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.

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.