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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Project A Part II (1987)

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Project A Part II (1987)

This sequel is a barrage of colourful excitement. During the glorious finale, Jackie Chan falls down a bamboo scaffold, consumes red hot chili peppers, battles with ferocious gangsters and axe-wielding pirates. He then runs down a collapsing structure and narrowly avoids certain death in a magnificent stunt originally performed by Buster Keaton. This is Chan’s rollicking homage to his silent movie heroes. He confronts triad kingpins, revolutionaries, corrupt officials and the same pirates who survived the first film (unlike Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao, who are nowhere to be seen). The production is grand with detailed sets and immaculate costumes. …

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Rosa (1986)

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Rosa (1986)

One of those dodgy 80s slapstick comedies from Hong Kong which plays more like a series of farcical sketches than a coherent narrative. The film boasts an early script by Wong Kar-wai, but this is about as far removed from the auteur’s oeuvre as you could imagine. Bumbling CID buddies Yuen Biao and Lowell Lo start double-dating Kara Hui and Luk Siu-fan, who plays a former gangster’s moll called Rosa with connections to high-powered jewel thieves James Tien, Dick Wei and Chung Fat. Producer Sammo Hung lends out his best people for the action scenes and, true to form, the …

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Dragon (2011)

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Dragon (2011)

Donnie Yen‘s post-Ip Man work is, on the whole, quite magnificent, and this is no exception. He unites with The Warlords director Peter Chan for an exuberant period piece set in a quiet, rural Chinese idyll in 1917. Yen is the simple, understated family man Jinxi who becomes a local hero after thwarting a violent robbery and killing the culprits. Kaneshiro plays the police inspector Xu who doesn’t buy Jinxi’s vulnerable story. In a clever sequence, Xu recalls the same fight sequence in forensic detail as the camera spirals through computer-generated images of blood vessels and internal organs, like something from CSI: …

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Island of Fire (1990)

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Island of Fire (1990)

Cool Hand Luke meets La Femme Nikita in this promising drama – a Hong Kong homage to the Hollywood prison movie capitalising on the heroic bloodshed films of the time. The all-star ensemble cast is enough to spark interest (all of which appear in a bid to help relaunch Wang Yu‘s film career), yet Island of Fire is a muddled film. Vengeful characters inhabit a tough HK prison somewhere in the near future. Tony Leung – the movie’s real star – is a policeman sent undercover to sniff out corruption. Sammo Hung keeps escaping to visit his young son. Wang …

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Last Hurrah for Chivalry (1979)

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Last Hurrah for Chivalry (1979)

John Woo’s themes of male-bonding and complicated antiheroes are clearly prevalent in this cracking kung fu movie. The film features a combination of Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest talent, and there is a lavish sense of style with colourful sets, vivid characters and a textbook array of quirky villains. Here we see a young Woo honing his style within the cliched confines of a period genre piece, long before he would gain international acclaim for replacing swashbuckling sword battles with gun fights. It’s still blinding fun, if a little bit moody, as the brilliant Lee Hoi-san wipes out Cheng Lui’s …

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Tiger Over Wall (1980)

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Tiger Over Wall (1980)

Great vehicle for Phillip Ko, who cuts a stern central figure as a young patriot targeted by traitorous local police in league with “foreigners”. A rich gweilo loses his pet boxer dog and the cops put a whole team on the case (haven’t they got anything better to do?). They frame the dim, trusting locals, inevitably involving the kung fu school and events turn bloody. Cheung Lik is the prodigal son who returns in time to help his brethren out. Hwang Jang-lee wears another strange moustache as an evil police chief and brothel owner who confronts Phillip Ko in the …

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Invincible Shaolin Kung Fu (1979)

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Invincible Shaolin Kung Fu (1979)

In this variation on Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow, Lee Yi-min plays the dopey orphan kid who works as a dishwasher for an unscrupulous boss. He lives with a stern, blind grandfather who teaches the boy discipline and ‘butterfly’ style kung fu. A plot is revealed involving the murder of local beggars by the very same nutcase who slaughtered Lee’s family 18 years previously, so revenge is soon on the cards, masterfully exacted in a flamboyant duel in the middle of nowhere. Typically, this cheap kung fu movie comes badly unhinged during the dramatic moments and slapstick routines, with some atrocious …

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Fist of Fury Part II (1977)

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Fist of Fury Part II (1977)

One of the better Bruce Lee spin-offs manufactured throughout the 1970s, this low-budget exploitation film is less of a sequel and more a rehash of the original script. Chen Chen’s brother, Chen Sen (a bravado performance from Bruce Li), takes revenge for his sibling’s death by landing in Shanghai and promptly kicking Japanese butt. The Chinese Ching Wu students take a thrashing, a helpless local police sergeant battles with his stricken loyalties, and violent racist oppression is everywhere. Luckily the endless kung fu fighting is enough to distract us from all that. It’s mostly scrappy stuff with the only decent …

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Daredevil (2003)

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Daredevil (2003)

A stylish but ultimately unsatisfying comic book caper which is not too dissimilar from your standard Marvel blockbuster but with a refreshingly embellished level of kung fu action, which is good to see. The majority of the cast get involved, most notably Garner and Affleck, who both come out looking great in the fight scenes. The supporting cast, however, play it incredibly broad with the criminally over-the-top Farrell being the worst offender. Designed to be Marvel’s next big franchise following the success of Spider-Man and X-Men, this film centres on the exploits of a blind lawyer whose heightened senses manifest into …

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