Jimmy Wang Yu walks trough this fun film with his trademark stoic face, not unlike Steven Seagal.The movie has many original ideas such as a tricky fight in a bamboo forest, in and under a boat, very lively skelletons, ghosts and some kind of a rotating weapon, knwon as "Deathring", that flys trough the air chasing the target, chops heads, arms and legs off and returning to it's master.Not unlike the flying guillotine of Jimmy Wang Yu's cult classic "Master of the flying Guillotine".Directed by Sung Ting Mei who also co-directed another Wang Yu Film, "The Destroyer" 1971.Deadly Silver Spear also co-stars King Hu-darling Hsu Feng as Silver Spear's blind love interest, permanent bad guy Chang Yi and the late Blackie Ko.

Deadly Silver Spear is one of the better films to come out of his Taiwan-time and is, along with "Blood of the Dragon" directed by Kao Pao Shu, the second film with him as a spear-fighter.

Crime Story however is, in my opinion, Jackie's finest performance to date where he plays a cop of flesh and blood who must fight his own inner demons and even needs to see a shrink after he encounters a heavy shoot-out and kills most of the gangsters. When a wealthy businessman is kidnapped, Chan is assigned to the case in order to hunt down the criminals and rescue the businessman. Chan is aided by Inspector Hung (Kent Cheng), who seems to work against him in every moment. When Chan finally discovers Hung's real motive behind the case it's almost too late for him and for the kidnapped businessman.

Crime Story took three years to complete and is based on a real life kidnapping case that took place in HongKong in 1990.

The producers where trying to be as true as possible to the story altough the policework had to be shown in a simplyfied way as it is highly confidential.

Not less than 5!! Scriptwriters where responsible for the screenplay but not as one would expect, it didn't harm the outcome of the movie although some scenens seemed to be a little far fetched like in the finale where the kidnappers throwing their hostage overboard, tied to a anchor, to prevent being arrested and in the next scene the businessman is standing on the HongKong - Chinese border. In the condition he was before it could simply not be possible for the police to find him on time!

But it's possible that some scenes where cut out in the final print, even some scenes that could have helped answer questions like this one. Actually Kirk Wong's first version of Crime Story was also much darker and more violent than the one released.

When he planned doing this movie Kirk Wong had Tony Leung Chiu Wai in mind playing the lead role but for some reasons it didn't work out. He should be replaced by Jet Li but after Jet's agent, Jim Choi, was killed by some triad-killers, who wanted Jet to play a role in one of their own movie productions, whitch Jim Choi didn't agree to, he had to leave HongKong for a while and so Jackie Chan came to that part.

For Jackie the script was way to dark and violent and after a serious dispute with Kirk Wong, who left the production halfway trough, Jackie finished the movie himself. It seems to be quite a common problem that Jackie has with most of the Directors he works with;City Hunter, Accidental Spy, Drunken Master 2 to name just a few.

Still, Crime Story came out to be Jackie's most violent but also most realistic and serious film to date that no Jackie Chan Fan should miss.

Crime Story also features some truly amazing stuntwork and action sequences that are more based on streetfighting rather than kung fu moves. The most outstanding scenes are the superb car chase during the kidnapping, Jackie's awesome stunt in an abandoned ship and the explosive finale in the Walled City.

On the actors side there are Kent Cheng, who also gives an intense performance as the ruthless Inspector Hung Ting Bong, Law Kar Ying as the kidnapped businessman Wong Yat Fei, Christine Ng as Kent Cheng's mistress KaKa and also a guest appearance by Blackie Ko. The role of the psychologist plays Singapore actress Pan Ling Ling but her role is reduced to a minimum in the HongKong version. The Singapore print features some more scenes with her and Jackie. These scenes can be seen on the Fortune Star DVD. Crime Story exists in around three different versions;the Singapore version that includes the above mentioned scenes and a Thailand version that features some scenes from the unreleased Director's Cut but this version is censored in some other scenes, and of course the HongKong Cut that got a worldwide release.

Wang Yu's planned second english language movie, The New Spartans, under the direction of James Bond Director Terence Young was never made as the producers ran out of money during production.

Produced by Golden Harvest and directed by australian Director Brian Trenchard Smith, the producers tried to cash in on James Bond and the then growing easternwave with this crossover product.

Jimmy Wang Yu plays Fang, an undercover detective from HongKong sent to Australia to take down Wilton (George Lazenby), Sydneys biggest drugdealer.

Wilton is understandably not too happy about the fact that a HongKong Cop is interfering in his business, sends his henchmen to kill Fang. Fang is not really impressed by them and finally confronts Wilton in a literally explosive finale.

The Man From HongKong features some impressive fights and stuntwork.Wang Yu performed, long before Jackie Chan became famous, all his own stunts and almost got killed in the hang glider sequence.

The story itself is nothing new with not many surprises but is told at a good speed.

Jimmy Wang Yu plays his role with his trademark coolness and stoic face his fans love him for.

One-time James Bond George Lazenby appears in his second film for Golden Harvest in his first bad guy role.Lazenby had a contract with Golden Harvest for 3 movies, the first one, Stoner, where he played the lead run only 11 days in HongKong theaters, The Man From HongKong made it two days longer but both of them didn'succeed at the box office and thus the third movie was never realized.

A young Sammo Hung has a cameo appeareance as a small time gangster fighting an australian cop on Ayers Rock.

The story itself is actually nothing new: Set in the triad world, Andy Lau plays Wah, a low level triad "Big Brother" who has to protect his "Brother" Fly (Jacky Cheung) who is in dept with big boss Tony (Alex Man). Fly wants to step out of Wah's shadow and tries hard to make a name for himself but always gets in trouble, especially with Tony.

When Wah's cousin Ah Ngor (Maggie Cheung) comes to live with him a few days for getting treatment in a hospital for her illness, Wah soon falls in love with the innocent country girl. He realizes that there could be more to life than just go out on the streets every day and getting in fights and when Ah Ngor goes back to Lan Tau he follows her. Spending a few days there,he thinks about let go of the old life and start over with Ah Ngor but when Fly gets again in serious trouble with Tony and even signs for a suicide mission to take out a triad big boss on his way to trial,he wants to help Fly one more time and goes back to Hong Kong. The finale is as predictable as it is absorbing...

What really sets "As Tears Go By" ahead of the other bloodshed dramas of that decade is the superb acting from all the cast, a great music score (even though "A Moment Of Romance) had the better one), and wonderful cinematography by Andrew Lau.

Andy Lau gives a wonderful performance as Wah. Though he can probably play this kind of role in his sleep, he gives depth and fellings to his character.

The most outstanding performance comes from Jacky Cheung as the hot headed Fly. Relatively new in the movie business that time, Jacky Cheung really convinces and plays his role with gusto. The only movies I have seen him giving equal performances are in "Bullet In The Head" two years later and 1994 in "To Live And Die In Tsim Sha Tsui".

Alex Man gives his usual impressive performance as the psychotic Tony, and Maggie Cheung plays her role well altough she has not much to do in the film.

All in all "As Tears Go By" is an absorbing piece of Hong Kong moviemaking that should be seen.

DTG's fight sequences are very well choreographed and quite realistic, as far as comic adaptions go, exagerated at times with people flying a few meters after a punch or a kick, or jump a few yards of course, but hey, its a comic. Nobody complained in Batman or Spiderman. A surprise is also the rare use of CGI in the fights, there are but not like in Stormriders, Legend of Zu or Avenging Fist.

Donnie Yen tried more to concentrate on hand to hand combat and high kicks. Only in the final fight the fly and jump around or use some special skills.

Technically the movie is well made, with good cinematography and not so cheesey effects. The only negative thing is the story, the characters are coming out quite flat so the viewer will nerver get too close or really feel with them but with a running time of about 90 mins. and enough action it still manages not to get boring.

Not much more to say about it but after a few disapointing years in HongKong film making, Dragon Tiger Gate is , together with SPL a big step ahead and lets us hope that HongKong filmmakers are getting back their skills they where once famous for. Donnie Yen shows how it has to be and he could be the savior for the HongKong actionf ilm.

An entertaining and fun film, just do not compare it with SPL!!

Now they are back with a bang with the comic adaptation "Dragon Tiger Gate" and "Fatal Contact", starring "SPL" bad guy Jackie Wu Ching.

The story of the film is not of the very original sort but it gets the job done to hold together the various fight sequences. And those are some of the best to come out of Hong Kong for quite some time.

Most of the fight sequences are very realistic in choreography and very well photographed. Jackie Wu handles these scenes with a coolness and agility that makes you remember Jet Li in his good old days in Hong Kong. Jackie Wu even makes a joke about it in one scene of the film where he says to his girlfriend, "If I learn hard enough I can be the new Jet Li". Well he could be right about it, did he go to the same training school as Jet Li.

It's not very understandable why he was not cast in more movies, his first starring role was in the 1996 follow up to Jet Li's "Tai Chi Master", "Tai Chi 2" ,an entertaining martial arts comedy from director/choreographer Yuen Wo Ping. After that he disappeared for quite some time, then he showed up once again in Tsui Hark's "Legend of Zu" in 2001, where his skills where hardly used and his role was also little more than a cameo.

It seems that his talents had to be recovered once again and when Wilson Yip cast him as the white dressed knife wielding bad guy in "SPL" his hour had come and "Fatal Contact" marks his first leading role in a long time. Let's hope that this time he will get the recognition he deserves and can show his impressive martial arts skills in more action flicks to come and let the world know that there are still some martial arts fighters in Hong Kong who are on par with Tony Jaa.

Also starring is "Stephen Chow wannabe" Ronald Cheng, an actor I personally did not appreciate very much in his past movies--instead of giving his own comedic style to his movies he tries too hard to copy Stephen Chow all the time, an attempt that is as impossible as it is also useless. Surprisingly he delivers a good performance here and even shows some martial arts skills, and he handles them very well. I hope in his following movies he will also rely more on his own skills as an actor and tries not so hard impersonating Stephen Chow. All in all this movie needs to be seen and its also a good example to show that Hong Kong action movies are back. Check it out!!!

These cameos were a favor for his long time friend Jimmy Wang Yu, who helped him solving the troubles he had back in the early 80's when Jackie was threatened by the triads who tried to push him into new contracts with Lo Wei.

"Island of Fire" (or "The Prisoner", as it is also named in some countries) is surely Jackie's most brutal and gripping film in his entire career.

The story is about a prison somewhere in Taiwan where prisoners who faced death penalty soon after their "death's" reappear as assassins. After they succeeded the are killed by bombs in their getaway cars.

A police inspector, played by Tony Leung Ka-Fei, tries to investigate these strange deaths and goes to prison undercover. What he finds there is corruption, violence and inhuman conditions he would never had dreamed of. He also finds friends like Sammo Hung, who plays a depressed father who allways tries to escape to visit his little son, Jimmy Wang Yu, who seems to be the leader of the prisoners and keeps things running smooth.

Jackie's character appears about 20 minutes into the film as Hammer. He is put to jail for accidentally killing a man after a poker game when they refused to pay him his winings. What Hammer didn't know,he killed the brother of a powerful Triad-Leader (Andy Lau),who then also let himself be put in jail in order to kill Hammer.

After many brutal fights,they are sentenced to death and are executed, but to the surprise of them, they are not dead. They were chosen by the evil prison ward to kill a gangster boss on his way to trial. They are promised to be free once they fulfil this mission.

What follows is a finale in the best John Woo tradition as they, dressed in white t-shirts and black jackets, shoot their way through a whole army.

The movie ends with a shocking and absorbing scene...

Director Chu Yen Ping ("Fantasy Mission Force", "Pink Force Commando", "Butterfly and Sword") delivers with "Island of Fire" probably his best film to date. With a coherent plot, bloody action scenes, an all-star cast--that includes Andy Lau, Sammo Hung, Jimmy Wang Yu, Jackie Chan, and Ko Chun Hsiung, who all deliver powerful performaces--this film guarantees for first rate viewing from start to finish.

Specially mentioned should be the fact that the Taiwan version of "Island of Fire" runns approximately 30 minutes longer than the Hong Kong version. These additional scenes give the film much more depth and tension and also help to understand some characters better.

The Hong Kong version works fine as well, but I reccomend the Taiwan Version.

Another note to mention is the fact that Jackie Chan disliked the film because he feared it would affect his carrer negativley and thus he bought the rights of the film to stop it being released any further.

Despite this, it's without doubt, in my opinion, one of Jackie's finest films and should not be absent from any collection.

In 1997 Chu Yen Ping directed a "sequel" called "Jail in Burning Island", starring Takeshi Kaneshiro and Anthony Wong. The movie is not very well known and was released in Hong Kong on Laserdisc only. It looks also to be heavily cut in some scenes but its still an okay sequel. Would be interesting to know if there exists a full uncut version in Taiwan?!