Kamui (2009)

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Kamui (2009)

Overwrought ninja movie based on a comic book which uncomfortably combines dramatic pretensions with some very silly violence. The bad computer effects not only undermine the film’s shock value but appear to have been lifted from a completely different movie. The results are distracting and take the cartoon-like extremities of a film like Ninja Assassin to new heights of absurdity. Two sequences stand out: a tree-hopping ninja duel and a remarkably crass shark-hunting scene, both of which look horrendous. Kamui (Matsuyama) is a renegade ninja, escaping his former life in a simple fishing village where he has befriended an opportunistic bounder. His buddy …

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Pushing Hands (1992)

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Pushing Hands (1992)

Ang Lee’s first feature film is a gentle culture-clash melodrama which, as a Taiwanese immigrant himself, could be interpreted as partly autobiographical. It is also a film committed to making a poignant sociopolitical statement.

In much the same way that only an outsider can truly identify and analyse a country’s moral and social taboos (he also did this brilliantly with 2005’s Brokeback Mountain), Ang Lee puts western and Chinese traditions under the microscope. He presents a story of corrupted domesticity via the inter-generational subjects of a Beijing-born father-in-law and a stay-at-home New York writer and mother, with her Chinese husband acting …

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Red Cliff (2008)

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Red Cliff (2008)

John Woo returns to China to make his career-defining statement: a two part, five-hour historical war epic of Ben Hur proportions, which neatly balances his talent for Hollywood blockbusters with the sort of chivalrous, all-male swashbucklers he made in the 1970s and 80s. He even throws in some obligatory trademarks: a swooping, majestic flying sequence in which a dove transports covert messages between army camps, and the film ends in a Mexican stand-off with swords replacing guns. He also manages to personalise the super-charged battle sequences with an emotional depth; never an easy thing when dealing with a cast of …

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Project A (1983)

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Project A (1983)

Jackie Chan‘s most treasured and well-crafted film, little can dispel the magic of this rip-roaring adventure. Here, Chan takes the martial arts genre to new heights and is the perfect showman; an auteur who takes the reins in nearly all aspects of production. Alongside Sammo Hung, he is a confident director and, unlike his previous efforts, more conscious of narrative. As fight and stunt coordinator, he is in his element; Keaton-esque with explosions of great physical action. He intertwines the action seamlessly with the story and creates a few absolute humdingers along the way, including a clock tower homage to …

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Iceman (2014)

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Iceman (2014)

Crass remake of the 1989 Hong Kong action fantasy The Iceman Cometh, itself a riff on the Highlander premise. The film’s 3D elements are particularly tedious with all manner of detritus being thrown in the viewer’s face, including, during one particularly apt scene, a toilet full of human feces. The CGI looks hideous but is abominably awful during a climactic weapons duel which would take some talent to look any worse. If the original film hadn’t been such a faultless charmer then perhaps this juvenile by-product may have scraped by without reproach. But as it is, we are inevitably forced …

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The Fearless Hyena (1979)

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The Fearless Hyena (1979)

Jackie Chan‘s first film as director is fun but conventional fare. It’s a secure film from producer Lo Wei who had decided to relinquish all creative power over to Chan in the hope he could replicate for him the same successes he had achieved at Seasonal Films with the smash hit movies Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow and Drunken Master. It is Chan’s frenetic choreography that turns this hotpot on its head – slick, intricate and with a keen slapstick approach. The story of treacherous General Yen killing anti-Ching rebels isn’t too inspiring (Jackie’s grandfather is killed, thus sparking a rather …

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Raging Phoenix (2009)

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Raging Phoenix (2009)

Jeeja Yanin, who so impressed with her grasp of both acrobatics and autism in 2008’s minor hit Chocolate, is somewhat less convincing in this strange follow up. It’s not her fault, of course, that the film has no grip on reality. But where her disquiet and vulnerability worked wonders in her debut, here, it takes a somersaulting leap of faith to believe that the sweet-natured Jeeja would be capable of exacting a violent, vengeful blood-lust on a rampant scale as well as managing a dependency on alcohol. The story is also nonsense which doesn’t help, centering on the fictitious movie …

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The Sword of Bushido (1990)

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The Sword of Bushido (1990)

Despite the grandiose title, this is a B grade quickie shot on the sly partly in Thailand and featuring few moments of excitement. The plot’s not much to go on. Lovable lead Richard Norton plays a Bushido-trained ex-Navy SEAL named Connors (he was in ‘Nam) who ends up in the far east after investigating the whereabouts of an ancient Japanese ceremonial sword. Connors is left wondering whether the trip was such a good idea when Japanese gangsters start hassling him and his team of guerrilla fighters. It’s watchable, but only just.

AKA: Sword of the Bushido

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Fantasy Mission Force (1983)

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Fantasy Mission Force (1983)

A strange film with no discernible story-line, although the blurb on the back of the DVD box would have you believe it’s about a team of Second World War commandos attempting to save some kidnapped generals. But here’s what we’ve actually got: Jackie Chan hitting a fat wrestler over the head with an iron shield; a young Brigitte Lin in outrageous clothing blowing up buildings with a fluorescent bazooka; a tribe of Chinese Scots playing bagpipes in a Benny Hill style; and a big smack-down finale at a Nazi garage. Let’s not forget the tribe of Amazonian women who float …

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Profile: Chuck Norris

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Profile: Chuck Norris

Date of birth: March 10, 1940 (Oklahoma, US)

Real name: Carlos Ray Norris

Occupation: Actor, producer, writer, martial arts instructor

Style: Karate, Tang Soo Do, Chun Kuk Do, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Judo

Biography: Chuck Norris is a highly decorated former member of the US Air Force, a six-time world Karate champion and an action film star of film and television. He is also a published author of books on Christianity, a vocal supporter of the Republican Party, and the founder of his own martial arts system and philosophy, called Chun Kuk Do (meaning, ‘the universal way’).

Carlos Norris was born in Ryan, Oklahoma. He was named …

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