Dragon Inn (1967)

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Dragon Inn (1967)

This wonderful wuxia film from auteur director King Hu had the rare distinction – like most of Hu’s work – of being both critically praised and popular with the masses. In Hong Kong, it out-grossed The Sound of Music and helped to make the classical wuxia film acceptable again as a uniquely Chinese cinematic force. Along with Hu’s next work, A Touch of Zen, these films have ultimately become the benchmark by which all future interpreters of the wuxia film are judged; not only in relation to the film’s direct spin-offs – like Tsui Hark’s New Dragon Gate Inn (1992) and Flying Swords …

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Bloodfist (1989)

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Bloodfist (1989)

Roger Corman’s Bloodsport rip-off may follow his prison-girl exploits on movies like The Big Doll House in using the cheap filming locations of the Philippines as a money saver, but at least he provides a fighting cast with good pedigree. The film features three world karate and kickboxing champs – Rob Kaman, Billy Blanks, and Don Wilson, making his leading man debut in the first of 11 movies he would make with Corman. Wilson plays sweet-natured valley boy Jake Raye, part of Hal & Jake’s Self Defence School in California, who travels to Manila to investigate the death of his …

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Sword of the Assassin (2012)

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Sword of the Assassin (2012)

Sumptuous action drama from Vietnam which aims to recapture the romance, political intrigue and wire stunts from Hero, only with the occasional detour into CGI nuttiness.

Huynh Dong plays the affable backwater orphan boy Nguyen Vu, who is raised in the ways of combat and spirituality by a reclusive monk in a serene temple idyll. Nguyen reaches such extreme levels of enlightenment that he becomes almost supernatural, moving opponents and objects with the power of his mind. The fantasy element stops here – probably in a bid to save on the CGI budget – only to return quite incongruously towards the …

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Pound of Flesh (2015)

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Pound of Flesh (2015)

Garbled, earnest action film in which a naked Van Damme wakes up in a Manila hotel to find his bed sheets covered in blood and one of his kidneys missing. “Where is my kidney?” he shouts at a waiter; and before you ask, yes, this is the actual story. Van Damme was intending to donate the kidney to an ailing niece in a selfless act to save the girl’s life, as well as reconcile his relationship with his estranged brother. His sibling is an American called George (John Ralston) who doesn’t seem to question why his brother has a French …

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Shootfighter 2 (1995)

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Shootfighter 2 (1995)

Another illegal shootfighting ring has sprung up in Miami, where musclebound egos duke it out to the death in a steel cage. The new mastermind, Lance (Joe Son – the guy who throws his shoes at Austin Powers), is a sadistic kung fu suit who stabs his own boss in a bid to exploit his other lucrative business schemes. Instead of using sane police methods, chief inspector Rawlins (Randolph) decides to set up a convoluted sting operation involving the combative skills of Ruben, Nick and Shingo, who have now returned from their previous shootfighting adventure in Mexico. Before you can say …

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The Assassin (2015)

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The Assassin (2015)

Taiwanese auteur Hou Hsiao-hsien’s first film in eight years is also his first attempt at a wuxia genre piece. But this is a massive running leap away from more commercial wuxia offerings like Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, or even most of King Hu‘s seminal work. The King Hu comparison is an apt one, considering how this film was decorated with art-house awards at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, much like Hu’s A Touch of Zen in 1975. Hou pays lip service to classical jianghu traditions – a flying female knight-errant, a strange supernatural subplot, a wandering kung fu …

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Mission of Justice (1992)

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Mission of Justice (1992)

Mildly diverting double-header reuniting Angel stars Moon Lee and Yukari Oshima as top cops sent undercover by police chief Carrie Ng to thwart an opium deal in Asia’s Golden Triangle. Betty Mak plays style-conscious femme fatale Miss Yie, who pulls back her long skirt to reveal her high-heeled feet of fury, and orchestrates a drop-off with Tommy Wong and Chan Lau in the Thai mountains. Moon and Oshima casually work undercover from their hotel wearing Aztec throws and paisley dungarees as if they’re at a yoga retreat, until the film takes to the jungle and the duo vanish from the picture. …

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Once Upon a Time in Shanghai (2014)

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Once Upon a Time in Shanghai (2014)

Another remake of Chang Cheh‘s The Boxer from Shantung, this moody fu noir is set in China, 1930, on the brink of Japanese invasion, and focuses on the struggles of migrant workers in the slums of Shanghai. Ma Yongzhen (Phillip Ng) is the rural simpleton with fists of fury who befriends intrepid young gangster Long Qi (Andy On) in a bid to secure work for him and his buddies at a local nightclub. Long Qi faces usurpation from a trio of rival Chinese triad leaders – played with a nostalgic nod to the 1970s by aging legends Yuen Cheung-yan, Fung …

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Police Story 2013 (2013)

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Police Story 2013 (2013)

Those looking for a grittier antidote to Jackie Chan‘s increasingly diluted family-friendly output may be relieved to find this messy heist thriller, directed by Ding Sheng of Little Big Soldier fame. It doesn’t really have anything to do with the other Police Story films, other than Chan reprising his role as a straight-laced cop (now equipped with an edgy short hairdo), who finds himself at the centre of a hostage situation masterminded by the haunted nightclub owner, Wu (Liu Ye). Unlike the original trilogy, this is based on the Mainland instead of Hong Kong, and it’s not remotely funny.

There are flurries …

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Ip Man 3 (2015)

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Ip Man 3 (2015)

Five years after the second instalment, actor Donnie Yen and director Wilson Yip return to the Ip Man franchise for a third time. Yen slips back into his most defining role with impeccable ease and style, mastering both humility and intensity in equal measure and proving why he is currently the world’s most prominent kung fu star. Yip, however, forgoes the fiery jingoism of the previous films in favour of a small town domestic drama, with the ageing Ip Man facing conflict on three counts.

Firstly, we see disenfranchised youth searching for lucrative opportunities in export-rich late-fifties Hong Kong. Young workers are shown …

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