I have been waiting to this for ages, especially because the last Hong Kong DVD release of this film is bad to say the least (and I don’t even count the American release that cropped off the subtitles and bottom of the Hong Kong disc, then put on new subs and released it), and was more than delighted to be able to finally see this film in the theater. Even more so since this film is tied with Days of Being Wild for my all time favorite film. Wong Kar Wai has masterfully constructed this tale of lost love set as a sort of prequel to novels THE LEGEND OF CONDOR HEROES by Louis Cha, but while it does have martial arts in action in it (with choreography by Sammo Hung Kam Bo), it is not at all the focus, and more a backdrop for these tales of loss. I love that fact that the way the stories are intertwined, that while you can tell what is going on from minute to minute, you really don’t know how it all fits together until the last 10 minutes, when the film just all falls together. The REDUX features a new shorter cut (I can’t remember all the changes, though I do seem to recall some shots of Leslie Cheung battling with Jackie Cheung at the end), which seems to make the film a bit easier to follow, a cleaned up print that has been heavily color corrected and over-saturated (sometimes a bit too much for my taste) and a new score featuring Yo Yo Ma, but which keeps the same musical themes (thankfully) but now fully orchestrated instead of synthesized like the original. This is a must see film, especially this cleaned up version, and I can’t wait to get it on DVD (I would do Blue Ray if I had a player). This is not a straight forward film, though the overall story is pretty simple, but the way it is told, and the emotions portrayed bring this film to a whole other level, which is why Wong Kar Wai is my my favorite director of all time. And after the recent stumble with My Blueberry Nights, it is so great to go back and revisit some of the films that really cemented his lead into my head.

In Ancient China the swordsman Ouyang Feng (the late Leslie Cheung Kowk Wing) lives in a desert and works as an agent, procuring swordsmen to work for pay. He is a cold and bitter man, only out to make money, and not to help others at all. Every year, his close friend Huang Yoashi (Tony Leung Ka Fai) comes to visit him, and this year he arrives with a gift from a friend, which is a wine purported to be magic, that will remove a person’s memories, and make their life easier. Ouyang Feng doesn’t believe in it, so he doesn’t have it, but Huang Yoashi does, and drinks some, and starts to forget, before wandering off in the morning. Ouyang’s next visitor is the swordsman Mu Rong Yang (Brigitte Lin Ching Hsia) who wants Ouyang to kill Huang Yoashi, who has hurt his sister Mu Rong Yin (also Brigitte Lin), because he promised to marry Yang’s sister is he had one, but never showed up. Yin then shows up wanting to pay more to hire Ouyang Feng to have her brother killed, because she loves Huang Yoashi, and doesn’t want to be apart from him. Of course it turns out that Yin and Yang are in fact one person, driven mad by her love for Huang Yoashi, who must have been able to tell that it was a woman he was talking to, and make a drunken declaration he never meant to honor, because his heart already belonged to another.

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A classic Ti Lung and David Chiang epic, this one about a Robin Hood like pirate, the corrupt people he is fighting and an honorable general sent to stop him. Some great at sea fighting, with good character. Enjoyable all the way around. A classic Shaw and Chang Cheh film, and the Region 3 DVD looks amazing.

Chang Pao Chai (Ti Lung) is an honorable pirate, who steals from Foriegners and especially the evil East India Trading Company, but after taking a really big haul his ship is badly hurt, and he must make shore to get materials to make repairs. On shore things aren’t so good though. Not only has another pirate named Hua Er Dao (Fan Mei Sheng) been captured and escaped, but there is powerful man named Zheng Yi (Tin Ching) who controls the docks, and with corrupt officials are using thugs to supposedly investigate pirates, but really steal and damage the boats, then charge so much for repairs that family’s have to sell their daughters into prostitution. Chang goes in posing as a Taiwanese trader, and goes to purchase the parts, but when he goes to the docks, and sees how bad off the fishermen are, he promises to pay for all their repairs. He returns to his boat, but learns 4 of his crew have sneaked off so he goes to get them, sending his trusted two to get money and give it to the fishermen, but Hua Er Dao shows up, hating Chang, and steals the boat and all the money, and sails off even thought the boat is not fit to sail.

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An absolute classic, the form that Jackie Chan would soon take in his modernizing Kung Fu into current times, done just 2 years before Police Story, Lau Kar Leung shows what a master he is. It is a role i would love to see Jackie take, to be a character in his films, as well as fight choreographer, and maybe save the big fight for himself, but to have other people as the focus of the film throughout, and him as the old master. Lau does it so well. I first saw the final fight of this film thanks to my friend Jeff Briggs on Laserdisc, and was just blown away. Sure the film is silly at times, and the 1980′s disco clothing could not be more dated (but then every gang in a Jackie Chan film still looks like this today), but it is silly fun, and a great tale of cultural classes, not just the traditional vs. the new, but China Vs. it’s emigrants who think they know but don’t, and of course the tradition has to save the day in the end. And the re-teaming of Lau Kar Leung with Kara Hui after the amazing My Young Auntie works perfectly here. A must see, and the region 3 Celestial Disc looks amazing.

Wong Hsia Yuan (Lau Kar Leung) is the teacher at the Wah Chiang Association in Hong Kong with 5 students, including Lee Hon Mak (Gordon Liu Chia Hui), who is ready to fight the police, when they decide to wreck the school to create a freeway, but they get word from their master oversees Chan Chen that it is OK, to start a new school, and we will come to oversee the opening ceremony. They get a new school, and are waiting for their master to arrive at the airport, but instead his daughter Chan Mei Ling (Kara Hui Ying Hung) shows up and throws everything upside down!

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Certainly not as good as when Gordon Liu partnered with his adopted brother Lau Kar Leung, but you can’t go wrong with any movie that starts with him posing in a suit with a Thompson Submachine Gun. Not too much character development, but bloody violence with fake machine guns throughout make this film worth checking out.

An Envoy from Beijing Inspector Zhi Cheng has come to Canton to root out corruption, but he is almost killed, but saved thanks to the quick thinking of a coolie named Lin Si Hai (Gordon Liu Chia Hui) who was working at the docks with his his handicapped friend Wai. The Inspector orders the Commissioner Luo Guo Dong to give Lin a job before he heads back to Beijing. Lin goes in all proud, but he is made to sweep the floors, but when he sees the corruption, he sees he can move up, and starts tipping off a local triad boss Jin Tian Fu (Guk Fung) of raids in exchange for money. He also shows the commissioner the corruption in the precinct and becomes an inspector, but that doesn’t last long. He gets the commissioner’s wife to start a casino, and gets the commissioner to become corrupt, by letter Lin go off and become a local thug.

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This movie has some great fight scenes, and so much damn potential, with a fans wet dream of a cast, and a huge epic triad drama, but it suffers a bit from having too many characters, so you don’t get enough from any one, and from and ending that has typified many mainstream triad films in Hong Kong since the handover. It seems of late that most films have to have the Triads lose at the end, and I don’t know if that is a mandate from the government, or people are just following the lone, but it seems today that films like the Young and Dangerous films would never have been made today. As for the action, it is bad ass, and Wu Jing is always a pleasure to watch, and it is cool to see Triad knife fights where limbs come flying off, even if they do have to look a little digital to do that. And of course the inevitable Sammo and Wu Jing matchup is worth watching the film for. The film starts to show some character at points, but then never goes back to those things (like in Simon Yam Tat Wah’s story) making much of the most interesting character just fall flat, because it is never given a chance. I still enjoyed watching most of this film, but it had so much more potential than it actually pulled off. A bit of a disappointment.

This film is the story of a prominent and vicious triad society in Hong Kong led by Big Brother Lin Ho Lung (Sammo Hung Kam Bo). The film starts with a party being held for his newborn son with his mistress Tracy (Pinky Cheun Man Chi), though his wife (Tien Niu) seems perfectly happy with the arrangement. Things heat when a team of police show up led by Senior Inspector Liu Chi Chung (Danny Lee Sau-yin once again playing a cop). Lung’s gambling addicted brother Lin Ho Tung (Simon Yam Tat Wah) goes out with Tin Hung (Wu Jing) and another lieutenant Lau Kwok Wai (Ken Lo Wai Kwong), but things get worse until Lung comes out and stops things, but this has got the cops looking at their society. The society starts out on top, going out and using enforcer Tin Hung to literally chop off the limbs of other gang members, and work at getting huge amounts of drugs, but things start to fall apart.

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I went into this not expecting much, and while this film does not hew too closely to the original material, I actually enjoyed this epic popcorn film. I thought they even did a good job with Maggie’s Q’s makeup so you could almost believe that she is 100 Chinese. Nothing too deep here, but an enjoyable and bloody epic film that is an overarching story of betrayal and trust. Worth checking out, though certainly no competition of John Woo’s the Battle of Red Cliff.

The film starts at the end as an old Zhao Zhilong (Andy Lau Tak Wah) says goodbye to his closest friend Pingan (Sammo Hung Kam Bo) and heads out to do battle with the armies of Cao Cao’s granddaughter Cao Ying (Maggie Q). We then go back in time to see Zhilong joining up as normal soldier and befriending Pingan. And when Pingan lost Liu Bei’s (Yueh Hua) wife and son, Zhilong stands up for him, and fights Liu Bei’s chief Lieutenants Guan Yu (The great Ti Lung) and Zhang Fei (Chen Zhihui). Zhilong’s skills are so impressive that they send him after Liu Bei’s son, and he manages to return him, even having a run in with the enemy Cao Cao (Damian Lau Chung Yun) , and quickly move up the ranks, becoming known as invincible, though Pingan never does move up.

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A gorgeous if overall vapid popcorn action film set as a period drama piece. Not a horrible, and not a bad watch, but overall disappointing in it’s story and even battles, though the production design and particularly the armor is absolute eye candy. A film set in a fantasy China that never existed, between unknown warring kingdoms it is ultimately a message about the uselessness of war, but the message seems diluted, and you actually picture the kingdom being taken over at the end for being week. Oh well, this is one that is best not to think about too much, just let it wash over you visually. At least Kelly Chen Wai Lam is as cute as ever, even if she still has that semi blank look to her through much of the film.

The kingdom of Yan has always been known as a land of warriors, and is constantly at war, but when the king is wounded in battle, he passes on his mantle to an adopted orphan Myong Xuehu (Donnie Yen Ji Dan) who is the lands most successful general, but doesn’t really want the job. The problem is that the king’s ambitious nephew Wu Ba (Guo Xiao Dong) will stop at nothing to get the job, and even secretly kills the king when he hears the news. When Myong Xuehu is supposed to be sworn in, instead he passes the mantle to Yan Feier (Kelly Chen) since the king left his sword with her. This is highly irregular, as it is supposed to be a male, but Feier agrees to be trained by Myong or as she calls him brother Hu in the ways of war for the good of her beloved country. And Myong starts to beat the hell of her in many training exercises, which she can never top him. And we see that they both care about each other, even if this is the only way they can show it. Of course Wu Ba isn’t taking this lying down, and he sends out assassins with poison to kill the princess, who hit her, but she manages to escape, with the help of a doctor living on his own named Fuan Lanquan (Leon Lai Ming).

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I had been excited to see this film since long before it came out, and agian have had the DVD since it was released, but can you believe I just watched it now? I can’t either, but it is the truth. And after seeing it I wish I hadn’t waited because this is a sumptuous and erotic epic set during the one of the darkest times in Chinese history, it’s occupation by the Japanese. Everything about this film is gorgeous, the luscious cinematography, the stunning visual effects, the sets and the costumes. And of course Tony Leung Chu Wai is amazing, but so Tang Wei in her debut role, and what a role. Tang Wei is really amazing here, torturted and forced to endure way too much until it pushes her just too far. This almost 3 hour epic is a must see. Ang Lee has proven himself once again to be one of the top directors the not just now, but ever.

This film starts with the modernist take, starting at the end, with Wong Chia Chi aka Mak Tai Tai (Tang Wei) entering a cafe and calling her revolutionary friends, setting up a hit of some sort. This is in Shanghai during the Japanese occupation of China during World War II. We then move back 4 years in time. We see the younger Wong Chia Chi on her way to Hong Kong to escape the occupation. Her father has already left for England, but did not take her when her mother died, so she is going to Hong Kong to go to school. She quickly falls for Kwang Yu Min (Wang Lee Hom) an older student who directing a nationalist play, and somehow as a freshman she becomes the lead, bringing the audience to tears and bringing in donations for the cause of liberating China. Kwang doesn’t think that plays are enough though, and decides to turn his group into revolutionaries targeting Chinese collaborators. Through his cousin Tsao (Chin Kar Lok, this guy rules, and I hope he made some good money doing this) they are able to infiltrate Wong Chia Chi as Mak Tai Tai, a woman married to an import and exporter. She goes in and becomes friends with Yee Tai Tai (Joan Chen) and her husband (Tony Leung Chu Wai). Things go well for a while, but Yee is too cautious and won’t enter their apartment so they can kill him, and they realize Mak Tai Tai will have to seduce Yee. And since Kwang isn’t experienced, the duty falls to the one of them who has been with hookers, and Mak Tai Tai is forced to have sex with him again and again. Then they learn that the Yee’s are leaving for Shanghai, and they won’t see them again. Tsao then shows up confronting them, as he has been left behind, and now wants in on their action, and they stab and kill him, and Wong runs out and runs away. We cut to 3 years later in Shanghai, Wong Chia Chi has been left by her father who has remarried, and goes to Japanese school while living with her aunt, and is just a shell of a woman, having giving everything for the man she loved, and accomplished nothing but making her a fallen woman.

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A decent though not amazing Johnnie To thriller with shades of REGARDING HENRY. My favorite To leading manning Lau Ching Wan is excellent as always and Carman Lee is good too, and actually the film only suffers because the action is only mediocre. An opening stunt falling off a roof looks ridiculous, and the action never gets much better, but the film itself is enjoyable throughout. Worth checking out, and the Region 3 Shaw disc looks amazing. Damn I wish all Hong Kong discs looked this good.

Lau Ching-Wan plays Lau a despicable Hong Kong cop who pushes his lovely wife (Carman Lee Yuek-Tung) into the arms of another man through total neglect, and womanizing and drinking. On a big drug deal, he has a cop and junkie in the room, and the evil drug dealer (Tou Chung-Wah) realizes the woman is a cop and kills her, and injects the junkie with drugs. Some radio static stops them from saving the girl. One of Lau’s cops tries to get the junkies heart started, and ends up breaking his rips and killing him, and Lau callously has him transfered. Lau also ruins the career of another cop by reporting him for asking Lau to help him with his nephew who was arrested for drugs. Lau keeps ignoring his wife, not going to dinner with her mom when they had planned it, and getting so drunk he doesn’t even go home. Finally he agrees to meet her, and she tells him she is pregnant and he flips out, then he tells her that it isn’t is and she is moving home, and he freaks out and leaves.

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I am a huge fan of Shaw brothers Martial arts films, but this one just felt like it fell fell a little flap. It has enjoyable action set pieces, but the story is really flat, and there is so little character development that many characters aren’t even named (at least in the English subtitles). I just never got into the characters, and I though that beautiful Hui Ying-hung would be in the film more, especially since she is so featured on the cover, and the film is called The Tigress of Shaolin, but she is only in a few scenes. The film also veers wildly form comedy to drama, and doesn’t really find a great balance ever. This film is mediocre at best, and I don’t recommend it.

Xiao San (Liu Chia-yung) practices martial arts, and when his father dies, he gives him a letter recommending to a martial arts master to receive training. On the way he runs into a drunken old man named Drunken Shrimp who tries to force him to drink, and ends up fighting him, and getting him beet up by his lovely goddaughter (Hui Ying-hung). Xiao San shows up some street hustlers selling fake medicine and has a run in with Uncle Jin who is running a protection racket. When he shows up Master Meng’s place, it turns out Uncle Ji works for him, as well as Blind Man (A man dressed as a cross between a hippy and a native American with round sunglasses) who run an evil martial arts school and also sell fake medicines, and beating up people so they have to come to them for medicine. They beat up Xiao San, but when he shows his letter, they give him a menial job. While cleaning up though, he overhears a big drug deal between Meng and an evil government official called Ling, so he must run.

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A wonderful Shaw martial arts romp, staring the ever amazing Ti Lung. This film is enjoyable and totally bad ass. Really a must see. Great martial arts and an enjoyable story and amazing martial arts by the great Lau Kar Lung. And the character of Wu Sung which Ti Lung so expertly plays is memorable and like-able, really drawing you into this story. Well worth checking out, and really a must see.

Ti Lung plays Instructor Wu Sung, a widely renowned martial artist. His brother was killed by his unfaithful wife, who he hunted down and killed and in the opening scene kills the other man, and then gives himself up to authorities. He is taken by two guards who treat him well to head to prison, but on the way they stop at an inn, where the owner Witch Suen Er Niang, who drugs the wine, but Wu Sung is not tricked, and defeats her and her men while still in his kang. The husband of the Witch returns, and it is Zheng Ching who stops his wife, and Zheng and Wu Sung become fast friends, and promise they will help him if he ever needs it, but Wu Sung is honorable and heads off to prison. Wu Sung meets the Warden who wants to be bribed, but Wu Sun refuses, so he expects bad treatment, but is instead treated well, and doesn’t know why, but it turns out the warden’s son Shi En (Tien Ching) needs his help. His restaurant in a square called the Delightful Forest has been taken by a thug called Jian Jiang Min Sun, and he wants Wu Sung’s help in getting it back.

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I have been so excited to see Wong Kar Wai’s American Feature Debut, and have to say I was a bit disappointed. While this film is ostensibly a single film, it feels more like 3 films stuck together with an actress without the chops to make it one film. In fact Nora Jones acting, while it improved through the film, was just not nearly up to snuff with the other actors. And in fact the other ancillary actors are all amazing.Wong Kar Wai got out his past amazing level of performance with the great actors. Jude Law, David Stratharin, Natalie Portman and Rachel Weisz have never been better, and the only problem is that Nora Jones is just kind of their as the audience, much like Charlie Sheen’s character was like in PLATOON. She acts as the audience, and just doesn’t match with these other amazing performances. In fact for the first time I really noticed the transitions to Wong Kar Wai’s ubiquitous Frame Step Technique, which I normally love, but here at times it felt jarring. That is not to say I hated this film, I enjoyed it, and the supporting actors were fantastic, but still it felt more like Wiong Kar Wai light, and is one of my least favorite Wong Kar Wai films (not saying too much since he is my favorite director).

The film starts with the British owner of a cafe in New York named Jeremy (Jude Law) has a run in with a customer named Elizabeth (Norah Jones) who is trying to find out if her ex is cheating on her, and of course he is. Jeremy keeps keys for people with Ex’s, so they don’t have to think about them, and he takes Elizabeth’s keys. Elizabeth eats blueberry pie with him, and he starts to like her. She then returns to get her keys back, but instead gets the story of all the keys, including his key about a missing Russian girl. When she leaves she gets mugged, and he gets hit by customers fighting. And finally Elizabeth leaves, and leaves Jeremy period, leaving for Memphis, Tennessee to forget her boyfriend.

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A gorgeous and moving remake of Chang Cheh’s classic BLOOD BROTHERS (which was a better title for this film) about 3 sworn brothers who are torn apart by infidelity and want of power. The film also features some intense and nasty battles, but that is not what the film is about. And I just loved the spectacular look and feel which has a grit and dirtiness we see everywhere which makes this feel so much more real. And it is so cool to see Jet Li see such a flawed character, who is only out for himself. He is amazing, and if he wants to make movies like this I can see why he has given up making straight martial arts films, because he is just so damn good in films like this as he was in Hero This is the best dramatic performance I have ever seen out of a martial arts acting, leaping him from action start to true actor. This epic saga is a must see, even if we know what will happen (it is a remake after all), as this is one of the best looking films I have ever seen, and an instant classic. I would really be surprised to not see this winning some awards, because it certainly deserves them.

Jet Li plays General Pang Qing Yun a general in the Qing army fighting the Taiping Rebels, but his men and he were betrayed by another army on their side who help back from battle, and so his men were slaughtered and he played dead to survive, and slink away. He walks away a dead man, and starts following a beautiful woman named Lian (Xu Jinglei), who gets wary, so he passes her, but collapses. He awakens in an abandoned house with the girl giving him soup and taking care of him. He learns she was trained to be a courtesan, but her childhood friend stole her away as she was to be sold, and now she lives with the bandit, but has run away many times, as she did this time. In the night she comes over to his bed and holds him, but when he awakens she is gone. He heads to the village and sells his armor and sword and goes to find food, but Jiang Wu Yang (Kaneshiro Takeshi) rides into town with his bandits, trading food for people to join them, and he recognizes Pang’s boots of a general, and gets him to join them in an attack on Qing soldiers for their supplies along with his elder brother Zhao Er Hu (Andy Lau Tak Wah). The battle is fierce, and Jiang is almost killed, but Pang saves him and kills the leader, so they take the supplies and head back to their village. There Pang sees Lian and finds out she is Zhao’s wife. They want him to join, but don’t know if he will, and then the QIng attack and take their supplies back, and Pang convinces them to join the Qing army so they can be strong, and that they will only be gone for 3 years and will return powerful men. The three become Blood Brothers and leave with 180 men, though one group refuses to join the Ching and heads off to join the Taipings.

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I have been waiting for another team of Johnnie To, Wai Ka Fai and Lau Ching Wan for so long, it is ridiculous, and this film does not disappoint. In fact this one has you rethinking the whole film by the time you get to the end, and thinking about it for days later. This is an mazing film with a powerhouse performance by Lau Ching Wan as the Mad Detective. This may not be the best film to initiate someone into the Milkyway Films Crime dramas, but it is an amazing one, and another instant classic.

Lau Ching Wan is Bun a police inspector and amazing criminal profiler who literally puts himself into the criminals shoes to solve cases, and solve them he does, even being locked in luggage and thrown down stairs by a rookie detective named Ho (Andy On Chi Kit). Bun has a dark side though and when his superior (Eddy Ko Hung) retired instead of a present he stands there and cuts his ear off and hands it to him, and quickly gets dumped from the police force. Years later two cops are out waiting to catch an Indian thief, these are Ko Chi Wai (Gordon Lam Ka Tung) and Wong Kwok To, and one of the cops disappeared, and 8 months later still hasn’t been sean, and Ho has been put in charge of the case, and goes to see Bun. Bun’s wife May (Kelly Lin) is obviously dismayed and even tells Bun that this case will kill him, and as Ho explains things to Bun, Bun and May get in a fight, and Bun shoves Ho out, but then we see from Ho’s eyes that May is not there at all, but in Bun’s head. Bun does agree and starts working with Ho on the case, and explains to him how he can see people’s inner personalities, and as they start to follow Ko, he says he can see 7 Personalities, and we see them as different actors included Lam Suet as his sweating scared self, the ultra violent self is Eddie Cheung Siu Fai and the calculating woman running the show is Lau Kam Ling.

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You have to be wary of any film with Wong Jing attached, and since he wrote and produced this one, I should have known that it might be time to stay away, but having Anthony Wong and Francis Ng in the leads with Eric Tsang in a supporting role made me buy it. This was a mistake. I still do pick up Wong Jing films because he occasionally makes either a really funny one, or an enjoyable one, but this film is neither, in the fact the only laughs you will get is because it so bad. The story is ridiculous and overly convoluted, and the awful acting of Pop Idol Alex Fong really helps to forestall even a decent performance out of the leads. This is an absolute do not waste your time kind of film.

In an unnamed future city (shown in awful still skylines that I could have done better in my sleep) a triad boss named The Principle has decided to get out and go legit, but his underling Winston (Andrew Wu, damn this guy looks like he could be Ekin Cheng’s long lost uglier brother) betrays him. The Principle gives his beloved granddaughter Rain (Tang Yan) a key to his safety deposit box and a code get into it, as well as 2 halves of a bill, that if mailed with bring in his best friends, the famed killers Bullet and Brain to save her, then he leaves and is killed. Rain is meanwhile being watched by the police and they have sent an inexperienced cop (Alex Fong Lik-Sun) to protect her. Of course the cop does an awful job, and the bills get sent out, and in come Bullet (Francis Ng Chun-Yu) and Brain (Anthony Wong Chau-Sang). These two both have issues though, and will no longer kill, as Bullet pines over an ex lounge singer who was killed, and Brain worries about a young girl he saved, whose family was killed.

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I originally saw this at the now defunct Garfield theater in San Gabriel in a double feature with the amazing 8 1/2 send up Viva Erotica. This is one of my top 10 movies, and certainly one of my favorite love stories, and it doesn’t hurt that it features my favorite actress, the lovely Maggie Cheung Man-Yuk. And not only that, but I also think this is the role that Lai Ming was born to play. And of course Eric Tsang is always great. This is an amazing movie, and really is almost a love story. These 2 should be together, but things just don’t quite work out for them, but can they? Really a lovely film, but it deserves a special edition with a good transfer, because the DVD I have seems to be the same transfer as the laserdisc I also own. And I just love that my favorite Cinematographer Christopher Doyle plays the English Teacher in this film.

Li Xiao-Jun (Leon Lai Ming) is a Mainlander who immigrates to Hong Kong from his hometown of Wusih in 1986. He has a girlfriend backhome named Xiao-Ting (Kristy Yeung Kung-Yu) who he constantly writes to. He makes a trip to McDonalds as he has never been and meets a local girl named Chiao (Maggie Cheung Man-Yuk) who sidelines in selling English classes to Mainlanders. The two seem like unlikely friends, but slowly as she starts to using him in her money making schemes the two get closer and closer. After one scheme to sell the music of Taiwanese singer Teresa Teng fails, the two end up as casual lovers, which is complicated because Xiao-jun is supposed to marry Xiao-ting. Eventually as the economy sours, Xiao-jun is doing better as he has started working as a chef, while Chiao is doing pretty badly, and has to start working at a massage parlor for cash. Things get really awkward when Xiao-jun buys the same gold bracelet for both girls, and Chiao breaks it off with him, because she obviously has more feelings for him, and starts seeing a gangster named Pao (Eric Tsang Chi Wai).

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Another overly complex martial arts film, with some pretty cheesy special effects. Cheng Pei is as great as always, but the film is a little much, and certainly not one of the Shaw’s best films. Only go for it if you are a huge Cheng Pei Pei fan. This is of course another Region 3 disc, and is anamorphic so it looks great.

Cheng Pei Pei plays a woman whose family was murdered by some evil villains when she was a child, but she was raised by a kindly martial arts master (Goo Man Chung), and is out to seek. She works with a group of good martial arts masters, but they have a demon in their midst, played by Wong Chung Shun. Cheng Pei Pei goes out and does good, and meets the head of the beggars (Yueh hua) who helps her and becomes her ally. Wong Chung Shun uses this connection to cheat her, and causes her to be thought of as the traitor, so she must escape to prove her name. She goes out an hooks up with Yueh Hua again to go and clear her name.

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The first Chinese language film to be nominated for an academy award, and is of course a partnership with Gong Li, who really makes the film with her amazing performance. This is a horrible tragedy, but an an amazing film about that time in Chinese history and what it could be like for women.

Ju Dou takes place in early 20th century China. Yang Tianqing (Li Baotian) returns from a trip selling silk to his adoptive uncle Yang Jinshan (Li Wei). Jinshan has just purchased his third wife, after beating the last 2 to death. THis is Ju Dou (Gong Li) and since she hasn’t gotten pregnant he beats the hell out of her, but in fact he is impotent. Tianqing instantly likes Ju Dou and carves a whole in teh wall so he can watch her bather. She discovers the whole, and at first is worried, but then realizes maybe it will be a way out. She and Tianqing make love and a child Tianbai is born, though Jinshan thinks it is his own.

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Another swinging 60′s James Bond rip, and with a quick cameo by Ho Li Li, so I am of course there. Not the best film certainly, but still fun overall in a ridiculous over the top way. And amazingly the music is not a bond rip-off and is actually good. This film is silly fun.

Tang Ching is the titular Interpol agent 009 who is sent to Hong Kong to stop a counterfeit operation making American bills and sneaking them around in cars. He meets a woman singer on the plane (Sam Yi) another women who works for the counterfeiters (Margaret Tu Chuan). The woman counterfeiter and her right hand (Ku Feng) follow him, so he gets arrested and in jail meets a thief that hooks up with him. 009 must stay alive and stop the counterfeiters before they move on after this operation.

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I have to admit I only saw this for Fan Bing Bing after seeing her in Flash Point, and she is certainly cute here. This is a stupid romantic comedy all the way around, but I have to admit i did laugh. It is pretty funny, and I actually liked the ending. And of course Yuen Wah is fun. And even Richie Ren isn’t too bad in this, though I am never really a fan. An enjoyable one off, just don’t expect anything except a couple of laughs.

Fat (Richie Ren) is a rich investment banker in Beijing with a very non-traditional girlfriend named Rachel (Kate Tsui Tsz Shan). Rachel learns to pole dance and carries a condom for casual sex, so Fat can’t introduce her to his traditional father Master Fok (Yuen Wah). So Fat and Rachel decide to fool his father by employing a fake girlfriend to blow their mind, and make then easier to accept Rachel. They hire out of work college graduate Joe (Fan Bing Bing) and her gay American friend Alex (Ian Powers). And they go and try to blow the minds of Fok his wife, and Fat’s aunt.

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I am a huge Ti Lung and David Chiang Dai Wei fan and also Chang Cheh, but for being the number 2 to Bruce Lee’s the Big Boss, this could have been a better film. Sure the action is great, but there is too much use of shaky camera moves and zooms, that do detract from the story, but that isn’t as bad as having this scope film presented in non anamorphic 4×3 screen size. Blech. Still David Chiang and Ti Lung are as enjoyable as always, even if the movie is only decent. The Action by Liu Chang Liang/Lau Kar Keung is of course top notch, and it is cool to see Ti Lung fight with a Thai Boxing style and David Chiang fight with Chinese boxing. A nice contrast. And the “stylish” outfits that David Chiang wears have to be seen to be believed!

Fan Key (David Chang Dai Wei) is a construction engineer, and martial artist. His father runs a chinese boxing school. His father has a heart attack when he is supposed to go to Thailand, and he leaves it to his son before he dies. It turns out Fan Key has an older brother from a Thai woman in Thailand, and all he has to go on is a photo of him as a kid, with 2 tattoos on his arm, and he knows that he is a Thai Boxer, so Fan Key goes to find his brother. In Thailand Wen Lie (Ti Lung) who is Fan Key’s brother has to make money for an operation for his mother, so he is entering a fight against the current champion Cannon (Guk Fung). A fight promoter named Qiang Ren (Chan Sing) tries to get them to sign with them, but Wen Lie refuses, and so the gangsters plan on killing him at the fight.

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The curse of the music video director’s, this is a gorgeous, even sumptuous film, but even with an all star cast, action by Phillip Kwok Chun Fung, and not only an adaption of John Woo’s A Bullet In the Head (but moved to 1930′s Shanghai), but with John Woo attacked as an extecutive producer, but the film still falls absolutely flat. There is nothing to the story, the characters are so underdeveloped that they are laughable, and you just don’t care about any of them, and the action is so badly shot that you even that doesn’t elevate. This film is really a waste of talent all the way around.

Daniel Wu is Fung, a country boy in love with a gorgeous women named Shen Zen (Lulu Li), but whose best friend Hu (Tony Yang) and his other brother Kang (Liu Ye) who protects them, decide to go to Shanghai to make it big he goes along. Fung and Hu work as rickshaw pullers, but Kang works at a club called Paradise, run by the gang boss Hong (Sun Hong Lei). Kang brings his two friends there to see the place, and they see the gorgeous singer Lulu (Shu Qi) who Kang instantly likes, but she is in fact in love with Hong’s right hand Mark (Chang Chen) who is also Hong’s killer. That night Mark decides to Kill Hong, and goes to do it, but is wounded, and ends up getting helped out by Fung.

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A lovely mainland Chinese film about a man doing all he can to bring his friend’s body home from the city to the family in the North East who he can’t find. It is all about loyalty, and the people one meets when going on such an adventure, and it really is a lovely little tale. I enjoyed Yang Zhang’s films Shower and Quitting, so this was a no brainer, and I am happy I picked it up. And luckily the mainland Chinese disc has English subs, though you can’t really tell from the label.

Zhao Benshan plays Zhao a man whose best friend Liu died in the city working as a constuction worker, and he has no money for a coffin and is literally carrying his friend back home to the North East of China any way he can. He has only a tiny bit of money, though his friend has $5000 from the company, which he plans on taking back to the family to help them.

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I am a big fan of not only Lily Ho Li Li, but also of Inoue Umetsugu and his swinging sixties musicals. I love this ridiculous ideal world with bad ass and suave boys who are also musicians and the beautiful women that love them. And this fun romp with a battle for the best drummer is no exception to the fun, especially with Ho Li Li in it. Another classic Shaw musical (though as with the rest of Inoue’s films the music is not incongruous to the picture and actually fits in to the characters playing).

Ho Li Li plays a rich girl named Huang Li Chen, who lives with her brother David (Pei Shan Chang) a guitar player. Li Chen manages a band that is getting really hot, mainly because of it’s drummer Golden Arms Charlie Chao (Chan Hung Lit) who Li Chen obviously likes, but who has gotten a big head, and wants more, like the beautiful Julie (Angela Yu Chien) who is the girlfriend record producer Chiang Ta Cheng (Ma Ying). A music critic named Li Yuen Ming (Wei Ping Ao) wants Li Chen, so she wants to get Charlie away from her, and conspires to get him signed with the record Producer, this ruining the band. Luckily their friend, the music writer Sun Yi CHuan (Yang Fan) has showed them his bad tempered former sailor brother Sun Chih Chiang (Ling Yun) who is able to take over and prove to be a pretty good drummer. The sleazy record reviewer then makes a deal with Sun that he will help him destroy Charlie if Sun will help Li court Li Chen.

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Another ridiculous Hong Kong comedy, and starting one of the twins, that being Charlene Choi Cheuk Yin (who is actually very good in the film, too bad everything else is bad). The movie has a ton of great Cameos, but they don’t really elevate the material, nor does the fact that they put a silly comedy about acting and crowbar it into a police drama, which really doesn’t work. The film just didn’t gel, and Jim Chim Sui Man is just annoying, I know it is about overacting, but his overacting just gets totally annoying.

Chan Man Long (Jim Chim Sui Man) is a Hong Kong cop who is barely competent and would rather be pretending to be a panda for kids than fight crime. He is just an idiot, and is in an unhappy relationship with his girlfriend of 8 years (Michelle Yip Suen). The police are having problems with the mob boss Crazy Sam (Chapman To Man Chat) who killed an undercover with a message reading ‘crap acting.’ The police chief (Hui Siu Hung) has to send a cop to acting school to see if they can get a good actor to go undercover so they send the bumbling Man Long. Man Long joins an acting school, along with another new student, the soft core porn actress Dani Dan (Charlene Choi Cheuk Yin). She wants to be a better actress in her porn films.

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