Profile: Moon Lee Choi-fung

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Profile: Moon Lee Choi-fung

Date of birth: February 14, 1965 (Hong Kong)

Other names: Lee Choi-fong

Occupation: Actor, dance teacher

Style: Ballet

Biography: Moon Lee is a retired television and film actor known for her dominant role in the so-called ‘girls with guns’ sub-genre of female-led Hong Kong action films, produced during the 1980s and 90s. Lee Choi-fung was born in Hong Kong. At the age of six, the Lee family moved to Taiwan where her father owned a business. The family returned to Hong Kong when Lee was 12 years old. She continued her keen interest in ballet, piano, modern dance and acting at middle school. Following a …

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The Tuxedo (2002)

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The Tuxedo (2002)

The target audience for The Tuxedo is somewhat ambiguous; too gory and convoluted for a really young crowd, and despairingly stupid for older viewers. The plot sees Jackie Chan‘s unassuming chauffeur don a magical tuxedo providing him with computer-generated special powers, ideal for combating a dastardly baron planning to spike the nation’s water supply with genetically modified spiders. The comedy set-pieces fall flat. An extended James Brown routine will leave you baffled and a tad disturbed. The action is just as shocking. This was Jackie Chan’s first fully-fledged endorsement of effects-led set-pieces and it’s a muddled experiment, with director Kevin …

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Encounters of the Spooky Kind (1980)

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Encounters of the Spooky Kind (1980)

In a most vivid and exciting crossover, Sammo Hung blends his customary traditional kung fu antics with supernatural horror. The film is credited for being the first major success of its kind, featuring as it does walking corpses, hopping vampires, evil spirits and a bag of other tricks. It’s all done with great humour, too, which means the surreal special effects and dodgy prosthetics escape any real scrutiny. Plus, the kung fu action is some of Sammo’s finest; an amazing tea-shop brawl and a Monkey Fist finale being the ultimate showstoppers. The slapstick story sees Sammo as ‘Courageous’ Cheung, the …

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Cheetah on Fire (1992)

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Cheetah on Fire (1992)

Action yarn filmed back-to-back with Crystal Hunt and utilising the same cast, crew and locations. This begins in Hong Kong where the local law enforcement screw up a joint investigation with CIA officers when their prime suspect (Shing Fui-on) escapes police custody during a gun battle with some gangsters. Gordon Liu sports a Tarantino suit and wild hair to play a big shot bastard – the kind of thug who bonks a prostitute while undergoing surgery on a bullet wound – who wants Shing’s computer chip to sell to a foreign buyer. Donnie Yen plays a tempestuous but honourable supercop flown …

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Ninja Death (1987)

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Ninja Death (1987)

A nutty ninja flick full of every conceivable excitement: a cloaked baddie in a gold lamé headdress; a demonic sub-villain in a dragon mask who responds violently to flute music; springboard ninja spinning behind an array of colourful smoke bombs. You name it, this has it. The film also takes a fetishistic approach to naked flesh of both the female and male kind, but mostly male. Alexander Lo is not someone to squander the opportunity to take his shirt off and rub oil on his muscles. His bulging torso lunges back and forth towards the camera in strenuous scenes of …

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Profile: Darren Shahlavi

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Profile: Darren Shahlavi

Date of birth: August 5, 1972 (Stockport, Cheshire, UK)

Date of death: January 14, 2015 (aged 42), Los Angeles, US

Full name: Darren Majian Shahlavi

Occupation: Actor, stuntman

Style: Judo, Muay Thai, Karate, kickboxing

Biography: Darren Shahlavi was part of a generation of British martial arts actors who found success in both the Chinese and American film industries. He was born in Stockport, UK, to Iranian immigrant parents. He trained in judo from the age of seven and later studied kickboxing under Ronnie Green and Shorai Association Karate under Dave Morris. He later studied at Master Toddy’s Muay Thai Academy in Manchester. Shahlavi grew up …

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Kung Fu Dunk (2008)

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Kung Fu Dunk (2008)

Bizarre sports film greatly inspired by the comedies of Stephen Chow – most notably Shaolin Soccer – which embraces Chow’s leaning towards high-concept absurdity without any of the performer’s natural wit or levity. Eric Tsang is the film’s only bona fide comedic presence and the young cast struggle to rival his charisma. Tsang plays a down-and-out agent who spots the superior throwing skills of orphaned kung fu punchbag Jay Chou, so he finds him a place on a university basketball team. He becomes something of a teen idol and a target for gangsters, keen to exploit his good nature. This …

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Marked for Death (1990)

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Marked for Death (1990)

Not one of Seagal‘s better titles, although this one arrives at the violent height of his popularity. A Colombian drug bust goes awry when the cartel get wise to the undercover cops in their midst. The DEA’s finest, John Hatcher (Seagal plus ponytail), loses his partner when he’s shot by a stripper, so Hatcher turns in his badge as soon as he returns to Chicago. “I have become what I most despise,” he tells his priest, determined to live a quieter life with his nieces and nephews. About ten minutes later, a posse of Rastafarian drug dealers start pushing contraband …

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Dragons Forever (1988)

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Dragons Forever (1988)

The last and arguably finest collaboration between the Three Dragons (childhood buddies Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, and Yuen Biao). This is fundamentally a Jackie Chan vehicle besieged by the usual thrills and spills. Emphasis is firmly placed on the romantic and comedy aspects, with Jackie and Sammo handling the dramatics well with their suffering partners Pauline Yeung and Deanie Yip. But Yuen Biao steals the show as a hilariously neurotic burglar full of inane words of wisdom. Chan is a womanising lawyer who enlists the help of his brothers to investigate the women involved in his next case. Pauline Yeung’s fish …

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Kids from Shaolin (1984)

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Kids from Shaolin (1984)

Family rivalry besets the second Shaolin Temple film; another exercise in portraying China’s brightest wushu kids with a more knockabout comedy slant than the first film. The wild river and mountainous landscape are not the only things separating the Dragon and Phoenix families. A growing mistrust has developed between the two dynasties. The Dragons are a family of orphaned boys who are experts in the Shaolin styles of kung fu and weaponry. The Phoenix family are a female clan of Wu Tang sword fighters whose father longs for a male child to continue the family line. When a gang of …

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