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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Magic Crystal (1986)

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Magic Crystal (1986)

Super fun action comedy from Wong Jing who takes a distinctly Hong Kong approach to reworking both E.T. and Raiders of the Lost Ark. The fantasy elements are pure Spielberg, in which a young Chinese boy (Siu Ban-ban) becomes the bearer of a telepathic chunk of a glowing green jade. The jade communicates solely with the boy, teaching him a bit of self-confidence as well as having fun with new lodger and general sex pest Nat Chan, who becomes the subject of an extended farce in which his hands and feet are rearranged and he is briefly imbued with hypnotic powers. …

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Falcon Rising (2014)

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Falcon Rising (2014)

Ex-serviceman John Chapman (White) returns to New York from an undisclosed conflict in the Middle East suffering from PTSD and a really short fuse. When he’s not self-medicating his trauma with alcohol, he’s punching holes in the walls of his apartment, or urging gun-toting street thugs to blow his brains out during a heist at a convenience store (“either shoot me or stop wasting my time.”). Enter Cindy (Ali), his supportive sister and only beacon of hope, who is taking a break from her day job as a social worker in the dangerous, hazy favelas of Rio de Janeiro. Soon after …

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The One (2001)

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The One (2001)

The One is a mixed affair: stylistically influenced by The Matrix but with silly cartoon violence. Jet Li has never acted better in a US production and although the film is littered with gimmicks, he still ends up looking pretty damn cool. The story is especially silly. It’s a sci-fi adventure following a serial killer through parallel universes. A crazy version of Jet Li is determined to kill all the other versions of Jet Li to become ‘the one’. It’s an ambitious premise and it just about works. The wire fu doesn’t look too out of place in a film …

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Shootfighter: Fight to the Death (1992)

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Shootfighter: Fight to the Death (1992)

Shootfighting is a Japanese-American derivative of shoot-wrestling and is now regarded as something of a forerunner to modern day mixed martial arts (MMA), being both a hybrid style and a full contact sport. This film takes the ‘no rules’ concept one step further to include weaponry in the ring during the final tournament sequence – nunchakus, swords, a three-sectioned-staff and so on – resulting in some pretty grisly exploitation scenes of throats being cut open and hearts removed.

The film borrows its narrative set-up and oiled torsos from Bloodsport – not to mention a lot of other great tournament B-movies – charting …

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My Father is a Hero (1995)

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My Father is a Hero (1995)

Jet Li‘s first successful departure from traditional kung fu hero to modern day action man. This isn’t a classic by any means but it does provide a convincing contemporary performance from Jet Li in keeping with his burgeoning popularity in the west. The story doesn’t break new ground, with Jet playing an undercover cop determined to bring down criminal kingpin Yu Rong-guang, and things get messy when the cop’s family get involved. Anita Mui is excellent as a straight-laced cop investigating the triad gang, although wushu wunderkind Miu Tse – playing Jet’s young son – is clearly the film’s trump …

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