent mix of action and humor with some drama mixed in. The problem is, none of these elements has a strong enough presence to really make you sit up and take notice. Li and Cho sacrificing their pants to keep a couple of schoolgirls from getting their pretty little heads blown off may be amusing, but that's pretty much the height of the film's comedic content. Similarly, you're not too likely to be moved to tears when so-and-so dies or when such-and-such happens and the action sequences fall a bit short of genuine excitement, except for a very cool chainsaw duel at the end.

Worth mentioning is the fact that this is one of the very few HK films I've seen that makes reference to other HK stars...not just Bruce Lee, as can be expected, since he has ceased to be a "star" and has entered the realm of myth and legend, but also Jackie Chan, Ti Lung, and a cheap (but perhaps deserved) shot at Anita Mui (or, more specifically, at Anita Mui's breasts).

It's a decent HK flick in many ways, but it won't make you write home to tell the folks about it. Worth watching, but not worth spending oodles of cash on.

Other portions of the film include clips of the real Bruce Lee from early film roles that were re-dubbed to make it look like his life story. Scenes with Bruce from "Longstreet" were turned into black and white, and were also re-dubbed to make it look like Adolph Caesar was interviewing Bruce. The funny thing is, they kept on dubbing in the word "karate", a word Bruce would never use to explain his own style. At one point of the film, Adolph Caesar says "here is a scene from one of Bruce Lee's films...", then, instead of a clip of Bruce, they show a couple seconds of some unknown Chinese guy jumping off a pagoda!

The rest of the film explains that Bruce Lee's great grandfather was "One of China's greatest master samurai swordsman" (First of all, there were no Samurai in China, second of all, I'm pretty sure Bruce Lee's great grandfather wasn't a samurai). They use clips of some forgotten, boring, draggy, kung-fu flick to tell his "grandfather's" story. The film also tries to showcase Bill Louie as the "new Bruce Lee" by dressing him up like Kato in an action sequence where he saves some chicks from a bunch of thugs. Bill Louie doesn't even bother to shave his mustache off.

1. The second Shaolin guy beats up the little "Weenie"
2. Beggar beats up "Weenie"
3. "Weenie" learns a bit of Kung Fu and fights second Shaolin guy, and learns a bit more Kung Fu
4. "Weenie" goes to learn more Kung Fu from Beggar, but Beggar's student beats "Weenie" up
5. "Weenie" learns more Kung Fu, and fights gang and beats them up
6. Gets challenged by gangs leader, and goes back to Shaolin and learns more Kung Fu
7. "Weenie" kills gangs leader, and gets challenged by gang leaders brother (they have to fight with weapons)
8. "Weenie" learns a little about fighting with weapons,and then fights brother of gang leader
9. Shaolin monks help "Weenie" cheat and so "Weenie" kills bother of gang leader
10. Master of the two brothers challenges "Weenie" so "Weenie" learns the (get this) "The 36 Crazy Styles"
11. The beggar's student and "Weenie" use the 36 crazy styles to kill the master the end

The highlights include:

So who are these four horrible youths? I really can't say: even though this movie is almost two hours long, I still didn't learn a thing about its main characters. Hell, I don't even think three of them were given names; I only recall the burly nutso with the stick (Bulldozer) even being referred to by name. So, we have the boss, who's the thinker of the group, always looking pissed off. Then we have a Jim Morrison-wannabe who I completely hated, replete with long, stringy hair, leather pants, and a rock star's short temper. Next there's a blonde psycho who paints everything he can and disappears for the majority of the movie: I guess the writers couldn't think of much for this guy to do. Which is fine, because he's just as annoying as the Morrison wannabe. And finally there's Bulldozer, a big guy who wears one of those hats Reni (of the Stone Roses) made popular, and who carries around a large stick with which to beat his hostages. He's basically the only likeable character in the gang.

The movie's plot is funny and different, but in reality it's like a Saturday Night Live skit. And, like most skits, once the gist of the joke plays out, there's nowhere left for it to go. However, whereas skits end after five or so minutes, Attack the Gas Station goes on for two hours, and by then you feel that the joke has gone far too long. You just want to see these punks get beaten to a pulp or gunned down, or at least leave the gas station. 99% of the movie takes place there, and you get sick of seeing the same sets.

Halfway into the movie we see brief flashbacks for each of the four gangsters, giving us a glimpse of who they were in earlier times. In each instance we see them having their dreams ruined by either nonunderstanding parents or abusive elders. I'm not sure if the intention of these flashbacks was to make us feel sorry for the punks, or even to give us an inclination of why they went down the crime road, but personally, regardless of their hard luck, I hated these four motherfuckers and wanted to see that chick from "Shiri" walk on-screen and blast huge, gaping holes in their heads.

I'm guessing "Attack the Gas Station" was produced for and aimed at the teenage audience of South Korea. It takes a lot of jabs at school and high school gangs, and the majority of the characters are lowlife punks. So in other words, the movie is sort of like a Hollywood teen comedy, with a bunch of hip rulebreakers who I'm sure have become figures of legend to high school students all across South Korea. Not surprisingly, I've read on-line that the movie became "a national phenomenon among South Korean students in 1999." With that in mind, don't watch this movie expecting something with a lot of substance: just keep it in mind as a teenage fluff piece, and you'll be okay.

Oh, and a final note: I always believed that the worst music around was Japanese pop (or Japanese rock, or Japanese "rap"), but after hearing the music in "Attack the Gas Station," I sadly see that there is worse music, yet. So be prepared to hear a lot of bad music, from the Morrison-wannabe's pathetic rock group (which thankfully gets kicked off the stage during his flashback sequence), to the Boys II Men-esque doo-wop shit of four rival gangsters.

Choi Min Sik plays a gangster, Kang-jae, but he has kind of just fallen into that place by being lifelong friends with the gang's leader. He is angry, aggressive, and violent - but sucks at all the gangster stuff and has earned a bad reputation within his gang for it. After a drunken fight that turns deadly, the gang's leader suddenly appreciates him again.... because he wants him to take the fall. But, Kang-jae soon gets news that his wife, Failan, has died and he must travel to make final arrangements about her death.

Failan (Cecilia Cheung) had come to Korea to live with family there. She finds out they are no longer there, but cannot go back to China because she has no family there anymore. She has no one and is a stranger in a foreign land. In order to stay, a "convenience" marriage is a arranged and Kang-jae is the one she marries. Of course, this is a business arrangement and she will have to work off the money that a sponsor has put up. She cannot work as a girl in his club, though, because she is very sickly so she goes to work in a small village doing laundry. She never meets her husband and falls sicker with the disease.

The film takes its time to set up Kang-jae's character and then follows his travels to make arrangements after Failan's death. It is on this journey that he learns about her short life in Korea.

The film does an interesting job of showing us how he learns about Failan. Through her letters and the stories of others, he learns about a young woman who has made life for herself in a foreign country and appreciates everything she has. Despite his greedy reasons for marrying her, she still says he is the sweetest of all - because he married her. We see this irritable, hard nosed character learn the value of appreciating things in life that many take for granted and begin to develop feelings for this woman he never met during her life. This changes him and to see how these discoveries change him in such a short time is what makes the movie so interesting.

The film is very well done in most respects. Due to the strange nature of the story and the slow pace of the film (particularly, the long amount of time devoted to developing Kang-jae in the beginning), some viewers may be turned off. But, I believe the pay-off is worth the patience. Despite the slow pace, the development is necessary to the impact of the film. All the acting is very good, particularly Cecilia, who does very well as the young woman in a strange land with basically no one. When she spends her first night at her job and begins crying, it hurts.

Overall, this film is definitely a recommended viewing, as it really does show a unique story that has some real character and emotion to it. If you are looking for a traditional tear-jerker romance movie, this is definitely not it. Have some patience with it and you'll find a great story of a young woman who appreciates even the smallest things and a hard-nosed gangster who learns from that.

What really sets Shiri apart from others of the genre are the characters. The characters and their relationships are central to the story: the relationship between Ryu and Lee, the relationship between Ryu and Hyun, and the relationship between Ryu and Park. These relationships define the characters, draw the viewer closer, and create tension throughout the film. As the plot moves on and the partners suspect a leak, will they be able to trust each other? Can Ryu balance his dangerous job with his love for his girlfriend? Those are just a couple of the questions that will come up during the film. And, you will care because you will appreciate the rare friendship that Ryu and Lee have and the loving relationship that Ryu and Hyun have. You will also come to care about Park's motives and the hardships he has seen that lead him to where he is.

The plotline of the investigation itself is perfectly paced, neither losing the viewer nor boring the viewer. It is a very slick looking film that, while done on a miniscule budget compared to many Hollywood efforts, looks even better than said efforts. The action sequences are not depicted as choreographical showcases, but rather shoot for high tension. As such, they succeed fully, particularly in the last action scene, which will have you on the edge of your seat.

Shiri takes a standard genre and injects a human element into it, which becomes its defining trait and that which makes it rise above all similar efforts. I, myself, will delve into a cliche and call this "essential viewing".

The plot: Lee Bang-Hee, a female assassin from North Korea, has been preying on politicians in South Korea for years. Ryu, a South Korean secret agent, is obsessed with finding her. Ryu has a life outside of work: he plans to marry his girlfriend Hyun, who owns a fish shop. Hyun gives Ryu a pair of Kissingmaru, fish that need one another to survive. Can you see the melodrama coming? Meanwhile, a group of North Korean commandos gets hold of an experimental bomb called CTX, which is liquid-based and more powerful than any other type of explosive. They plan to use the experimental weapon to engender a new war between North and South Korea, one which will hopefully result in a unification of the rival nations.

Before the film's end, Ryu will be shaken by an unpleasant surprise: one that isn't very plausible, but is effective nonetheless. However, this surprise (and the action that leads to and results in its revelation) doesn't come until the second hour of the movie. The first hour is boring, full of static scenes of characters talking about doing something, then doing it: a definite no-no in the screenwriting world. Well, in Hollywood, at least. But anyway, the first half of this movie nearly bored me to tears, and I was wondering where all the accolades of this being "the greatest action movie in years" had come from.

Fortunately, the second half of the film picks up the pace, with Ryu and his associates taking on the North Korean commandos. The violence is brutal; anytime someone's shot or knifed, blood sprays in every direction. One notable scene of gore is in a flashback, as we witness North Korean commando leader Park Mu-Young (portrayed by Min-Sik Choi, who looks like an Asian Gary Oldman) slice off a passenger's face and place it over his own, in loving tribute no doubt of Dr. Hannibal Lecter. Another grisly shot has a female commando gulp down some CTX in defiant suicide; she explodes in gory splendor.

One notable way in which Shiri differs from Hollywood action flicks is in the climax: there's no happy ending, here. Hollywood is always sure to show our heroes ride off into the sunset with their girl, but Shiri stays true to its Asian roots and gives us a more tragic ending, which I must admit succeeded in depressing the hell out of me.

For a larf, try keeping up with how many times "CTX" is said in this movie. I imagine Shiri could be used as the basis for a drinking game, for college kids with too much time on their hands: chug a beer every time you hear "CTX." You'd be wasted halfway through the movie.

The plot is actually based on one invention: "Hey, let's make a movie where Lau Kar Wing plays an old master of the spear and Sammo Hung plays an old master of the sword and the every ten years these too guys have duel which ends up as a draw every single time!" "Yeah, that's funny! But I came up with an even FUNNIER idea: let's make Sammo play also old Lau's new student and then of course Lau plays old Sammo's young student!" "Now THAT'S funny! And then these younger guys also duel and are equal as well!" But there can't be only fights that always end up as a draw, so they threw in an common enemy (Leung Kar Yan) who has been beaten by both old masters and then trained himself for a re-match.

The comedic play between the two main heroes is surprisingly good, but for some stupid reason they hired Dean Shek for a cameo role [involving a disgusting scene where he disgorges eggs]. Besides that, "The Odd Couple" is a top notch film and a must see for every martial arts fun. The best weapons movie ever made.

The Bad: During the finale climax, Michelle Yeoh's character borrows a prototype "armored vehicle" for her mission. Wait until you see what this thing looks like...in one word: cheezy. They should of left it out, it's completely laughable!

Bottom Line: RW is a near-perfect Hong Kong flick with guts! For any of you HK-fans, shame on you if you haven't seen this!

So the movie isn't A-class, but it delivers. And wellÉ just to mock this one down a little bit more, and because I like cheesy movies, I have to list a few of the film's best stupidities:

1. The hi-jacking of the airplane. How in the name of Jesus Christ [our Savior] these guys managed to smuggle some heavy weaponry and a hand grenade on the flight??? Does the HK have no airport security at all? And there's a criminal escort on the plane! Should there be then somewhat HEAVY security? Hell, they searched my luggage and me pretty damn carefully just on the usual flight to Iceland. Also, everybody's shooting and fighting and even using explosives INSIDE of an airplane! The only consequence is a little shaking when a window is smashed [and a hilarious shot of one guy's head hanging outside of the window].

2. The scene of the main baddie watching news and finally shooting the TV when Michelle announces that she's going to kill him. This corny and amusing act of violence is also present in Blackie Ko's "Curry and Pepper".

3. The bad guys kill over 20 innocent people and only thing the police does is that it tells Michelle to stay of the case and locks up Henry Sanada in the Japanese ambassador's office.

4. The armored assault van prototype is the comedic highlight of the film. Stolen from the set of some cheap "Mad Max" rip-off this downright ridiculous vehicle even bursts on fire like it's made from paper [and it looks like it probably is]! And how the fuck did Michelle get his hands on this? I mean she even resigned from the police forcesÉ And you thought 70's chop sockies' plots were full of people revenging each otherÉ Well then check this out: there is four war veterans, who have vowed to live together and die together. First one of them has become a criminal so this other dude has to rescue him [by hi-jacking a plane]. Unfortunately to them on the plain are also HK cop Michelle (Michelle Yeoh), Japanese ex-agent Mr. Mutamoto [whatever] (Henry Sanada) and air security Michael Wong (Michael Wong). When this trio kills the hi-jackers, the two other veterans MUST take revenge ["Remember our vow, brother!"]. Their revenging is somewhat successful [I won't spoil it for you] so the remaining good guys MUST take revenge ["I must kill him! I must!"]. And that's exactly what happens.